Visionary Leader: Know What Jazzes Your Millennial Sales Team
“For greater productivity, learn what jazzes you.”
~ Danita Bye
Subconsciously, many of us divide our ToDo lists into three categories:
1. Things we love to do;
2. Things we have to do; and
3. Things that are a major drag.
It’s no different for Millennials.
How do we create win-win scenarios? When we coach emerging Millennial sales, entrepreneurial and business leaders to pay attention to what jazzes them, we help them be more productive. Thus, they achieve their business targets…and ours.
So, how can we help emerging leaders deal with the Perfect-Job Myth?
The Perfect Job Myth
Many younger sales, entrepreneurial and business leaders believe their work day should be filled only with Category 1 tasks – what they love to do or what’s easy for them to do. If it’s not, they quit and find something more exciting. This is a scary trend, since Millennials are the largest segment of the workforce.What advice would you give to someone who is looking for “the perfect” job?
Changing The Perfect Job Myth:
No job is perfect, as we all know from looking at our own ToDo Lists. However, Tom Rath, author of Strengths Finder 2.0, provides us with this coaching opportunity: “When we’re able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists.”
How can you use your experience to help Next Gen leaders identify and nurture their strengths?
Here are some coaching strategies I use to help them lean into what jazzes them:
Invite Millennials to ask their team mates what they think their strengths are. The outside perspective often yields interesting results!
1. Keep an Energize/De-energize Journal
Challenge them to set aside time at the end of each day to reflect on what they did during the day that left them energized and jazzed. Most people can identify these easily. If not, ask them to think about what they did that seemed to suck the life out of them – it was de-energizing.
2. See trends
After two weeks, invite your sales mentees to review their journal to see emerging trends. It’s often a revelation to see the same things pop up day after day.
3. Take Strengths Finder or DISC Survey
In my coaching of Millennial leaders, I always ask about their Strengths Finders during the first meeting. Once I have identified their strengths, I know where they are naturally energized. Armed with this insight, we can leverage these strengths in order to help them over-achieve their business and sales objectives.
By identifying category 1 tasks (what jazzes your young sales team), you as the owner, CEO, or president also benefits – because you have people working from their strengths, not their weaknesses.
In the next post, I’ll tell you how you might help young Millennials deal with tedious tasks and become more productive.
Leadership lesson: When future leaders know what jazzes them, they will also know where they need help to be more productive.
Leadership question: What are the energizing trends you identified in the Next Gen leaders you mentor?
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