Harness the attitude - Just because you know how - doesn't mean you will

Following on from last week's thoughts on doing not telling, this week we wanted to remind you that there is a barrier that needs to be overcome if you are going to get people to do something that they have not done before - how to overcome the fear of failure and uncertainty.

Self Confidence is an Attitude

Fear of failure is usually a symptom of a lack of confidence, although many sales managers like to think of it as "not having the right attitude". When working with sales managers on coaching programmes, one of the key areas we focus on is helping them deal with confidence issues within their teams and the individual team members.

If we lived in a text book environment, self confidence would purely be an "internalised" issue, i.e. how can we help the sales person to have the self-belief that results in confidence in the ability to do what is required of them to make the sale and achieve the number.

At a purely personal level, building self confidence is simply a process. There are some basic things you can do to boost self confidence.

• Systematic Desensitisation - Or in english, overcome your fears gradually, or as many sales managers will tell you, "don't try and boil the ocean" or "eat an elephant whole".
• Expect success - Everything is self-fullfilling - if you believe you will fail, you will.
• Imagine success - visualisation is one of the most powerful tools to ensure success, just watch athletes before they run.
• Manage your risks - Have you ever noticed how most American management books start with a list of "failures" and how the author learnt from them. The most successful people are those who take risks - "nothing ventured nothing gained"
• You do not have to be perfect - No one expects you to be good at everything, just good enough at the things you should be good at to do your job well
• Know your limitations, identify your fears then try and overcome them, the only way to overcome them is to address them head on
• If you don't believe in yourself, why should anyone else - Re-affirm what you are good at, say it out loud, and then over time add to your capability list

All of these sound perfectly sensible, so you have to ask why are there still so many people who lack confidence? Unfortunately the answer does not just lie with the individual, too often it's their working environment that creates the fear.

What does a confident work environment look like?

Your working environment must support and encourage your people if you want your people to overcome their fear and have a confident, success-led attitude.

1. An action oriented environment - Does your work environment support action oriented people? Do you let them focus on doing the important things that will generate success and not force them to deal with the urgent action requirements of their managers? Do you know what success looks like, or do you only measure activity?
2. Do you let people face their fear? - Do you have a supportive, coaching culture that allows people to identify their fears and then support them to address them? Or do you have a competitive environment with a JDI attitude, "failures never prosper"
3. Do you allow people to fail and then learn from the mistake? - Does your culture allow people to fail and then learn? Without the opportunity to fail no-one will ever attempt anything new.
4. Is there time to prepare? - We all know the old adage, "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail", but do you encourage preparation. How many managers prepare before a 1-2-1, are they setting the right example?
5. The right attitude comes in steps - There is no magic bullet, instead a successful attitude is the result of taking a number of steps. The reality is that many of us only know we have arrived at the right place attitudinally once we have got there and we look back. Courage comes after the event, you have to attempt something before you can overcome the fear. You can only truly achieve success in a supportive environment that recognises JDI does not mean success. It is a cultural thing that grows organically. It is not a methodology, more a recognised, habitual way of doing things.
6. Can you try new things? - Confident people like to try new things and to keep learning, in doing so they progress. This is not just about having a personal development plan, this is more about supporting continuous development. The individual is in charge of their future, they are not spoon fed. The system, the culture supports those that are willing to try something new

A positive attitude is dependent on a positive environment

Both Fred and I regularly come across sales teams who are not achieving their potential, unfortunately the reason for their failure to achieve does not lie with their manager, but lies with the environment. There is an expression "the fish rots from the head" which best explains what is happening. Senior management are not encouraging the right environment and they pass the pressures down the organisation. In these cases the only sales people who have the "right attitude" are the mavericks who operate outside the organisation. The majority of sales people will keep their heads down and not "rock the boat".

So what is our message to you?

Success comes from people who have the right attitude, you can only achieve this by creating the right environment that supports people overcoming their inherent fear of change, driven by good coaching that helps people think positive and try new things. Remember if you are thinking of recruiting someone new, you can hire based on attitude as you can train the skills.

Be prepared to ask for help

If you are not happy with your approach to coaching or how you create a positive environment feel free to contact Accredit. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start drive the activities that will help you be successful.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and Mark can take you through more detail.