Tag Archives for " Leadership "

The No. 1 Indicator of an Ineffective Leader

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

Few managers are exemplary leaders. Proving this takes about 30 seconds. Yes, I know management and leadership are slightly different. We don’t have to have that silly argument. If you are a manager, and people report to you, then you are a leader. Period. You might not be any good at it, but you’re still the “leader.” My question is this: Why in the world do companies continue to promote top performers to management, fail to train them, and then COMPLAIN when they fail to perform as expected? Do YOU think you’re the exception?

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When Good Results are BAD for Business

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

Stop for just a moment and ask yourself a simple question: What is the defining characteristic of an effective leader? Think about it. What is that “one thing” that causes you to say about someone, “OK, that person is a leader.” If there is such a thing, it would certainly be useful, wouldn’t it? You could just identify those individuals with that one characteristic and get them on the bus!

But, the problem with the question is that it produces a laundry list of responses. A leader is actually many things: confident, decisive, commanding, persuasive, responsive, charismatic, transparent, caring, intelligent, innovative, insightful….and so on. So, you likely think this as an impossible or meaningless exercise. One thing? Really?

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The Invisible Trap of the Most Important Management Activity

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

What I mean to say is that – for managers – perhaps the process of determining the most important thing is the most important thing they do. After all, someone has to determine the priorities of the team, right? Which is to say that perhaps THE most important thing for a manager to do is to make sure that the priorities chosen are the right ones. Good thought. Unfortunately, this idea can also cause a team to drive off a cliff.

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The Nonsense That Passes for Sales Management

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

When a company needs a sales manager, the first place they typically turn is to one of their top salespeople. That’s no big revelation. I mean, who would we turn to – one of the bottom-dwellers?? As a result of this very common practices, I’m you’ve heard (and probably experienced) that promoting your top seller to the ranks of management is usually a disaster just waiting to happen. You lose your best salesperson, and get (more often than not) a mediocre sales manager. But why is that? Why can’t top salespeople become excellent managers?

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