Over-managing is Not Leading

Do you ever get that feeling that someone is looking over your shoulder…?

An old boss of mine once sagely told me “no one ever won business sitting in their office … you win it sitting in other people’s offices!”. In other words – face-to-face engagement with a client is crucial to sales success – especially in a professional services environment.  It’s a maxim to which I’ve adhered for many years with success in all sorts of environments.

It puzzles me then when people who have ownership of the selling function in their organisation talk this same game plan but demonstrate behaviours that are absolutely at odds with the philosophy. I saw an example first hand just this week.

A business associate came to visit me and, unusually she suggested meeting at my office. I knew she had taken on a new business development role and was keen to hear more about it. After catching up on each other’s lives, families and swapping industry gossip, she shared that she had jumped into the current sales role at relatively short notice. Her new boss was known to her and was a friend in the business context.

She also hinted at a degree of frustration with his management of her activities. I’ve known her for quite a while now, and when it comes to self-starters and polished sales professionals, I rate her highly. This visit was no different.

The meeting turned to the product she was promoting. It was a software solution that could well be of interest to me. She could demonstrate how it fitted my business – first tick: I was a qualified lead! She quizzed me about the types of clients I worked with or targeted and how I engaged with them – 2nd tick: she was looking for needs that her product could address.

You get the picture … this was a professional at work and I was interested in her offering. I was puzzled by her early comments regarding the boss’s management style, though. Surely no sales manager could find fault with her approach to market. The crux of the issue seemed to be the nature and quality of leads she was pursuing and the amount of time she was spending out of the office instead of on the phone.

Really??

Having undertaken to follow up and gaining commitment from me to provide some information regarding my business (tick 3 – get a promise of action from the client!), she wound the meeting up, we exchanged more personal chatter and she headed to her next appointment. I’d have almost not thought too much about her hint of micromanagement until I sat back at my desk, shortly after she left.

On checking my email I noticed that my profile had been viewed on LinkedIn in the past 40 minutes (while I was in the meeting) – by her boss! Seriously? Was he really checking to see who she was meeting? 

What’s the problem, you ask? 

Several, actually – and they compound each other. In a normal context this could have been a sales manager monitoring performance of a new recruit to provide guidance and coaching. But I read it differently.

My friend had been sought out by this same sales manager, because he knew her capability and a work ethic. This was someone he had brought to the business because he, supposedly believed she would fix the sales ills he was experiencing. He went through no selection process – he approached her directly.

Secondly, if he was truly about supporting her efforts, he wouldn’t have simply scanned my profile. Instead he missed an opportunity to deepen the engagement of his company with mine.

Why not connect with me? The way this should have panned out was a connection request on LinkedIn, with a note saying “Hi, I know my colleague is meeting you today. We’re excited to engage with your business and at some stage I’d be delighted to meet with you too so we can really connect with you and your business needs… Thanks for taking the time to hear about our product.” Or words to that effect, anyway. The fact that he didn’t do this reinforced my impression that:

1.    He was indeed checking up on her;

2.    He is not too sharp on the use of social media as means of enhancing the sales strategy of his business (a completely different can of worms); and,

3.    He sees his role as one of oversight and direction instead of support and reinforcement.

Instead of providing support he sent me the message (and his sales lead) that he didn’t trust her to get the job done or to use her time wisely. It reinforced the signals she was getting in the office. Chances are it will be the straw that fractures the camel’s back and sees her walk away – and the business will be poorer for it.

The thing is that in any leadership role, trust is essential. Employees, partners, team members all react to being given confidence that the leader believes in them and has their back. Self-sufficiency and drive are rare and precious commodities and the behaviour set described above is tailor made to kill both or at the very least drive them to another opportunity. 

Moreover, the concept of “leader as servant” simply hasn’t occurred to this chap – and to many like him. To him, I suspect, being in charge means being on top of things, driving people forward and muscling the business in his desired direction.

He’s wrong. The role of the leader is to create the environment for others to succeed. A real leader put him/her self at the disposal of their subordinates as a resource, a support and a guide – not a driver or director. It is not a command position so much as a mentoring one. To not understand this is the foundation for failure in a leadership role.

I don’t worry about my friend – she’s good at what she does and has enormous energy and entrepreneurial flair that will take her a long way. Sadly, for her current employer, I don’t think they’ll be on the same journey.

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