Invest in Millennial Leaders now to Impact the Future
“What you do when you don’t have to, will determine what you will be when you can’t help it.” ~ William Hershey
During my early days in sales at Xerox Corporation, this quote hung as a poster by my desk. I wanted to see it, hear it and breathe it when I needed to muster up courage to execute some of the “scary stuff” sales behaviors, i.e. cold calling, asking about budgets and money, finding out about the real decision making process, etc. (This stuff may not seem scary or uncomfortable to you, but it certainly was for me!)
This quote reminded me: Focus on now, to impact then.
What were some of the “scary stuff” at the beginning of your career? What did you do to muster up your courage?
Short-term focus yields long-term results.The Now-or-Never Myth
The Millennial generation is often called the “SNAP Generation.” It seems they expect to snap their fingers and get the accolades of the top sales performers. Snap – run their own companies. Snap – get everything on their Bucket List accomplished today.There’s a fear that if it doesn’t happen now, it will never happen. Yet, the truth is that “now” is tightly connected to “then.” It’s a series of snaps, not a single snap. What they do now/today has a dramatic long-term impact on their skills, strengths and capacities of then/tomorrow.Here’s a practical example. Our research on sales professionals shows that over 50% fall prey to overzealous self-talk and even destructive thinking patterns during sales calls, like these “What happens when” scenarios:
– What happens when this person becomes difficult to talk to?
– What happens when they ask a question I can’t answer?
– What happens when I get an objection and get tongue-tied?
Sabotaging self-talk reduces their sales by 35%! They aren’t in the “now” listening and learning from their prospects, clients or colleagues.
Sales Leaders, what unproductive self-talk of your emerging sales and entrepreneurial leaders is possibly undermining their effectiveness?
Changing the Now-or-Never Myth
Can young leaders shift and become more emotionally disciplined, able to stay in the moment, and zoom in on now?
This shift is critical if they are to develop their full capacity as sales and entrepreneurial leaders.
That’s where you as Seasoned Sales Leaders can help. Your coaching combined with their commitment might change their subconscious mind so that it becomes a productive sales mind. It takes personal commitment to be uncomfortable and do what you don’t have to, so that you will determine what you do when you can’t help it.”
Use these phrases as you coach emerging Millennial sales, entrepreneurial and business leaders to gain emotional and mental control, to concentrate on “now”:
- It’s only failure if you don’t get up and keep going.
- You can’t control others, only your response.
- There’s no good news or bad news – just information.
- Just listen and then respond with a question.
Of course, it will take time for these truths to impact the behaviour of the young leaders you’re coaching.
Remind the people you’re mentoring that “what they do when they don’t have to, will determine what they will be when they can’t help it.” Keep stretching the comfort zone!
In the next post, I’ll tell you about the jobs I hate doing….and what I’ve decided to do about that!
If you struggle to see how you can make a difference and be a positive change agent by doing your job, I invite you to watch this video: Work as Worship by RightNow Ministries
Leadership lesson: Invest to the max today, to get maximum impact later.
Leadership question: What steps could you take today to help others focus on the “now?”
No Comments