Managing Behaviors Instead Of Numbers

By: Robert Diamond Mar. 30, 2018

OWINGS MILLS, Md., March 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ Job performance is fundamentally about setting goals, developing and tracking behaviors to achieve those goals, and understanding the consequences if the goals aren't met, according to ACCOUNTABILITY THE SANDLER WAY: Creating A Leadership Mentality In 20 Minutes A Week, by Sandler consultant Hamish Knox.

Although the word "accountability" often conjures up images of micromanagers controlling their employees' every move, Knox argues that accountability is the cornerstone of every successful sales program. "Accountability means creating clarity around goals yours and theirs and the consequences for failing to stick to that path," he says.

ACCOUNTABILITY THE SANDLER WAY provides a system for implementing an effective and sustainable accountability program, covering such topics as:

Overcoming employee resistance
Setting long-term and short-term goals
Tailoring consequences for each employee
Accountability for leaders

Based on interactions with hundreds of Sandler Training clients, the book presents a paradigm for behavior called a "cookbook," or a set of daily activities needed to achieve a specific goal. "You can cookbook any goal by starting with the result you want to achieve and then breaking the steps required to reach that result into specific, measurable behaviors," says Knox.

Critical to the success of any accountability program is getting employees to buy into it. If it's perceived as a form of control and punishment, employees will reject it. If, on the other hand, it's perceived as a rational way for employees to take responsibility for their own success, they will embrace it.

One requirement to getting employee buy-in is to have employees develop their own cookbooks. This doesn't mean that managers shouldn't have input. Indeed, it's essential that managers integrate specific, non-negotiable behaviors into employee cookbooks, such as meetings booked and meetings held, as well as "need-to-have" and "nice-to-have" behaviors.

A second requirement to getting buy-in is that sales managers must practice what they preach by developing and sharing their own leadership cookbooks, containing managerial activities that will be followed regularly, such as:

Group accountability meetings
Weekly individual meetings
Role-playing
Coaching

Chief executives, business owners, sales managers, and other leaders responsible for the performance of sales teams will find ACCOUNTABILITY THE SANDLER WAY an indispensable resource for putting into action a sustainable accountability program that will enable themselves and their teams to function at peak levels.

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