FranklinCovey-The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Sales Leaders

HABIT 1: BE PROACTIVE

By proactivity, I mean much more than ‘taking initiative’. Proactivity is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon; it is the awareness that you are the creator of your life, and what you accomplish (or don’t) is your responsibility and yours alone. The foundation for proactivity stems from a very powerful model called the Stimulus Response model. The basic idea is we are conditioned to respond in a particular way to a particular stimulus. If someone mistreats you, then you may respond the way you learned when you were young and it has become the way you’ve always responded. Or, you can choose any other response. The key thing here is to realize there is a space between any stimulus and your response. And in that small space—and sometimes it’s very small—lies our ability to choose and is the source of our ultimate power as human beings. Therefore, we can make or break our habits. We can rise above our moods. We can choose to think and be different. As humans we have the power to control our feelings and impulses and apply them to a higher purpose. Proactivity is personal leadership and mastery at its best; it is the ability to identify what goals are most important, complemented by an unbending commitment to reach those goals. A proactive culture then is one where each contributor takes responsibility for their choices and how they respond to circumstances, even though many are beyond their control. They don’t merely react to the social or emotional “weather” around them. They are “grounded” because they carry their own weather. They don’t point fingers to shift blame to

someone or something else. They regularly assess their own performance and take responsibility for corrective action where needed or apply creativity if necessary. But this doesn’t just happen. As a sales leader you must lead it into existence because if you don’t build proactivity on purpose, you’re automatically saying “Yes” to reactivity. Sadly, it’s far too common that sales organizations have fallen into a habit of reacting to the mass of pressures constantly pushing on them, both from internal stakeholders as well as customers. Reactive sales organizations rely heavily on the “carrot-and-stick” approach that has become the norm to “motivate” salespeople, but it’s more likely to squash proactivity rather than encourage it. Of course that isn’t the intention behind it, but that’s what occurs. Seeing this happen time and time again, I’ve become more passionate about helping sales leaders see how proactivity can fundamentally transform their day-to-day experience, as well as the long-term success of their teams. Of course, being proactive isn’t a new concept— it just doesn’t get very much time or attention in today’s sales environment. As a sales leader, when you choose to consistently build proactivity as a competitive capability within your organization, sales will increase year over year. Burnout will drop. Your people will become more energized and creative. The best part is your own satisfaction as a sales leader goes straight up, along with the satisfaction of your teams and, most importantly, your customers. I invite you to flex your own proactive leadership muscles

Proactivity is the root of all growth, improvement and success for individuals and organizations. That’s a huge statement, but I have no hesitation in making that claim. In the past 20 years, I’ve seen proactivity deliver on it every time. For a sales leader, this concept is the most powerful tool in your leadership arsenal, if you use it.

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