Direction

SLII® for Sales: Developing High-Performing Salespeople

/ Ken Blanchard

A high-performing sales force can lift an entire organization to new heights. That’s why it’s so important to give salespeople everything they need to succeed. But too often salespeople are left to struggle on their own. Hoping the problems will resolve on their own, their managers ignore warning signs like inconsistent performance, low motivation, and delayed response times to customers.

Well-meaning sales leaders may try coaching their people to better performance. While coaching is a wonderful tool, this alone is unlikely to develop a successful salesperson, fix the problems of a salesperson who is struggling, or keep a high performing salesperson from jumping ship.

SLII® for Sales teaches leaders to have conversations with salespeople that help underperformers hit sales targets and keep high performers engaged. The program shows managers how to provide each salesperson with the precise leadership style they need to improve or overcome whatever challenge they are facing. Using the Diagnosing and Matching skills from SLII®, sales leaders can address issues and give people the solutions they can’t give themselves.

How SLII® for Sales Works in the Real World

Suppose you are a sales leader, and you’ve just brought a new person onboard your team. Let’s see how you can use SLII® for Sales to develop and nurture your new hire into a high performing member of the team.

The Enthusiastic Beginner. Your new salesperson is a 22-year-old with a friendly personality but little actual sales experience. They have a high commitment to becoming good at sales and they are curious, hopeful, and excited.

A salesperson at this level is an enthusiastic beginner. A directing leadership style is appropriate at this stage. You need to teach your new hire everything about the sales process—from making a sales call to closing the sale—and lay out a step-by-step plan for their self-development, teaching them what experienced salespeople do and letting them practice in low-risk sales situations.

The Disillusioned Learner. Now, suppose your new hire has had a few weeks of sales training. They understand the basics of selling but are finding it more difficult than expected. They’re not quite as excited as they were before. They even look discouraged at times.

At this stage, your salesperson is a disillusioned learner. What’s needed now is a coaching leadership style, which is high on both direction and support. You continue to direct and closely monitor their sales efforts, and you also engage them in two-way conversations. You provide a lot of praise and support at this stage because you want to build their confidence, restore their commitment, and encourage their initiative.

The Capable, But Cautious, Contributor. In time this salesperson learns the day-to-day responsibilities of their position and acquires some good sales skills. They still have some self-doubt and question whether they can sell well without your help.

At this stage, the salesperson is a capable, but cautious, contributor. This is where a supporting leadership style is called for. Since their selling skills are good, they don’t need direction. They need you to listen to their concerns and suggestions and be there to support them. Now is the time to encourage and praise—but rarely direct—their efforts. Help them reach their own sales solutions by asking questions and encouraging risk-taking.

The Self-Reliant Achiever. Eventually, your former new salesperson becomes a key player on your team. Not only have they mastered sales tasks and skills, but they’re also working successfully with some of your most challenging clients. They anticipate problems, are ready with solutions, work successfully on their own, and inspire others.

Congratulations—your salesperson has reached the self-reliant achiever stage. At this level of development, a delegating leadership style is best. Turn over responsibility for day-to-day decision making and problem solving. Empower them and allow them to act independently. Challenge them to continue to grow and cheer them on to even higher levels of success.

As a sales leader, your goal is to develop your salespeople to perform at the highest level possible. SLII® for Sales gives you powerful tools to achieve this goal—and to help lift your organization to unprecedented heights.

These 5 Keywords Are the Key to Goal Achievement with SLII®

/ Ken Blanchard

This month we are excited to celebrate the release of the modernized SLII®, the update to our best-selling leadership development training program. We’ve always worked to keep SLII® relevant for today’s leaders, and this latest revision is no exception.

One of my favorite new modules in SLII® is about managers and direct reports sharing a new “shorthand” language of leadership using just five keywords, enabling them to have quick, effective conversations on the go. This is something that Vicki Halsey, our VP of applied learning, has been sharing in keynotes for years. I’m glad it has officially made its way into the program!

These days, leaders aren’t always able to sit down and have a detailed conversation with a direct report who might be struggling with a goal. Communication is more likely to happen via text: “Are you busy? I’ve got a problem.”

But when both people know the language of SLII®, they can use five keywords and have an efficient “shorthand” conversation about development levels, leadership styles, and fast solutions. The keywords are Goal, Competence, Commitment, Direction, and Support.

  • As you might guess, the keyword Goal is about the specific, trackable outcome the direct report is working toward. The Goal is the objective that needs to be addressed in the conversation.
  • The keyword Competence is about the team member’s skills and ability to achieve the Goal. Leaders can use this word in conversation to determine whether the person needs more supervision or is able to work on their own.
  • The keyword Commitment refers to both confidence and motivation. This word will come up in discussion regarding the person’s motivation on the Goal and helps the leader detect and address a possible lack of confidence or enthusiasm in the direct report.
  • Direction is the specific instruction or guidance given to a direct report, in an amount that varies depending on the person’s development level on a specific Goal. In conversation, this keyword helps leaders determine the amount of close supervision and assistance they need to give the team member for their current level of development.
  • Support, similar to direction, refers to a specific style of leadership given to a team member that matches their development level on their current Goal. Support involves the leader encouraging and providing information and other resources to help the direct report feel confident and empowered to achieve the Goal.

Leaders and team members who use this common “shorthand” language of SLII® are able to have a quick and productive conversation to diagnose the person’s Competence and Commitment on their Goal so that the leader can give the correct amount of Direction and Support, smooth out or eliminate the struggle, and cheer on the direct report toward Goal achievement.   

I think SLII® is such a wonderful way to lead people, and even after 45 years, it just keeps getting better and better!

Explore the Versatility of SLII®

/ Ken Blanchard

Most of you already know about SLII®, our company’s situational approach to leadership and our flagship product. Millions of managers around the world have found it to be the very best way to lead. The SLII® model shows leaders how to give their team members the right kind of leadership style for the person’s development level on each specific task or goal they do. Here’s how it works:

When working toward completing a task or achieving a goal, everyone moves along a continuum made up of four development levels. Managers use this practical framework to assess a person’s competence and commitment on a task and diagnose their development level:

  • Enthusiastic Beginner (D1): The person has low competence and high commitment. They don’t know how to do the task but are excited to get started.
  • Disillusioned Learner (D2): The person has some competence but low commitment. Still early in the learning process, they are feeling discouraged and insecure about moving forward.
  • Capable, but Cautious, Contributor (D3): The person has high competence and variable commitment. They are finally getting the hang of things but still need occasional help.
  • Self-Reliant Achiever (D4): The person has high competence and high commitment. They are at the top of their game on this task.

Next, the manager matches the person’s development level on the task with the leadership style that has the right combination of directive and supportive behaviors to help the person succeed: S1—Directing; S2—Coaching; S3—Supporting; and S4—Delegating.

If you have taken SLII® training, you may remember being asked by the facilitator to come up with a situation in your own life where you could apply the SLII® model. This is where everyone learns how many areas SLII® can be applied, not only on their job but also in their day-to-day life. It’s always fun to see participants’ faces light up when they discover how easily they can relate real-life activities to the SLII® process.

One example we’ve used for years in training sessions references a person learning how to ski.

  • Starting out, the instructor shows the person how to put on their skis and move forward. The person feels the thrill of starting down their first small hill, envisioning themselves easily mastering this fun sport. (D1)
    • After their first lesson—and several falls—they realize skiing isn’t as easy as they had thought it would be. They feel inadequate and a little foolish, and think about quitting. (D2)
    • Several more lessons go by, and the person is now having fun skiing and is practicing on more difficult runs. They know there is still much to learn but feel optimistic about their progress. (D3)
    • With time and the right amount of direction and support from their instructor along their learning journey, the person has achieved their goal of becoming a confident skier. (D4)

Now think of how the stages of the SLII® model could pertain to almost any task or goal you can think of—areas as diverse as showing someone how to play a musical instrument, bake cookies, or improve their driving skills. It could be used by anyone coaching a team sport involving people of any age, or by a friend helping another friend learn a foreign language. I’ve been told SLII® can be applied to the different stages of marriage, business partnerships, and raising children. Someone even said the basics of SLII® helped them train their dog! How’s that for versatile?

A few years ago, I wrote a book titled Fit at Last: Look and Feel Better Once and For All with my personal coach, Tim Kearin. In the book we describe how Tim used the SLII® model to help me through my fitness journey. He kept track of my development levels on goals such as nutrition and weight control, aerobic exercise, strength training, flexibility, balance, and rest and sleep, and he used all four leadership styles as needed. SLII® played a huge part in my reaching my goals.

SLII® teaches leaders how to build meaningful connections with team members. It creates engaged, high performing individuals and teams, and helps organizations excel. It can also make a difference in your home, your community, and your life. Give SLII® a try and let us know how it works for you!

3 Tips for Achieving Your 2016 New Year’s Resolutions

/ Ken Blanchard

I read an article recently stating that 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions are not met. I wasn’t surprised by that figure because of two very common facts:

  • Accomplishing the goal is usually more difficult than we think it will be
  • We rarely ask for help from others who can support us

That’s why it makes so much sense to use the three principles of Situational Leadership® II—goal setting, diagnosis, and matching—to make your New Year’s resolutions stick. This highly successful model for setting and achieving work goals applies to reaching personal goals, as well.

For years, I’ve shared the benefits of writing SMART goals. I truly believe this acronym provides a powerful method for making sure your goals are Specific, Motivating, Attainable, Relevant, and Trackable. So I’m not going to go over the best way to write goal statements today. Instead, I’m going to strongly suggest, once the goal is determined, that you write it down. Sounds simple, right? In the working environment, writing goal statements are usually part of a performance planning process. However, many times when people are setting personal goals, they think about what they want to do but they don’t write anything down. If you can’t make the effort to write it down, you probably won’t be committed enough to actually change a behavior.

Write each goal on a separate sheet of paper and read each goal every day. It won’t do you any good to write something down and file it away. When you read your goal statements each day, you remind yourself of your priorities and match your behavior to meet the goals—or adjust your behavior if goals are not being met. This simple process will help you be accountable for your own goal achievement. I read my goals first thing in the morning, just to get my day off to the right start and get myself in the right frame of mind.

Next, it is important to diagnose your development level on each goal. What is your competence (your skills and experience) and what is your commitment (your motivation and confidence) to this goal? Once you determine your competence and commitment, you need to ask for help.

For example, let’s say you are excited about your goal but are not competent yet. You are an enthusiastic beginner and need to find a helper who can coach you—someone who can provide a lot of direction on how you can achieve this goal. If you lack competence and confidence on a goal, you are a disillusioned learner. In this case you need a coach to provide direction as well as a supporter to cheer you on. This doesn’t necessarily have to be the same person. If you know how to achieve your goal but your commitment varies, you are a capable but cautious performer. In this case, you need extra support to help you stay committed but you don’t need much direction. Finally, let’s say you have both high competence and high commitment to the goal. A self-reliant achiever, may not even need to write the goal down—you are well on your way to goal achievement.

The third step is called matching. This means finding the right person or group of people to help you reach your goals. You may have different helpers for different goals because you want to choose people who will offer the right combination of direction and support for you. For example, if you set a goal to exercise three times a week, find a friend who is already dedicated to exercising and is willing to join you at the gym instead of one who rarely laces up walking shoes.

Be systematic about checking in with your helpers. Set up a specific time each week to talk about how you are progressing. This can be as simple as a ten-minute phone call or even a quick text. Or use the check-in as a way to get face to face with your main supporters. How you get together doesn’t matter—what you talk about is the biggest factor that will keep you on track toward achieving your goals. I often ask people, “What is the best diet?” Of course, the answer is “The one you stick with.” Think of these check-in meetings as the way to stick to your plan.

So, don’t fall into that 92 percent failure group. Set yourself up for success by setting your goals, diagnosing your development level, and surrounding yourself with helpers who will provide the right amount of direction and support to help you flourish throughout the year!