Sales Coach

The right way to motivate your reps w/Phil Putnam

Thu Jun 01 2023

CoachingMotivationEmployee EngagementLeadership

Description

The episode explores the importance of coaching, understanding personal motivations, engaging and retaining employees, and managing the whole person. It emphasizes the role of motivation in performance, the need for trust and information sharing in coaching, and the impact of lifestyle and emotional experience on employee satisfaction. The episode also highlights the significance of understanding individual motivations in hiring decisions and the benefits of nurturing and managing the whole person for organizational success.

Insights

Motivation is Key

Motivation is the engine and foundation of performance. It determines if someone wants to perform and connects their job to the life they want.

Understanding Personal Motivations

Understanding what someone wants in life helps leaders guide them towards achieving it or finding alternatives if necessary. Asking about someone's life outside of work creates comfort and builds trust.

Engaging and Retaining Employees

Employees judge their job against the life they want, so understanding their desired lifestyle is crucial for leaders to engage and retain them. Emotional experience and preferences in management style also play a significant role.

Managing the Whole Person

Leaders who understand their employees' motivation and manage the whole person tend to be more successful. Focusing on both business needs and human needs leads to a beautiful synthesis.

Summary

Transcript

Coaching and Motivation

00:03 - 08:12

Coaching is like dessert for Phil, a treat and his favorite thing to do.
Coaching focuses on optimizing existing behavior to increase outcomes.
Trust is essential in coaching and requires time to build.
Phil enjoys all coaching situations, including group settings and hard conversations, because they involve humans.
Motivation is the engine and foundation of performance.
Skills and willingness are important, but motivation matters most because it determines if someone wants to perform.
People love themselves more than their employer, so the connection between their job and the life they want motivates them to work harder.
When there's no direct connection between their job and the life they want, people are not fundamentally motivated.

Understanding Personal Motivations

07:44 - 15:52

People's self-interest is the prime prism through which all things are seen.
When hiring, focus on the why people want to work with you and for your customers.
Finding people with a strong why involves understanding the life they want.
Motivating employees by making them see how important their work is to the organization is not as effective as understanding their personal motivations.
Flowing with human nature and asking questions about someone's life outside of work can provide momentum and build trust.
Coaching is dependent upon trust and information sharing, while managing has more flexibility in setting expectations without needing additional personal information.
Building trust by asking about someone's life outside of work creates comfort and helps understand what they want in life.
Understanding what someone wants in life helps leaders guide them towards achieving it or finding alternatives if necessary.

Engaging and Retaining Employees

15:23 - 23:08

Employees judge their job against the life they want, not the company's goals.
Understanding employees' desired lifestyle is crucial for leaders to engage and retain them.
Questions about lifestyle include home, activities outside of work, and relocation plans.
Money is an important topic to discuss with employees as it affects their motivation and peace of mind.
Pay attention to whether employees see making more money as a purpose or result of doing great work.
Work experience greatly impacts employees' overall life experience, so understanding their preferences in management style, input/control, and feedback is essential.
Emotional experience plays a significant role in how employees perceive their life satisfaction at work. Leaders should inquire about what makes them feel respected or disrespected.
By asking questions and actively listening without judgment, leaders can gain insight into what motivates employees and drives their performance.
Traditional hiring methods focused on job function and limited skill assessment are less effective than understanding individual motivations.
Hiring decisions should consider future needs and the potential for growth within the role.

Managing the Whole Person

22:44 - 30:50

Leaders who overlook the importance of understanding their employees' motivation are not comfortable managing the whole person.
Companies that nurture and manage the whole person tend to be more successful.
Most people have not been taught how to accommodate and identify the emotional state of others in a business context.
Companies positioning their success as the engine of motivation actually increase risk instead of mitigating it.
There is a beautiful synthesis between focusing on business needs and human needs, they are partners rather than opponents.
Coaching can lead to quick small results but true long-term change requires patience and understanding of human behavior.
The stability of a business depends on maintaining and nurturing its workforce.