Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
Leadership
True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well. —Bill Owens
Leadership is critical to success, whether self-leadership or organizational leadership. Too often, we confuse leadership and management. Both have their place, but leadership enables organizations to achieve.
We provide a variety of programs to support the development of leaders. Whether it is their role in the organization and how to perform. Developing/implementing strategies, setting performance goals and dealing with performance challenges. Or managing performance and maximizing engagement. Or coaching and developing people in their teams.
Our programs and consulting can be offered at the organizational level, working with people in developing a strong leadership capability within the organization.
We also work at the individual level, serving as coaches or mentors to individuals, maximizing their ability to lead and helping them to move forward in their careers.
Leadership Posts
False Choices, A Reprise
Our social media feeds are constantly filled with false choices. Take, for example, every LinkedIn survey you see in your feed, you are asked to choose between very different alternatives, yet all of them apply and we can’t make a real choice. In many of our strategies, we create false choices and priorities. “Which one […]
Sales Manager, What Value Are You Creating?
Sellers know that value creation and realization are critical in engaging our customers. We create value in many different ways—insight we might bring our customers, inciting them to think differently and change, helping them make sense of all the information they try to sort through, helping them navigate their buying journey, helping them make a […]
Would You Work For Elon?
There’s an interesting conversation on LinkedIn, Would You Work For Elon? The conversation is interesting, some folks commenting on the “rightness,” or “wrongness” of what Elon Musk is doing at Twitter or whether they could work at Twitter. There’s no “right” answer to this, it’s interesting to look at the different points of view. He […]
Emotions Are A Core Driver For B2B Buyers, What About Sellers?
We have suspected, for years, that B2B buyers make purchase decisions based on how they feel, rationalizing the decision with data supporting those decisions. Scott Gillum, has just published a fascinating piece of research that goes deeper, asking, “What creates these feelings/emotions, how do we address that?” It’s an important read, ‘Emotions’ don’t drive B2B […]
And We Call This Progress?
This time of year, sometimes we look back to see what’s happened how things have changed and the progress we’ve made. Typically, we look at attainment of annual goals. Questions like, “Will we hit our numbers? Could we have done more or what cause us to miss? Have we built a stronger team, are we […]
Onboarding New Managers
We spend lots of time and money focusing on onboarding new sellers. We provide training, tools, content to reduce their ramp time. Managers spend time helping them become productive. Ironically, we provide very little in the way of onboarding new managers, particularly new front line sales managers. Typically, the process is: “Lisa, congrats on moving […]
You Can’t Opt Out Of Accountability!
In every job and role, we are held accountable. It may be for certain goals. It may be in the ways we conduct ourselves, working with our peers, customers, and others. It may be how we do our work and with who we do it. Accountability applies to everyone–our customers have things, for which they […]
Coaching In The Middle….
Every few years, we revisit the concept of, “Who do we coach?” I’m starting to see a series of articles re-arguing that managers get the greatest return on their coaching time by “coaching in the middle.” The argument being, when we look at sales performance, we tend to see a normal distribution, or the classic […]
When The Going Gets Tough
For the past several years, news gets tougher and tougher. First the pandemic, we and our customers had to discover new ways of working, engaging and moving forward. “Virtual” became the watchword for how things got done–whether it involved internal collaboration, partners, or customer engagement. Just as we started to learn how to manage in […]
On Performance Planning…..
Performance planning is one of the most powerful tools for managers and their people. Yet, too often, I don’t see organizations fully exploit the power of performance plans and the performance planning/management process. Too often, we view this process as “something HR makes us do.” As a result, we take whatever template HR provides, fill […]
Leadership Testimonials
“I was asked to take the role of managing a sales organization. Having no prior sales experience, the task seemed quite daunting. Thankfully, David Brock was there to give me direction and encouragement. Yes, David helped me understand the sales process; however, more importantly, David provided me with firm, but supportive critique that has proved invaluable to me. David never soft-pedaled his approach with me. Instead, he spoke to me as an executive, and expected me to live up to the call. In addition to direction, David provided me with the encouraging words that I needed to believe in myself, and that I could be successful in my new role. “ Scott Dixon, Managing Director
“Dave sets himself apart in the industry with his ruthless focus on preparation and sales discipline. Dave's mentorship and coaching is designed to ensure I focus on the most qualified opportunities, bring exceptional value to each customer interaction, and win more deals. He has been an indispensable mentor and transformational influence.” Mary Grogan Strain, Business Development Manager
“Dave Brock literally wrote the book on sales management! Dave provides critical insights that are thought-provoking and directional. Better yet, Dave not only provides a different perspective, but he also has the ability to work with clients to build solutions that positively impacts sellers and coaches alike.” Jim Wood, Vice President of Sales
One of the greatest gifts a coach can give to a coachee is to help them think more accurately about themselves, about their challenges, and about the various ways they go about solving those challenges. But Dave’s gift is something more. So much so that Dave’s helped me to fundamentally shift the way I think to begin with. This process has resulted not only in increased performance, but in a continual learning process that hasn’t stopped since our first coaching session. It’s an honor to call him my coach and a privilege to continually learn from him, even on the days between our coaching sessions! - Nate Tutas
When I was about to move into my first sales management role I reached out to Dave after I had read his book that really resonated with me. It was fantastic to have Dave as a coach and sounding board during those first months and it really put me on the right track to succeed in the sales management role and also set the foundation for me to progress from that. Didrik Moe, EMEA General Manager