Business and Life for most of us Blend and blur, don’t they? “It’s Just Business” Just isn’t true!
SO – this is a quick story about my son and hunting and a tie-in to employee development for those on your Team.
This is Thomas… about 8 years ago. In this photo, Thomas and I are watching his mom Katherine get ready to go on an elk hunting trip in Pennsylvania. (Yes there are elk in Pennsylvania, and my wife won what I always call “the Redneck lottery” and she went and brought home the huge elk whose antlers now hang in our home.)
As you can see…Thomas is right there with me…and he is loving it!
Fast forward to this Saturday. Thomas is now 9. Check out this photo of my right hand man and I during our day hunting (below)!
So here is the story…
It would be a really long story if I told the whole thing, because Thomas has been hunting with me and working with me on the farm for his whole life. I love him of course like I am sure you love your children, and it is awesome to have him with me and to teach him things that I love. Many of the things I love involve the outdoors or wood (he is a master campfire builder now) or animals (on the farm or outdoors) or trucks or tractors or work or foraging etc…
You may have seen my video recently on the technique to get employees or team members going on a new project or task or process: Tell Me, Show Me, Let Me Try, Give Me Feedback, Let Me Try Again.
Well – Thomas has been working this process for a long time and I have been working it with him.
Here is what happened Saturday… as I wrote it to the Mastermind Group that I am a member of – this is the hunting story part:
…no blinds, no treestands, on the ground…boy shaking…sort of in my lap…arms around him…father giving instructions, crunching in the leaves, deer approaching, 35 yards…deer knows something is up… “Not yet son…not yet… “. Moving him and the gun with my body… “Doe bleat stops the deer… ” Now buddy…if you can.” Boom…deer put head down and runs at us and plows into the leaves 10 yards away…crisp fall day… I am so blessed … such a lucky dad…
Before we got up from that spot with my arms around him… I was able to tell him what a good job he did… I was also able by the way to say “Thomas…see what that rifle did…see what You did…you took her life… that gun is powerful.. this is serious business…this is a bit sad…and yet a gift at the same time…”
If you had been watching just him……. you would have said he executed Perfectly. If you had looked beyond him though…you would have seen my coaching, my nurturing, my guidance, my subtle correction, you would have seen complete trust by him. If you had looked back in time you would see all of the time he and I have spent together. You would have heard our talks and watched as we watched deer with not rifle in anyone’s hand and as he watched me do the same thing as I talked through everything that was happening.
NOW – What does this have to do with you and Building Teams – and Leaders – and imparting your skill and transferring responsibility to tell Your Company Story to Prospects to your salespeople… ?
Well… it takes a Lot of Work. It takes Investment.
I know business owners would like to hire people and then FINALLY get on to all of the other things that they need to do… but…
You really need to Over communicate as Pat Lencioni says in his books… You need to tell people Why… till they are tired of hearing the Why…
then you need to Tell them what to do, Show them what to do, Let them Try doing it…
then give them clear and honest feedback and praise partial progress, then Let them Try Again.
You need to build their Trust.
You need to Coach them.
YES – there are ways to accelerate this. Ways to “SCALE this” (we love the word Scale, right?)
There are ways to document this, record this on video (face on or with ScreenCast tools). Eventually other people carry the message for you (but then you need to Train the Trainers and Coach the Coaches)…
BUT – having people is a lot of work.
Our Coaching and Consulting and our Mastermind Groups focus on business owners who want to Build Sales Process, Sales Automation, and Sales Teams…. (with real living breathing human salespeople)
and you should expect to do the things I did with my son to bring your Salespeople and other Key Employees (and everyone really) to the Point of Execution when they are with a prospect or doing their job. You need to Impart You and the Work that you do to your people. You need to help them know your Story and the Client’s typical story and you need to teach your people to nurturingly gain trust with clients.
There are No Golden Arrows or Silver Bullets.
There are VERY FEW Super Hero Salespeople who can just “Run with It”… and most are expensive and you won’t like them.
So –
- What are you doing to Build Trust?
- How are you Coaching/Training/Guiding “in the moment”?
- How are you transferring the Vision and the Work of your company? – Overcommunicating it?
- How are you Telling them what to do, Showing them what to do, Letting them Try, Giving them Immediate Praise/Correction/Feedback, Letting them Try Again?
- If you are Managing Managers or Coaching Coaches or Training Trainers…what are THEY doing to do these things?
Have an awesome day. Thanks for being in my life. Wayne