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Want to get the people on what you're willing to exceed your performance expectations? Want to learn how to figure out what you need to do to get your people focused on the things that count the most. Try asking yourself this question "Could they do it if their life depended on it".
This article will teach you how to ask a question that will get down to the root of why people do not perform. The response to this question will determine what needs to be done to get them performing. The goal of a leader is to give the person the support and coaching needed to get where they need to be. How they accept and use that support will determine how successful they will be.
People when they get up want to succeed. They do not think "how am I going to fail miserably today?" Nonetheless, we all experience days where we do not deliver performance up to expectations.
Let us take a look at real life situation. Cindy was an outside sales person for a multi national technology company. Cindy was great at building relationships with people, finding out what their pain was and showing them that her company's products were the answer to their problems.
Cindy had no problem getting meetings with the decision maker. The problem was that she did not close the deal. Her manager noticed that Cindy did a great customer interaction up until the point when a buying signal was given. Cindy just would not ask for the business.
Closing business for a salesperson is a critical skill that if consistently executed will lead to sales. Cindy's manager was frustrated that despite numerous coaching sessions, Cindy was still not asking for the business.
The manager was frustrated because he had told Cindy repeatedly that he wanted her to ask for a commitment. Cindy would not do it.
I suggested to the manager that he step back and ask himself "Could Cindy ask for the business if her life depended on it?" The manager sat back and asked me to explain the nature and purpose of the question.
I took the manager through the question scenario focusing on the possible answers. If the answer to the above question was "no, she could not do it if her life depended on it" then there is no amount of prodding that will make Cindy ask for the business because she does not know how to do it. It is like the child that comes home with a D in math. His / her parents get very upset and say that the child will be grounded if he / she does not improve the grade. The parents can tell this child till their blue in the face and the child will still get a D in math. In this example, the child needs a tutor to teach him / her math. In Cindy's situation, if the answer is "no", she needs to be taught when and how to effectively ask for the business. Until this happens, Cindy will never ask for the business despite the harshest threats from her manager.
If the answer to the question was "Cindy could ask for the business if her life depended on it", then there is an attitude reason why it does not happen.
The next question to ask is "Does Cindy care if she improves or is there something that is preventing her from doing it even though she knows its importance.
If the answer is "Performance is important to Cindy", then there may be some things that are occurring in the work environment that is occurring that is causing the performance discrepancy. Are there situations in which performance being punished? A star performer is sent with Cindy to help her close the sale. An office based example of this is when an employee does not finish critical tasks and the work is given to an employee that has finished their work. Is non-performance being rewarded? Is Cindy being held accountable for not performing or is it overlooked. Is non performance being rewarded by good performers being asked to pick up the slack?
In this article, you have learned how to ask a question in the case of a performance discrepancy that will tell you whether it is a "can do" or a "will do" issue. The answer to this important question will help you get to the root of the reason why the performance discrepancy exists in the first place and help you to identify the ways to eliminate it.
For more information on this topic and others, contact Mark Parbus at MParbus@Unlocked-Potential.com or visit our website at http://www.Unlocked-Potential.com .
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