When we think of being curious, it’s easy to link that with questions…discovery. But did you know that curiosity also dissolves tension, and ensures that an already fraught situation is more easily neutralised? As a relationship building tool – customers, colleagues, team members, leaders, partners – it’s a superpower. One we would do well to cultivate and strengthen.
The challenges are many this year for salespeople and leaders:
- Finding staff during Omicron
- Meeting customers during Omicron
- Planning when uncertainty reigns supreme
- Supply chain disruption
- Service interruption
- Managing remote teams….again
The list goes on.
Depending on which state of Australia you’re in, these frustrations may be relatively new. For others, they’ll be all too familiar. Regardless, they’re real and they can cause us to behave in ways that aren’t in our personal, professional, customer’s or organisation’s best interests. As sales leaders especially, it’s important for us to put principles above personalities and model behaviour we’d like to see in our teams.
For salespeople who are fearful they may not make their targets, our job will be to keep them focused on what they can do, why that matters and support them in the execution with solid accountability, coaching and enablement. Imagine what taking a curious perspective might unlock in the above scenarios:
• Finding staff during Omicron: Eg:“I wonder what the opportunity is here to realign our roles to our company purpose?”
• Meeting customers during Omicron: Eg: “What will make our customers comfortable? What are they grappling with that I can support them with?”
• Planning when uncertainty reigns supreme: “If I set myself up for having a plan for A, B • Supply chain disruption: Eg: “What are the problems our products solve for our customers? What are all of the ways I can help them beyond product? How could not having access to our product actually help us both to create a totally new solution together?”
• Service interruption: Eg: “What could the downtime give us that we otherwise wouldn’t have access to?”
• Managing remote teams….again: Eg: “What are all of the ways my team finds works best when working from home? How can we use remote working to bring us even closer together as a team?”
Curiosity changes the way we see things, and how we find solutions. It fundamentally says that “I want to explore because I don’t have all the answers….AND that is part of the adventure”. So I’m curious: how could being curious change your approach to your role, your team and your relationships with others?
