Best Laid Plans

I am often asked about the keys to leadership. Of course, there are core characteristics that we can list and quantify. Most often, however, I hearken back to sound advice. The best bosses I have had assisted my career development through very human interactions. The strategy book is thrown out the window and you talk to one another in caring terms.

Here is some of the best advice I have received:

"If you keep working that hard, you will be a State qualifier"
At a tender age I began to participate in the sport of wrestling. To be an exceptional wrestler you have to have outstanding physical conditioning, unflappable will power, and extraordinary patience. You workout for hours a day to get to a 6 minute match in which every muscle in your body is used to exhaustion. All the while, you are controlling your diet to make weight. When you lose, you have no one to blame but yourself. Wrestling is not the world's most popular sport because very few people have the courage to endure it.

In wrestling your hard work is validated with gold medals. Wrestling also allows you to overcome your greatest opponent in life....yourself! When you know that you can push yourself beyond your limitations, you are consistently willing to try harder.

The season is long and tiresome. You work so hard and occasionally you lose. You question how far you can push yourself. While your friends are cruising chicks and drinking their first beer, you can't even eat. So, when my coach pointed to me at the end of practice and told me the words highlighted above that was all I needed. Indeed, our success is often predicated on one compliment from someone we respect. When my coach told me he recognized my effort, it made me want to try ten times harder.

"Once you have wrestled, everything in life is easier" - Dan Gable

"You will not beat them, you will become one of them"
In our professional lives we are always looking for opportunities to improve ourselves. I was with a company for some time and I was getting restless. I needed some variation to the daily grind. I did everything I could to get promoted. When the opportunity for advancement finally came my way I sat down with a senior leader in the company. He asked me why I wanted a position in management. I went into my professional mission statement of making the company better by evolving the workforce.....he stopped me and said. I'm asking you why you think it is a good idea to get out of sales and go into management? After a slight pause, I told him that I thought the middle management in our company sucked and that I was willing to commit myself to inspiring our workforce instead of regulating them. He smiled and then he proclaimed the statement highlighted above.

This senior staff member could have recommended me to the hiring manager but he felt I would be wasting my life if he did. He cared enough to tell me that I could do more than position myself for lifelong mediocrity. I cherish his advice to this day....because he was right!

"Don't go gettin' insecure"
People love having a new job because it allows them to wipe the slate clean. I cannot recommend strongly enough that when changing careers an attitude make over is absolutely critical. You probably left your former job because there was some bad blood....leave it there. Easy for me to say!

I had a new job and my boss was in from out of town. I had worked hard to get a meeting with a key prospective client and was really excited to showcase my talent for the new boss. I picked him up at the airport, we arrived at the client's location, and she was not there. The excitement deflated by the need to reschedule, my boss's precious time wasted.

As we hopped back into the car, I expressed my frustration. How could someone agree to meet and then neglect the importance of our time? To which he said, "don't go gettin' insecure on me". It was a critical turning point in my career. My boss didn't hire me to see me display my skill in front of a new client, he trusted my talent. Here I was still interviewing two weeks after being employed. Despite my career change, I was still carrying the baggage of the corporate politics from my former occupation. My boss's words caused me to remember my greatness, for far too long before meeting him I was ruled by people who managed to make me believe I was not good enough....and that I had to prove myself.

These three lessons have one thing in common. They are all simple words of advice given to me from people who genuinely cared about me....and in their simple words I came to understand that.

Leadership is the act of inspiring confidence. Management is the process of challenging job function.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

5 Questions for Steven Trompeter

 Nearly 10 years ago, The Great Steven Trompeter left his Sales position in a well-established organization. He joined an industry with an average tenure that matched his years on Earth. Truly the new kid on the block, Steven established himself among his tenured peers in under a year.

Today, he is among a rare breed of Millennials that has served a company for the aforementioned extended amount of time. 

Mr. Trompeter is a man of intense competitive drive, unquenchable creative desire and an astounding sense of humor. He was kind enough to give us a few minutes of his Happy Hour as the labor day weekend beckoned.

1. You are a successful, seasoned sales professional. What advice would you give to a young person starting a sales career in this day and age?
First off, thanks for the compliment. It’s always nice to be recognized. Before I gave them any advice I’d ask them this question: Why do you want to be in sales? It’s the key to understanding whether or not you’d be great at it. There will be a lot of different reasons but ultimately it should lead back to this answer. I want to be in sales to control my own destiny! To me, SALES is the heartbeat of any company. It’s the most exciting place to be because it all starts with your efforts and when you taste success there’s nothing like it! Back to your question, for a young person starting a career in sales today here would be my advice:
• Start building your professional network immediately
• Being prepared is the ultimate sign of respect
• Embrace social media for business purposes
• Set goals and hold yourself accountable
• Understand that nobody cares what you want to sell. They care about their business problems and if what you are selling can be a viable solution
• Don’t be afraid to fail! In fact, expect it, embrace it and learn from your mistakes
• Become a student of sales - attend seminars, read books, follow blogs and become an industry expert in whatever field you’ve chosen
• Sell with integrity
• Learn to keep the door open even when you want to slam it in someone’s face
• Seek advice – look at your sales team and develop mentor / mentee relationships to advance your learning curve. You don’t need the company to assign one to you. Find one yourself, take him or her to lunch and build that relationship
• Continuously educate yourself on your clients and prospects line of work
• Have a vision and learn how to articulate it
• “CLOSING” is for losers. OPEN relationships and business partnerships that will grow for an entire career, not just one sale

2. As an incentives consultant, are you seeing trends in the way companies are encouraging staff results?
A few key trends that are moving to the forefront of our industry are:
• Eliminating programs that live in silos and developing a total rewards strategy that ties into business objectives
• Making the reward and recognition experience social
• Instant / timely recognition
• Equitable global recognition

3. What do you feel is the key to employee engagement?
• A strong leadership team
• Transparency on the status of your company
• A shared vision for all employees
• Providing a career path for your employees with plenty of opportunities for them to understand how they are doing
• Set up consistent programs to gain feedback from your staff
• Show your employees how their opinions matter and how you have listened

4. You have worked for the same company for almost 10 years. This is rare for a young professional. What’s the secret to your tenure?
I get this question a lot. I believe it’s a combination of my personality and the sales culture I am a part of at Michael C. Fina. I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by some of the most talented, sincere and engaged professionals in my industry. The Fina family, our leadership team and our extremely committed employees of Michael C. Fina have helped me grow as a professional and as a person. The old expression “to whom much is given much is expected” is the way things work around here. There is an unwavering level of trust and support from the top which allows you to have the feeling of being an entrepreneur but with a proven system and financing behind you every step of the way. It’s been an amazing challenge and one that I am very proud of. Additionally, working at a privately held, family run business fosters a culture of reciprocal loyalty. Anyone who tells you they haven’t thought of leaving their company or explored other options is full of it! I believe the key is to make your own grass greener and keep pushing yourself to be the best you that you can be. Most of the time when people switch jobs it’s in the quest for something more and that "more" isn’t always money. It could be a different team, new leadership, better market position etc… Then they get to that new company and two years later it’s the same story. I don’t begrudge anyone who makes a move that they believe will put themselves and their family in a better position for success. At the same time, I encourage people to put their best work on the table. Push hard and you might just be surprised how doors open up for you.

5. You are a Boston kid. Do you feel the recent run of championships will take away from the working class, underdog mystique that has made Boston so hard edged?
DK – somehow I knew a question like that was coming my way from Mr. California-lovin… Not at all! I believe that grind it out, get it done mentality will never leave our sports community (or the people who are from Boston for that matter). Of course, it’s fun to be the underdog and climb up to championship status but I also think that gritty chip on your shoulder mentality will allow us to protect the sports dominance we have created. Cue the Duckboats!

Follow Steven on Twitter - http://twitter.com/steventrompeter
or network with him on LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/steventrompeter

Don't Forget to Remember

Dave