What type of manager are you? Conservative, stay-the-course, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it? Are you a Dr. No—meeting all of your team’s suggestions and new ideas with “No”?
Or are you daring, open to improvisation, have backup plans, take advantage of tech innovations? A risk-taker… ready to shake things up, try something different, embrace radical new ideas? A James Bond.
I once worked with a manager whom I’d classify as a James Bond. One of her favorite lines was, “If you do what ya did, you’ll get what you got,” which was her simple way of saying, “Let’s try something different to improve our outcome.”
So, how have your outcomes been this year?
If you can truthfully say you’ve been crushing it, maybe you can afford to be a Dr. No. If, on the other hand, what you’re doing right now isn’t good enough for today, let alone the future, then maybe it’s time to get daring and be a James Bond.
Introduce new initiatives, shuffle accounts or responsibilities, shake up some metrics, ask for input from your team and try a few ‘out there’ ideas—you may be surprised at the results and outcomes.
I think it’s natural for humans to resist change—leaving our comfort zone isn’t easy. But when everything around us is shifting, sometimes we have to blow things up to stay successful.
It’s why I like our Sales Manager’s BootCamp event so much. Part of our responsibility to attendees is to present new and different ways to lead sales team and be prepared for growth opportunities. We’re supposed to be provocative. We’re supposed to make you think. We’re supposed to ask, “What if…”
So, as you prepare for 2023, will you be a Dr. No and take the conservative management approach in the execution of your plan, or will you be a James Bond and lean in on evolutional strategies and tactics to overachieve your goals?