The new team.................

You are the new boss, the team expects something great except they resist your ideas and complain about their lack of success.......

How do you pull it all together?

Please keep your answers brief and concise thmbp2; -PiJiL

As new manager you must realize that everyone already has their own grove. Don't try to implement to much change to fast. Best thing to do is observe who your strong salespeople are and which have the most influence over others and sit down with them and ask them for thier ideas on improving the team and give them your ideas on what you think might help. Listen to their opinion's. If you go in trying to change everything, you will meet alot of resistance and you will fail. -jrboyd

If you desire help, it is best to let us do it as we see fit. Otherwise, and this is just an observation, it might not be wise to ask.

Try selling.

What is the most important element of sales techniques? Listening!?!

Ask them questions first to understand how they think.

As for lack of success, in sales, if you have a good product, this is related to lack of activity.

Once you learn how they feel and what they think, then you have to help them understand what is in their best interest. Know them before you begin, then begin to sell them over to your way of thinking, remembering that successful sales people are not treated differently. -Gold Calling

Two things.

First, I would want to make doggone sure "the team" knows who's managing who.

Second, I would make sure each INDIVIDUAL member of "the team" knows his/her assigned role under my management.

That's as "brief and concise" as I care to be. -Ace Coldiron

Re The New Team

This a great question and one we are asked. As a new manager there is so much to do knowing where to start is a challenge.

Some brief thoughts then.

1 Seek first to Understand
Take the time, to meet with you team, start to build rapport, learn about their business, ask them questions to explore their ideas for developing it.

Find out what's important to them about their job, career etc

2 Learn about their skills and motivation
Do customer visits with each person and assess their level of skill
and their motivation levels.
Find out who influences who in the team.

3 Research the team using available management information too

4 Start to build your thoughts and ideas for what you want to achieve with the team and how you might do this.

5 Share these initial ideas and find out what your team think

this allows the team to contribute and feel part of your plans,
making it easier for them to commit and support you.

Finally, I notice some comments that you have to communicate
clearly your expectations and peoples roles.
I agree that there is a need and a time and place for this.

In the new business economy, things have changed and employee expectations have. In my experience to go in with a heavy hand
suggesting whose boss and what needs to happen works in the short term and can create a culture of fear which isn't helpful long term.

best wishes
Managers Coach -ManagersCoach

I agree wholeheartedly with each of your five points, but NOT your words above. It's important for members here who are seeking to progress in management to realize that your advice in those five points does not preclude mine. They are not mutually exclusive.


Time and place is in the very BEGINNING with a scenario like that being explored in this topic:

You are the new boss, the team expects something great except they resist your ideas and complain about their lack of success.......

How do you pull it all together?

The time and place is obvious. It is now.

Teams don't complain. Human beings do. On any team rampant with complaining, each member would have his/her own motivation to complain---a common one just to be accepted by the group.

It is crucial that you deal with individuals and define individual roles very early.

Many promising management careers have been lost forever by not dealing with the issues in a manner such as I describe. Nobody owes ANY "team" the sacrifice of his/her own career.

This is not conjecture. I have lived this. I was fortunate enough to receive the very same advice when I started out.

I grew from it. The organization grew dramatically. And the people who worked for me grew and many became leaders in the industry. Four decades later, some still thank me. Others compete with me...and they are TOUGH, I'm proud to say.

No "culture of fear" ever resulted. But a culture of excellence did. -Ace Coldiron

A manager must take the approach they are the owner. His or her job is on the line with the productivity of each employee or team.The first step meeting with the team and discussing objectives.Letting them know indivdual meetings are in the immediate future.

Second item on the agenda study the habits of the sales team.Investigate the past history of each team member. This informs you as to the capabilities of each team member and in many cases give you an idea of what they can accomplish.Find the strengths and weaknesses of your team members through this history.If ride alongs are neccessary do it if not rely on your skills to determine how to fix the problem.

Q and A time with your team members.Fact finding, expectations yours and theirs, listening to the team members.

Team meeting to set your goals and in private each individuals goals to meet the managers goals.Implementing your strategy a little at a time.Creating an enviroment that enhances change.Change is always met with resistance from those who think they are the most qualified. Take your time as there is an adjustment period to change.Often times we want change to happen in a few short weeks. When we do we face many obstacles from the current team who believe thier process is the correct process. -rich34232

Ace and Managercoach are both right. You do have to come in strong like ace says, but you have to becareful that you don't over do it. If you may lose alot of your valuable assets (Salespeople). The ones that do stay will have a negative outlook toward you and more than likely pollute any new sales people you hire.
On the other hand... You were hired to do a job. Chances are the owners didnt like the results from the previous manager. You have probably been brought on board for change and if you don't produce you will get fired.

Do each of the five steps, but dont let the power go to your head, and dont let them walk all over you or expect things to be ran the same. Thats one of main reasons that I never took a managment position in sales. That, and I make more money in sales :P -jrboyd

Just as selling is a skill, managing people is a skill. Here are some useful skills you might want to consider developing and using:

1. As several others have said in this thread, make listening to your team a top priority (at all times, but especially early in the manager/subordinate relationship). However, do not set people up for failure. Only ask questions that you want to hear true answers to, and ask only questions that will yield responses to which you will react. If you don't want people's opinions, don't ask for them.

2. Focus on identifying and using each of your subordinate's strengths. We're not all the same, and we have different strengths. Find out what they are and use the heck out of them.

3. Be crystal clear about your expectations. Explain why they're important, what metrics will be used in measuring adherence to expectations, and be very heavy-handed with offering positive praise when individual or team expectations are met.

4. Follow this time-honored management credo: "praise one in front of others, criticize one in private".

5. Focus on what you want to achieve, not the process to achieving it. There's more than one way to skin a cat; if people have a different way to do it, and they're successful in doing so, let them decide how to reach the goal. What's important is the goal, not the route to get there.

Good luck! -Skip Anderson