The Summer Slump

We workforce engagement types seem to have been advocates for flex work for many years.... mostly because it's about the most sensible form of Employee Engagement. The fear in offering flexible work from a Human Resources perspective rests firmly in the line between necessary down time vs. abuse of flex time. It is a conundrum that has found no silver bullet.

We don't need to reference a workforce study to conclude that people who sit a desk 10 hours a day are less-healthy than those who work on their feet. Allowing employees unlimited work from home hours makes tracking efficiency equally difficult. There are employees who spend 7 of their 8 hours in the office on facebook. While those who work from home might log on at 5am and log off 10pm.

When Are We Ready to Work from Home?
When I graduated college I went directly to work for one of the world's largest companies. I was given a phone book and told to place vending machines anywhere anyone would need one. I was hung up upon 97 out of 100 times a day leaving me with 15 new accounts a week and a $1,000 weekly bonus. These statistics may seem miserable but I was one of the top producers in the company.

87% of people who attempt a career in sales quit after 3 months because the 97% "no" rate is too crushing to their ego. When I was 24 years old my tenacity to accept failure was far more resilient than it is in my 45th year on earth. I was either too dumb to care or too cocky to give up. Either way, it worked.

I did not receive corporate training, there was no real expectation for my performance... hell, the Internet barely existed when I started my career. It was, however, expected that I would show up to the office and make 100 calls a day. Some days it took me 4 hours, some days it took me 8.... the days that were extended on the phone created far more sales.

In simple terms, if I had been faced with navigating the aforementioned career challenge from my apartment in San Francisco, my odds for success would have been far less dependable.

After 10 years of working the phones from an office I accepted a job that allowed me to work from home. The same discipline I put into waking up, getting to the office, preparing for calls and progressing the sales cycle at age 22; I still practice at age 45. I've elevated myself from an inside sales rep to an Enterprise Sales Executive, but the process never changed. The discipline I learned early in my career has guided my approach to turning activity into results.

There are a thousand sales trainers out there that have a "bullet proof" plan for producing results who are the worst mentors one could care to follow.

Success comes down to 1 thing: 

• Resilience     

You can get a degree from Harvard, read 10,000 books or attend 100 sales seminars. What they don't teach you in the classroom is the pain of falling on your face and the often unrewarding slog of getting back up.

Don't Forget to Remember,

Dave