Youtre fired

(-'loNcnnruLATIoNS. you'vE lust been promoted to sales \-,managerl Now the real challenge of leading your team begins. One of the hardest things you will have to do as a sales manager is fire people.

Many sales managers are promoted internally. They are co-workers before they are managers. This situation is one of the toughest professional challenges you will face in your career. How do you get your recent co-workers to treat you as their leader? Their manager? Their evaluator?

The biggest challenge comes from within. Will you accept the role of leader? Or do you want them to like you too much? Will you want them to treat you the same as they did before?

Leadership has its price. You are no longer "one of the guys/gals." When the sales team goes out to let off some steam, you probably won't be invited. You are no longer a co-worker. Your responsibility is now to the team. Change can be difficult and sometimes lonely. Your team needs and wants you to lead them. Your company demands it.

lf you don't lead your team, someone will

When a leader of a country dies, we hear about a "power void" or a "leadership void." Several wanna-be leaders will step forward, and there will be political and social unrest until a clear leader is established.

The samc thing will happen with your sales team. You must lead )our team or someone else will. If you are a weak or non-existent leader. someone else will assume the leadership role. Usually it is the biggest, most selfish bully. The team will become fractious and goals will be individualistically driven instead of company or team drrven.

This does not mean that you are a tyrant. This does not mean that you are an autocrat. It does mean that you must give your team a clear vision, set a high standard, and hold them to that standard.

lf you don't fire them, they will fire you

Your job is to grow company sales and profits. You must do this by building a strong team. If you don't, yoa will be fired!

If you allow poor performers to remain on the team you send the message "It's okay to be a poor performer." If you do fire your poor performers, you send the opposite message: "Perform or be gone!" Which message do you want to send to your team?

Mental approaches to help make firing easier

It's them or your kid. I was dealing with an employee who I really liked. I liked her, but I couldn't get her to work unsupervised. I was in the process of cutting her hours to only those when he could work with a co-worker. I told her, "This is not an argument about what is good for me and what is good for you, but an argument about what is good for you and what is good for my kid!" She said, "That makes it real easy fbr you to look at it like that, doesn't it?" I said, "Yes, it does."

The next time you have a problem with an employee, remember, it's them or your kid. Your kid is counting on you to do the right thing for your career, so do it and don't f'eel bad about it.

Your communication has been clear. By the time you feel like iiring someone, you have already had numerous "sit-downs," etc., with them. You have been clear. They don't want to Ltnderstand. Some people will only understand when you fire them. Do yourself a favor, save yourself some time. Fire them.

Do you want to work for them? If you want to work for a troublesome employee, don't fire them. Because if you can't manage them, then they are managing you (and your other employees).

You can't get in the way of a peak performer. If he were a qreat, motivated salesperson, you would not be having problems with him. He would be too busy selling.

It's not a zero sum game. Dealing with troublesome performers or unmanageable people is keeping you from growing your group. It is keeping you from giving time and attention to the salespeople who need it and are manageable. Let 'em go!

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