Servant Leadership: Strength Under Fire

By Max Cates, excerpt from the sales management book, Serve, Lead, Succeed! https://booklocker.com/11051??

?It took a rocket attack to make a servant leader of Kevin Groome. But it may have been the best thing to ever happen to his sales management career.

I was an Army commander in Desert Storm, leading a team whose job was to protect a key oil refinery from rocket attack. Our mission was to knock down SCUD missiles, and we were 100% effective in doing that. I guess we got a little cocky until one day our missile defense system went belly up during a missile attack. At that moment, I realized that no matter how good you think you are, you don’t always have control – you are at best a steward of the resources you are given, not the owner. A lot of people got religion that day. In fact, Sunday attendance at the Chapel tent went from 3 to 130 people in one week.

“In the military, I led at people instead of with them. In my twenties I thought I knew everything but in my fifties I realize how much I don’t know. That recognition is humbling. I realized how God wanted me to lead, and that makes me much more intentional about my servant leadership. My company has gone through 10 restructurings during my career, and many managers haven’t made the cut. The constantly changing sales arena makes me reinvent myself each year to meet the needs of my sales people and requirements of the job.”

Groome, who leads a sales team of pharmaceutical reps, said the transition to servant leadership was well-received by his sales people. “The reps loved it, as they became empowered to become better sales ?people. The biggest challenge I had was with some of my sales manager peers. Some said I was soft. Others resented my team’s success with sales results. Of course, when I was called soft, I sometimes got defensive and wanted to prove myself even more. Now, I consider it a compliment. And many of those who called me soft aren’t around anymore. “I like the word ‘guardians’ to describe our role as people of character, loyalty, selflessness and commitment to others, not ourselves. That means I’m not the only leader in our sales group. We are all leaders. My goal is that if a stranger walks into a team meeting, they would have a hard time telling who the sales manager is. All of us are leaders. Even if you think you’re a follower, you have to lead yourself, and lead your relationship with your customers. My job is to help them develop into better sales reps and better people, to empower them to execute their job to the best of their ability and to know they can fail forward on the job. I like to think we have a trusting relationship that allows reps to do new things, fail and learn from their failures.”

Groome emphasizes the importance of helping people see their potential rather than just their existing skill set. “I like to catch people doing the right thing and pour gasoline on their fire.” As an example, he said he brought on a sales person to his team from another district. Feeling somewhat inadequate as a potential leader from her past experience, Groome decided to put her in a leadership role to lead the team in a companywide program. “One manager asked me if I really wanted to put her in charge. But I made the leap of faith and am glad I did. She sent me a note saying that she had never felt such trust and empowerment. That year, she won a companywide award, called ‘The Rock Solid Leadership Award’ and, by the way, vaulted past 70% of her peers in sales achievement and nearly winning the top sales award in the nation.”

The concept of ‘grace’ or providing subordinates with undeserved favor is a key part of Groome’s servant leadership. He says he understands the concept of subordinates’ earning favor and respect but it’s not always conducive to effective servant leadership. Waiting for people to earn respect and privileges means the leader is missing many opportunities for reps’ development. “If you give them a chance, for example, to take a leadership role – if they’ve earned it or not – they will many times grow into the role, and surpass your expectations. At the same time, however, you have to balance the elements of grace and accountability with truth. You have to tell them the truth about their performance and require them to be accountable for their actions.”

Grace and accountability helped Groome turn around a sales rep whose sales attainments were among the lowest in the region, ranking 70 out of 81 sales people. Working with the rep as a valued member of the sales team, Groome provided encouragement, respect and coaching. “He was great with customers but he struggled with asking customers for a commitment to buy. We talked about him being personally accountable to ask for the sale, and to hold his customers accountable as well. We talked about creating a positive tension with customers, challenging them in a friendly way with something like, ‘This is one of our fastest growing products but not with you. Is there something I am missing? I don’t want you or your patients to miss out.’ This approach allowed him to use his friendliness and rapport with customers in a positive way that affirmed why the rep was there.” At a sales meeting, the rep stood up and told the group he was going to do better, to ask the customer for the sale with every appointment. During the months following that public statement of accountability, the rep moved up the rankings to number seven in the region.

The rep’s success story has been repeated dozens of times throughout Groome’s sales district, making him one of the company’s most successful sales managers. “Our successful team results is one of the reasons why some previous peers have not been happy with me. In my 22 years, our teams have been named district of the year five times. I have been fortunate to win the Premier Award eight times, which recognizes individuals who finish in the top 10 percent in the company.” Groome has also been named to the company’s prestigious Hall of Fame those who were named the company’s top 10% of sales leaders six times.

To sustain the success, Groome is careful to hire sales reps that fit the chemistry of his servant leader sales team. “I hire more on character traits than on sales skills. The things I look for in candidates are integrity, humility, selflessness, teamwork and communications skills. If you hear a lot of ‘me, myself and I’ you know that selflessness is lacking. I look for people who give credit to others and show ability to work well with sales teammates.”

To further strengthen his sales team, Groome initiated a mentor program that was adopted across the region. Called “Iron Sharpens Iron,” the program pairs a sales rep with another rep who has different but complimentary skills. “This way, they learn new things from each other including sales skills and servant leader skills. They are encouraged to do more listening than talking, and are empowered to conduct the program on their own with little supervision. It’s not a typical mentor-mentee relationship, but rather a mutual mentor program, both being equals.”

Groome’s faith has been a driver in his servant leadership. “If we’re going to follow Christ, we must lead like him. It’s not always easy but it’s the right thing to do. Not too long ago, the room went silent in a meeting when I was asked my favorite leader, and I said Jesus. Someone later said we’re not allowed to talk about Jesus in a corporate setting. But it is the secret to success, in my opinion. As the saying goes, ‘People follow a great leader because they respect them, not because they have power.’ I surrendered ‘me’ and let God work through me and increase in me. We oftentimes aspire to lead like we were led with more traditional management styles. But I crashed and burned, and my faith brought me to my knees to a God-inspired management style, servant leadership. It has made all the difference in our team success.”

According to Groome, servant leadership is “the path less traveled but it’s the right way. When we spread it around we have more success and less collateral damage. A rising tide raises all ships. When our people share information, we help each other succeed as a team and as individuals."