He’s a very successful sales manger who craves results. He can’t be bothered with people who don’t produce. They are losers. He always produces the numbers year after year. The question is does he do it through bullying or coaching?

What’s the difference between bullying and coaching? This was one of the questions that ran through our mind when we were talking about Dave.

Coaching, for us, is making people do what they don’t necessarily want to do in order to achieve, to be successful.

But for Dave, success does not come naturally. We are all lazy and basically don’t want to work anyway. He believes we especially don’t want to work hard. We don’t like pain, psychological or physical, and therefore, he believes, unless he’s there giving people a good kick up the backside nothing happens. He accepts the sales targets from the CEO and the team have to deliver on them. To him personal bests are there to be broken. Its about breaking sales records. Hitting the sales targets. Getting the bonuses. If your personal best is below target then improve. Try harder. He only sees potential in the sales force and gets really, really irritable and frustrated when they don’t respond. He really cares about the business and the individuals. He just hates watching talent being wasted.

Dave also believes success in sales is a direct reflection of the amount of work that has been put in before the event. There is no point is setting out to achieve leading edge targets if you don’t put the work in on each individual before hand. Dave sees his job as motivating others to excel. People like Mike. Mike has plenty of talent. He oozes talent but he seems to stop short of full implementation. He talks a good story, has a lot of promise but appears to rest on what he has done. Capable but……stuck in the groove. Like a number of us, Mike has worked out what worked for him in the past and keeps replicating it. Yes, he always hits his sales target. But only just and Dave feels he has so much to offer. So much more talent. His talent is being wasted in Dave’s eyes.

Dave believes that sales people do not under perform because they want to. They under perform because someone or something has got to them. The question is what? After spending a great deal of time with Mike, Dave began to realise it was historical. Mike had worked for a sales manager who had given him a lot of promises and in a nut shell had never delivered on the promises. The result was that Mike didn’t really believe sales managers any more, didn’t believe that they believed in what they were saying. Mike believed that Dave was just another sales manager who would say what was necessary to get him to hit target and that was that. He had heard all the buzzwords before and basically had come to understand that the more buzzwords that were used the more difficult it was to identify any passion and commitment to either the staff or the product.

After a number of long discussions with Mike. Dave told Mike that in his opinion he had allowed himself to become a victim. A victim of circumstances. Never allow yourself to be a victim especially a victim of circumstances. If you allow yourself to be the victim you will always be the loser. You must always work to change the circumstances. They worked together to change the circumstances. Gradually Mike started to believe that perhaps Dave did have passion for the company, products and the people. Mike in turn started to reach for the stars. To find his true potential.

Dave believes passionately, that the results are always in the detail. The more effort he puts in on one to ones. The more effort he puts into the team. The more they talk and work together. The more they believe in each other. The more they get through the buzz words and understand the passion, what makes each of them really tick. The more they understand how committed everyone is to being successful. The more he knows that they will reach their, monthly, quarterly and annual targets. He leaves no stone unturned. He gives his all to the people that work for him..

Dave gives them the world, all he asks is that they make the effort and have a passion for what they do.

Is that bullying or coaching?

Graham and Julie www.desktop-meditation.com