Let’s begin our thinking process with this premise: Self-concept has a huge impact on salespeople’s outlook about what they are capable of accomplishing, and that, in turn, has an impact on actual performance.
What’s apparent is that innate talent, knowledge, experiences or available resources has less to do with salespeople’s ultimate success — or lack of success — than their level of self-esteem.
So, if we believe this, what does it mean for you as a manager? You must recognize that your management style can impact your team members’ self-esteems — and their ultimate success — in either a positive or negative manner.
Douglas McGregor formulated two models of management that he called Theory X and Theory Y. In the most basic terms, Theory X describes an authoritarian management style. Recognition is provided if and when successful outcomes are achieved. The message to is, “I value you for your accomplishments.” As you might imagine, this performance-focused approach does little to build employees’ self-esteems.
Theory Y describes a participative form of management where employees contribute to the development of department goals and the formulation of solutions to problems. Allowing employees to participate in the decisions that drive department activities is a form of positive recognition of their value to the organization that is not dependent on their role performance. It’s a way of saying, “I value you for being you.” And that recognition helps fulfill their upper-level esteem and self-actualization needs.
Providing only performance-dependent strokes, per Theory X, can have an unintended negative impact. It may discourage some people from venturing outside their comfort zones into areas where their success — and the resulting positive strokes — are less predictable … and where they run the risk of doing poorly and receiving negative strokes.
I’m not suggesting that you don’t provide role-performance-dependent strokes because people thrive on positive feedback. What I am recommending, however, is that you make sure to balance role-performance strokes with recognition that is not exclusively performance-dependent.
By carefully wording your feedback, you can recognize your team members’ accomplishments and simultaneously reinforce their self-esteems — which will ultimately have a positive impact on their performance.
Dave Harman is an associate with Sandler Training. He has over 30 years’ experience in sales and sales management with Fortune 500 companies as well as small, family-owned organizations. He has held positions from sales to senior management with companies such as Conoco/Vista, Amresco and Ohio Awning, and owns his own business. He earned his MBA with a concentration in Marketing from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. You can reach him at [email protected] or (888) 448-2030.
