NOT HITTING ANY PRs LATELY? TIME TO EXERCISE YOUR MENTAL FITNESS
The burden of accountability remains on leadership’s shoulders unless you put it where it belongs and keep it there. Where does it belong? It belongs with the producer. But how do you assign and transfer accountability to the producer? Here’s an example of accountability outside of your producers. Let’s suppose you have a client who is a contractor. They ask you for a certificate of insurance at the last possible minute. In fact, their truck is trying to pull through the gates at the construction site, they’ve been waiting in line for 30 minutes to get in, and with no certificate, they go to the back of the line. Your firm gets a phone call. “We need a certificate sent to Jack at Tardy Construction right now or we’ve got a big problem.” Being customer-oriented, you drop everything and jump through hoops to get it done to please the client. Sports psychology has helped athletes, like Michael Jordan, and golf pros, like Greg Norman, become legends. “What separates the good from the great is between the ears, the way they talk to themselves, their inside communication,” says Dr. Sylvain Guimond, a sports psychologist. World-class athletes stay mentally tough and visualize their victories to propel them past competitors. This same strategy can help you take your training to the next level. Outside of the professional sphere, mental exercises based on sports psychology can help you hit new PRs by changing the way you think about your performance. Psychologists have found that believing you can succeed —whether it’s scoring a goal or stealing a base — is key to actually succeeding. One of the newer techniques to enter the sports psychology scene, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), aims to instill this belief in athletes. While the subjective nature of NLP makes its effectiveness hard to verify,
NLP reportedly increases confidence in athletes, as Rhonda Cohen notes in “Sport Psychology: The Basics: Optimising Human Performance.” It focuses on building confidence through visualization and speech patterns to help athletes
burden of that contractor failing to notify you in advance that they need certificates? Your agency does, and the more your agency is willing to jump through hoops to assist someone who is so unorganized that they can’t — or won’t — help themselves, the more you’ll have to do it. It’s not just producers we are talking about; it’s people. As long as you take responsibility for their errors, apathy, or lack of desire to get something done, they will take advantage of that. Who is responsible for accountability in your agency? You are. You have to set up the systems and processes (rules and standards) and put them in writing. Communicate them, train them, and do it consistently. You set up your rules, communicate your expectations, and let your producers live with the consequences of playing outside the lines. It won’t take long for them to understand it’s their responsibility to tune into a winning mindset. While the name might sound complex, NLP is anything but — it can be as simple as choosing a song that you associate with confidence and playing it on repeat for 10 minutes as you visualize yourself getting a PR for squats. Before your next workout, play the song as an audio cue to go into that confident state of mind. Mindfulness exercises can also be extremely effective at improving athletic performance. These exercises, like yoga and meditation, build a strong foundation for mental fitness. By learning how to ease your thoughts and
calm your mind, you’ll be better prepared to call on techniques like positive thinking and mantras during your workouts so you can, as one NLP expert says, “consciously enter a state of peak performance.” Even as you’re incorporating sports psychology techniques into your routine, remember that they’re only going to be effective if you put in the work when you’re training. As Cohen says, “It is one thing to think about or want to change; it is another thing to go ahead and actually do it.”
ACCOUNTABILITY: WHOSE BURDEN IS IT?
A WORD FROM THE WEDGE BLOG
do what’s requested. When they make a personal decision to do something different, it’s their burden, not yours, so they must deal with the consequences. As a sales leader, you probably accept too much responsibility for the failure and success of your producers. If you are not careful, you enable them to be lazy, and that happens when you protect them from the natural consequences. So, stop. Responsibility starts with agency owners setting up systems and processes. Then, assign that responsibility to the rightful owner: the producers. Move the burden, and keep it there. It will save you a tremendous amount of time, make for a better agency, keep everyone happy, and your agency will grow faster and more profitably.
For more insight from Randy, be sure to visit thewedge.net/blog .
A couple of weeks later, it happens again and then another time. Who owns the
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