“I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.”

Remember the brilliant & very funny sketch with Morecambe and Wise and Andre Previn, where Eric Morecambe is supposed to be playing Grieg’s piano concerto number 1 and much to Andre Previn’s feigned disgust plays a different tune? When challenged by Previn on his playing, Eric stands up, grabs him by the lapels and says, “I am playing all the right notes, not necessarily in the right order”.

I was reminded of this sketch in a meeting a couple of weeks ago with a client and we were discussing how their sales teams interact with their customers.

The conversation moved along to when we all entered the world of sales and I was relaying to them my own experience of starting at Austin Benn as a recruiter, well, New Business Exec to be exact.

On day one I was handed a script- it all seemed perfectly reasonable to me; all I had to do was call up companies and say the words on the page, get 5 vacancies a day, ideally with them coming into our offices to interview, what could be easier? Wow, was I in for a shock!

To be fair, after a couple of weeks I settled in and really enjoyed it, in fact I became quite good at it, loving the thrill of winning another customer time and time again and to follow my “standard parts” was helpful in many ways for my confidence and development.

?“Saying all the right words, just not in the right order”

The conversation continued & we questioned why, if there’s a formula that works, like I had, then why do people change it? An easy answer is that sometimes it just feels more comfortable to improvise and amend & find those words and phrases that just fit with our personality rather than stick to the knitting (as my old boss used to say).

But this is only asking for trouble surely?

What happens if these changes bring about a downturn in performance though?

That’s where the issues begin of course.

Surely it just seems a lot easier to stay on the right path in the first place, but often it’s not as easy as that, especially when the employee truly believes they are saying the right things or sees no harm in these changes; after all they’re saying roughly what is expected of them, just making a few amendments to suit, that’s ok right?

Not really, if results are being affected negatively then we need to correct that sooner rather than later.

The correct approach is key.

If this is the case, it’s a question of ensuring the right kind of management and coaching can be applied to get someone back on track; this will prevent the business from losing a previously performing & engaged member of the team.

Certainly, it will prevent the business from losing someone they have invested time and effort in to training them; the cost of replacing them is even higher so why not do some more exploration to find out what the issues are?

It could just be that although they are fully engaged with the company & its values, they just aren’t fully suited to that role. Then what? We don’t want to lose people that want to contribute for the better of course.

Can the business accommodate them in another role to perform at a better level & start to make a positive impact, for instance.

Changing the game.

Thankfully, unlike when I started in recruitment, when so much was done on gut feel, managers and leaders have the option to access data now to help them with decisions like these & one such tool to help them is The GC Index Index.

With The GC Index Index people can gain a clear understanding of where their “proclivities” lie (proclivity- a tendency to choose or do something regularly; an inclination or predisposition towards a particular thing)?which allows them to understand more clearly what tasks, roles & duties energise them the most; this in turn allows them to see where they can have the greatest impact in a business and know they are making a worthwhile contribution.

This enables the individual to appreciate what elements of their role they enjoy- maybe they are changing their sales formula because they simply don’t enjoy the role they are in or perhaps don’t fully understand it?

Certainly, armed with this information they can discuss with their manager how they can get the coaching they need or move into another role where they can have the impact they know they can make.

Can you imagine how valuable this level of data would be in the hands of leaders and managers to allow them the insight to support their teams to get the coaching appropriate & even more to ensure they were positioning their team in the right roles to maximise contribution?

How powerful would a team be where everyone was playing to their strengths?

Everyone wants to come to work to make a difference and be recognised for that contribution- it’s what motivates us after all.

Curious to find out more?

To find out more about The GC Index Index and how it can help your business I’d be delighted to explain further how this valuable business tool can give your organisation the data to encourage great coaching conversations with your team.

If you drop me a line on LinkedIn or via my email or better still call me on 07885 447039 and I’ll explain more about how you can work with the GC Index to improve individual and team performance & with that comes the offer of 1 free profile and feedback session for you so you can see just how good this business tool is.

As for the Morecambe and Wise sketch, the short clip is here -

André Previn in famous Morecambe and Wise comedy sketch - BBC News -

absolute TV Gold ( the full sketch is 12 minutes long but worth looking up)