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As a sales manager, you may feel that you must have all the answers. Both managers and employees will benefit from developing resources. Resources help us answer questions and find solutions. Traditional information sources are one type of helpful resource. But we also find helpful sources of insight and feedback among co-workers and team members.
This Lesson in Leadership demonstrates how having a variety of resources at your fingertips can help you work more efficiently, find answers quickly, and develop promotable employees. It also demonstrates how to encourage this same habit in your team.
At work, where change continues to be our greatest asset and most unyielding foe, this statement means more today than ever:
A smart man isn’t one who knows all of the answers. A smart man is one who knows where to look for answers.
We all have a responsibility to become experts in our work and/or field. And yet, with everything changing so dramatically and quickly it is sometimes impossible to know everything about everything on the job. In some work groups the manager has become the primary employee resource for answering questions and solving problems. Unfortunately, when this occurs, a manager who provides all of the answers may unintentionally limit the versatility, growth, and satisfaction of his or her employees.
You can actually become happier, more productive, and less stressed when you develop a wide variety of resources that offer answers to questions, support when needed, and assistance during challenge.
A relationship requires at least two people … working together.
Work responsibilities can be dramatically different from department to department. Sometimes these differences in expectations, objectives, and responsibility can cause rifts between departments. Logically, we all know when our departments work well together we are more likely to be productive, provide better service to our customers, and support each other.
Why is it that some companies have interdepartmental challenges which have existed for so long? Sometimes when departments in any company clash, there has been an oversight of the true value we might offer each other if we would simply work together. No good can come from escalating conflict or indifference. Still, barriers commonly exist between departments in the workplace. In order to overcome our differences and strive together to serve a greater good, we must find some common ground on which to build the peace and productivity of teamwork.
We best serve ourselves by serving others.
Many people will agree that selfishness adds no value to a relationship. And yet you may know some employees who visit other departments with one agenda in mind … their own. As managers we must accept some of the responsibility for this occasional employee behavior. We have continually focused on our team’s productivity, sometimes stretching expectations to a point where an employee feels pressured to produce. Our sometimes intense management focus on the results may cause some employees to feel we only care about the result and not the people. This is not true. In fact, just the opposite is true. Because we care about you, our customers, and our company we strive for the highest levels of productivity in order to best serve everyone. Regardless of our productivity focus, we never intend to promote interdepartmental challenges.
What we encourage employees of every department to understand is that if we could all work together we would all be happier and more productive. How can this be accomplished? It can be accomplished by listening to the needs of other employees in other departments, helping them achieve their objectives and solve problems. As a result, they are in a better position to help us with our needs and objectives. It’s a win-win for everyone.
In any business, interdepartmental relationships are symbiotic by nature. We all need to do our very best so others can produce the highest level of achievement. When there is discord we all produce less. When we work in harmony we produce more. By helping employees in other departments improve their work we commonly create the means for them to help us. Just as important, we may enhance their desire to help us best fulfill our function. We best serve ourselves by serving others.
Information is power.
The power to do more, to become more, and to offer more to others is enhanced by the amount of information we possess. More information may not always guide us to the perfect decision, but it can help us make more informed decisions.
If we want to become more successful than we already are we must actively pursue information. Regardless of your role in your company, information is the fertile ground from which all of the best decisions will sprout.
We must all accept personal responsibility for seeking out information that can help us perform our job better. There are many information resources available to you. You may find useful information in discussions with your peers. You may also find that we, your managers, are a valuable information resource. Company training programs, trade magazines, the internet, local and national newspapers, continuing-education classes, and field experts are all resources which can propel your personal achievement and satisfaction to the next level. With the appropriate information and a high enough level of desire great things can be accomplished.
The more we understand a thing … the easier it becomes.
Employees come to us for help, information, and guidance. We do the best we can to provide them with the information and understanding we possess but sometimes it simply isn’t enough. You may find this difficult to believe, but we don’t know it all. We wish we did. But we don’t.
We would like to solicit your help. We believe the better you understand something the easier it is for you to be productive with it. The challenge is that everything is changing so quickly and we have so many responsibilities to our employees, company, and customers that we sometimes find it difficult to be all things to all people.
We’ve found the most successful employees today have developed their own pool of resources they can dip into at any time to gain information, help, and support. We call these employees “Community Builders.” They understand the need to accept personal responsibility for the business environment. They work to improve communications and relationships between departments. They proactively seek new ways and new information for working more effectively. They understand and believe sharing solutions, ideas, and information creates stronger, more vibrant employees.
The first step in developing more potent resource channels is identifying possible assets. To help you identify resources, you can go to the exercise Identifying Possible Resources to apply the ideas in this article.