Today's sales leaders have a constant battle - to they focus on today's outcomes or tomorrow's growth.  This story about Julie, a bright, well-educated leader, illustrates the answer. Julie was brought into to turn around one of the divisions of a publicly-traded company.  When Julie joined her new company, the direction she received from the CEO was clear – define a new way of delivering services to increase our revenue.  Driven and confident, Julie knew she was up to the task.

Conflict is inevitable. How you resolve conflict is critical. Handling it effectively a key to success but handling it poorly is the roadmap to further conflict.  Robert Pagliarini the founder of Richer Life a community of passionate people who want to learn and achieve more in life and at work, recently wrote an article for CBS MoneyWatch based on his experience counseling hundreds of people on financial disagreements. He shared the six key steps to conflict resolution.  Whether dealing with a money issue, a disgruntled employee, or a frustrated boss, these six steps apply. After reading this article, please add you best practices on how you resolve conflict with your employees.

As we lead our sales teams, we do everything in our power to hit our sales goals and grow our business.  We define processes so we can have efficient execution.  We employ never ending searches for time saving, cutting edge technologies.  We develop strategic plans so we can have predictable outcomes.  We manage sales activity so we can ensure we hit our quarterly number and annual goals.  We constantly strive to do more, always looking for the next great growth tool and opportunity. This isn't enough anymore! Too often, sales leaders stop there.  They see the above processes, management processes, as the only items they can affect that lead to increases in performance.  Sadly, too many will never see the results, the exponential growth that can come from working beyond management.  Great management skills can temporarily raise the numbers, but without adapting and utilizing all the drivers of team performance, growth will inevitably wane and in most cases revenues will eventually decline. 

As we advance in our careers, we become more aware of what it takes to be a great leader. Harvard Business Review recently published an article written by Tony Schwartz, president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent at Anything. Tony shares twelves of his favorite leadership lessons.  Read them and then add to the list!

According to Harvard Business Review writer Scott Edinger founder of Edinger Consulting Group, the leadership job that's hardest to do is the head of sales. And not just because sales brings in the revenue and tends to feel the friction from the external environment first, though both are certainly true. But because in addition, sales leaders deal with situations no other department encounters! Below are the highlights of Scott's article "The Most Challenging Leadership Job"

Steve Jobs was honored in death the way that we honor superstars.  He had real fans.  Can you think of another businessperson who had fans?  You can’t and it’s because Steve Jobs had once-in-a-lifetime kind of talent.  He built these incredible products that we didn’t even know that we wanted.  He was a true visionary. His company, Apple, has arguably grown into the most successful company of the last decade.  In fact, if you look at market cap, they are number one. 

If you find yourself resisting "being strategic," because it is easier to deal with what's directly in front, and because it always seems more urgent and concrete? Unfortunately, if you do that, you put your company at risk. While you concentrate on steering around potholes, you'll miss windfall opportunities, not to mention any signals that the road you're on is leading off a cliff. Today's blog post comes from Inc. Magazine. It is written by Paul J. H. Schoemaker.

Sarah Wirth, VP Member Services of EcSELL Institute, was a keynote instructor at our Sales Coaching Summit this week.  Her session titled "The Performance Evolution: Why You Can't Manage Your Way To Growth" was well received by everyone in the audience. Download the white paper, which is written by Sarah Wirth and speaks to the performance evolution, to learn more about this topic.

During our spring Sales Coaching Summit, our instructors and attendees said some amazing things. Here are a few of the best motivational quotes from that week.

A recent post on the Harvard Business Review (HBR) explores certain behaviors of women that can hold them back in the professional arena. The article cites studies which show that only half of women display high self-confidence while the other half admit to feelings of self-doubt regarding their performance. As a result of this self-doubt and reduced confidence, women can end up inadvertently sabotaging themselves.  Today's guest blog post comes from Lauren Carlson who is a CRM Analyst at Software Advice.