Chapter 8.
Get Input From
Your People

I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.

—Woodrow Wilson

Good leaders continue to seek creative input from their direct reports. This practice is not only good for the business, it’s also highly motivational for both parties to the conversation.

A good leader will ask people on her team, “How can we send a signal over the phone, when the customer calls with a question, that we are different than the other companies, and they are going to feel more welcome and at home with us? How do we create a relationship right there at the point of that call? What are your thoughts on this?”

The quality of our motivational skill is directly related to the quality of our questions.

A frustrated manager whose numbers are mediocre asks the following kind of questions instead of the questions just asked by our true leader above: “How ya doin’? Wasssup? How was your weekend? How is your department today? Up to your neck in it? Swamped as usual? Are you maintaining? Hang in there, bro. Customers givin’ you a hard time about that new ad? Jerks. I’m dropping by to check some stuff out. Don’t worry too much, you guys are cool. I won’t be too hard on you. You know the drill. Hang in.”

That’s a leader who can’t figure out why his team’s numbers are low. The quality of that leader’s life is directly affected by the low quality of his questions. Directly.

A great leader will ask questions that lead to sales ideas. A great leader will build a big success on the implementation of those ideas. Questions such as: “How could we make the buying experience at our company fundamentally different, on a personal level, than at the competition? How could we get our people to be like friends to the customer and get them to hang out with us more and buy more? How might we reward our own people for remembering a customer’s name? What are some of the ways we can inspire our team to get excited about increasing the size of each sale? Do our people discuss the concept of creating a customer for life? Have you gone to a whiteboard and shown them the financial windfall involved? How do we get everybody brainstorming this all day long? How do we get the team more involved in the success of the store? What are your thoughts?”