A sales leader at a top IT firm called his team together. He wanted to talk about what they could build if they stopped thinking small, and he had been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks. They sell tens of millions between them. He wanted to talk about doubling that.
Four minutes in, he lost them.
Nobody said anything. People just went careful, the way they do when they have worked out that something is about to be asked of them and they are deciding how much to give. He stopped and told them straight that this was not target setting, that their bonus was safe, that he was talking about something bigger than the number on a spreadsheet. It helped a little. Not much.
Why they heard a quota
Your people carry something into that meeting that you cannot talk them out of in one sitting. Every year of their working lives, a bigger number has arrived from above and then become theirs. You say we could be twice what we are. They hear you will be doing twice the work for the same pay. On their evidence, that is the smarter bet.
You may be reading this thinking your team is different. Mine trusts me. Maybe. When did you last check?
The piece he left out
I asked him one question after he told me about it. “Did you tell them what changes for them if this works?”
Long pause. No.
That is where these meetings die. You give the vision for the business and you skip the vision for the person sitting three feet away from you, and then you are puzzled that they are doing sums under the table instead of listening. What does doubling revenue mean for the salesperson in seat four? A bigger role, a bigger book, a path to managing director? Or the same title and more nights?
If you cannot answer that for each of them, the vision stays yours.
What happened when he went back
He did it one conversation at a time, which took him most of two weeks and which he says was the least comfortable fortnight he had had in a while. He told each person what the growth meant for them. Their number. Their role. What opens up if it works.
The next time he got them together, nobody braced. They had questions. One of them said that if they were going to triple he would need a different team structure, which is a complaint and also the best sentence anyone said that day.
The part that feels risky
Telling someone what is in it for them feels exposed, because you are making a promise about a future you do not fully control, and some of you reading this have been burned by exactly that before. I would still do it.
Every leader I have watched do it has been paid back. The ones who wanted more put their hand up. The ones who did not said so, which saves you two years of guessing.
You find out who is actually with you. There is no other way to get that.
Three questions for your week
One. Last time you talked about where the business is going, what did you say it means for them?
Two. Who on your team thinks a bigger number can only cost them?
Three. What would you need to know about each of them to answer that honestly?
Get your free personalized read. The Executive Leverage Scorecard, 15 questions, 3 minutes. You get immediate results, and you see where you stand on getting leverage with yourself and your team.
Raju Panjwani | Founder of Live Masterminds, Inc.
I was at Morgan Stanley for 18 years. I now work with senior leaders in IT services and technology consulting, on becoming the leader the business now needs.