Ask for feedback, are you listening?

Sales leadership demands a finesse for motivating the masses, exceeding investor expectations and encouraging employee’s high performance.  This is no easy task while juggling the myriad of daily obstacles specific to your industry and team. Each year as you reassess the business model, budget for growth and examine the market risks, don’t forget to survey your talent. This exercise seems to be the easiest to overlook and the most impactful on the moral of your organization. Getting feedback from the talented people in your organization will provide real insight to better understanding the concerns from sales, customer service and product development groups. Some companies offer a survey or annual review for sharing improvements ideas, employee satisfaction and addressing ongoing concerns.

Do not overlook this opportunity to listen.

Listening to your team can bring forward creative marketing ideas and insight to the competitive landscape. As much as we go out of our way to listen to the marketplace, we need to listen to our most important assets. The people that drive our business forward day in and day out. When given the opportunity your employees can provide great insight to improve internal business processes and increase productivity. This exercise is also helpful during times of change. Anytime there is disruption via organizational shift or acquisition, check in with your team. Nothing shows excellent leadership like an executive or manager that keeps in touch with the front line.  Listen to feedback and provide guidance and transparency. There is a window of speculation that happens when leadership is silent. Many employees will be willing to push through these challenges with communication and a feeling of high value from their leadership team. If you are not in a cadence of communicating your vision, or requesting feedback from your team, this is something to think about including in your next quarterly update.  In order to improve communication more companies are undertaking remote town halls. This increases the understanding of business goals and strengthens connections by providing an additional opportunity to participate. Leave the last few minutes open to questions from the team or allow them to send questions prior to the call. Addressing these issues and listening to feedback will gain bigger buy in to the vision and create an atmosphere of inspired ingenuity. You may be pleasantly surprised by the insight and creative ideas your workforce can contribute to the bottom line.

Good luck in listening.