“What were you thinking?”
I’ve been asked this question from time to time. I’ll admit, usually at a time when I’ve done something wrong or made a mistake – or at least in the opinion of the person asking the question. So ‘hat in hand’ my response would be “I guess I wasn’t thinking”. (Note to self, let’s not do that again - yuck!)
Isn’t it interesting - someone makes a mistake and the automatic question is, “what were you thinking?” But, achieve something extraordinary and everyone wants to know the steps you took – “what did you DO to get that great result?”. The question has shifted from thinking to doing.
As a learning professional, part of delivering the best sales coaching solutions involves analysis. Analyzing what top performers are doing. After all, if the organization can just get more of their people doing what the top sales performers do, success should follow! I’ve followed this formula more times than I can count. And, voila – it works… sort of… sometimes… but not always. That illusive success strategy of the top performer remains just slightly out of reach for the average. There’s a mystery still unsolved.
And, by the way this isn’t just for sellers. The painter learning to paint looks to the doing of the masters, if only to emulate that brush stroke. The golfer’s stance is the perfect mimic of the pro. And, yet something still is missing.
I learned many years ago, the success formula for a great sales organization is grounded in three things: knowledge, skill and process. It all makes perfect sense. But there’s a piece missing. Call it mindset, attitude, mental game… it’s THINKING and thinking is a habit.
If you really want to know the secrets of your top performers, ask them what they are thinking. When they wake up in the morning, what are they thinking. When they prepare for a meeting, what are they thinking. When the meeting doesn’t go their way (because even top performers fail sometimes), what are they thinking.
Clues are found in language. You’ll hear more 'opportunity than obstacle'; more 'self reflection than blaming of circumstances'; more 'potential than limitation'; more 'what if than why not'. You’ll hear their success habits start with their thinking.
Thinking causes doing. Doing causes results. If you want a different result, change the way your people think and everything else will fall into place.
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