When others look up to you, a pressure begins to weigh on your shoulders.
If you’ve ever had someone put you on a pedestal, you know what kind of pressure I’m talking about. It’s the pressure to always do right by them. More than anything, you don’t want to let them down. It’s a great motivator to be on your A-Game, but it can take over if you’re not careful.
When I taught Furniture University, the sales class at ABF, I had to be on point or my students would call me out. We would have “walk-in” customers that weren’t scheduled show up during a training session asking to buy furniture. If no other sales person was present to take the appointment, I would have to do it in front of 10+ students hawking my every move. If everything I said didn’t match up with everything I’d been teaching them, my credibility would be flushed down the drain.
The motivation helped me improve my selling abilities, but it could have easily ruined me.
There were times I slipped up and there were times students stumped me with difficult questions. Instead of faking it, I chose to be open about my responses. They could appreciate my honesty when I said I didn’t have all the answers. That idea gave them confidence to understand they didn’t have to know everything to be good at sales.
Had I been the guy with all the answers, many of them would have taken me as a benchmark and told themselves they couldn’t do it until they accumulated as much knowledge as me.
It was hard to admit I didn’t have all the answers, especially since I was their teacher. But all phonies come to light at some point, it’s just a matter of when. And if you’re someone that teaches or leads, you’ll crush the spirits of those you’ve influenced when they find out you’ve been full of hot air. Not only will your reputation be washed away, so will the ideas you taught.
People can see through a phony like smoke-tinted window. They can’t see exactly what’s going on behind it, but they know not to trust it. That lack of confidence is the difference in how people view you. If you’re in a position of influence, it’s the difference between having people follow you and having people listen to you. Lots of people will listen, but not many will follow.
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How do you stay on point in front of your team?
Leave me a comment or chat with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great week!
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