Recently I was working with a front line Inside Sales Manager who has been having a rough year.
You know that year when things aren’t going your way. The team isn’t hitting it’s numbers and now it’s December.
All year,
> as the leader you’ve been working on helping people stay motivated.
> as the manager you turn up the heat on behaviors when they are low and make people ask their prospects the tough questions.
The the day comes when you’re out of inspiration.
No words of encouragement pop into your head and you’re tired of telling the SAME people to pick up the pace.
The worst part for the Inside Sales Manager was that it wasn’t a lack of inspiration but three very different things when we kept talking.
#1 = Self-doubt
> After a ROUGH 11 months, it’s not surprising that self doubt had reared it’s ugly head.
#2 = Judgmental Annoyance
> Not only was the manager sure the team was rolling their eyes, but had started to come in PRE-annoyed with them based on assumptions on how they would react to new ideas.
#3 = Just TIRED
> The manager was also worn out from the feeling of pulling the team along all year vs. riding the success wave as they’d been able to do in the past.
That steel paperweight in the picture sits on my desk to remind me to think about “what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
I asked that question of the sales manager who realized it wasn’t a matter of being out of inspiration. Instead it was a matter of self misdirection and a vision that was a bit out of focus.
The next step was actually backward to look at what had worked in the past, then a sideways step to modify that insight to fit today’s situation.
Finally a step forward with new inspiration for the team.
What do you do when you feel you are OUT of inspiration?
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