by Kenny Lum
A Year of Growth
Amy looked at her sales team with great pride and satisfaction. She had just announced that their targets for the year had been met and this looked like another year poised for growth and success. There had been cheers round the room and it made all the hard work that everyone had put in so worthwhile.
But the situation had not always been this rosy. When she first took on the job as Sales Director a year ago, Amy had wondered if she had made a mistake.Chaos and uncertainty …these were the two words that came to her mind when she first took over. Amy had inherited a group of people with poor work motivation and low morale. Sales targets were not met and the team’s dedication to work was low. Accounts and territories were not well organised nor well planned and there did not seem to be a sense of ownership and accountability.
So what did Amy do to turn around her team?
Amy’s “Secret”
- Opportunity in chaos: What would have made any other manager feel anxious and start looking for a new job, Amysaw as an opportunity to rebuild from the bottom. In Amy’s own words,“Chaos excites me. In fact, when I look back, I find that my personal success has always come from chaotic situations. You could say it’s a strength of mine!” What others saw as a severe disadvantage, Amy saw as an opportunity.
- What gets measured, gets done: Amy’s strong work ethic in working efficiently and effectively helped change the team’s mind-set about work. She achieved it through a simple approach of measure, report and reward. When a target was met, the achievement was reported and then rewarded. This approach, coupled with Amy’s strong leadership fostered good habits within the team – habits such as diligence and a sense of personal responsibility.
- Communication through clarification: By spending time with her team and adopting an attitude of pro-activeness, Amy was able to identify gaps and to ensurethe right people were in the right roles. “As a manager, it is important for me to understand the situation and to get the facts for myself. Never make assumptions. Be proactive in seeking the facts for yourself,” shared Amy.
With clearer communication within the team and with other teams in the organisation, the chaos started to disappear.
Amy’s success involved herstrong personal beliefs and conviction to turn those beliefs into action. By staying calm and confident, she generated enthusiasm in hard work and instil a positive energy within the team.As a leader, Amyinspired her team to see the vision of the successes to come, making them feel invested in building the foundation they needed for future growth.