You shouldn’t be satisfied if you nail your objectives 100% of the time. If you hit the bull’s eye every time, you are standing too close to the target. Challenge yourself and your team to stretch—to achieve great things. When you succeed, celebrate! When you don’t, congratulate the team for being willing to shoot for a tough goal. Then analyze what went well, discuss what could have gone better and set your next goal.
Possible Action Steps:
- Set a tough goal for your team today, and encourage them not to be afraid to fail—but to push themselves to achieve.
- If the team missed a goal recently, follow these steps:
- Review the goal and why it was important to shoot for it.
- Ask folks to express what good came from the pursuit of the goal, even though it wasn’t achieved.
- Discuss what got in the way of achieving the goal (outside forces, inside issues).
- Set a new goal in this area, and ask everyone to build an action plan.
John Henley is the Chief Operating Officer at The Center for Sales Strategy.
