“I have no idea how to network and it feels hard.” This felt like the truth to the sales professional I was speaking with.
“Really? You reached out to me on LinkedIn, you didn’t know me, I didn’t know you, and now we’re talking. I would say what you did is networking and you have some ideas about how to do it.”
After a very long, silent pause with a deer in the headlights look he said “Yeah, but you’re different.” And he proceeded to tell me all the reasons why what he just did, won’t work again.
It was an interesting conversation. We talked about his career change and why he made the choice he did. We dove into what specific sales goals were, the timelines of those goals and what he thought would happen if he didn’t meet those goals.
I asked him how he felt about his goals. He expressed that he felt afraid, anxious and worried and that he had no idea how to meet those goals. He expressed that if he knew exactly what would work, that he would have already done it, over and over. He’s a doer, I don’t doubt that. And he shared with me all the reasons why he thought he wasn’t qualified for the job.
I asked him about how he felt about this job, this new role and this kind of relational work. He said he liked talking with people and helping them if he could—with the products and services he was selling. He also was proud of himself for striking off in something new and a new professional trajectory.
So I said “You like what you do, you have an idea about what success looks like but you’re afraid because you have no idea how to get there.”
“Exactly.” he said.
“And if you don’t meet your sales goals and you might need to find other work at that point, right? Would you do that then?”
“Of course.”
So, I asked him if he wanted to try or give up?
The shift that happened was palpable even on Zoom. His face filled with color, his eyes lit up and a smile started to emerge. “Try!” he said.
We talked about what occurred to him at that moment and why the sudden change. The gist was that he didn’t see what he was actually working with. He didn’t see before that even though his sales goals were made up benchmarks (that do come with “real-world” consequences) his worry and anxiety was limiting his creativity, his inspiration and desire to to learn. He was operating heads down and in “performance mode.” He was so concerned about implementing a plan—the right one—he was ignoring his ability to figure things out one step at a time.
By the end of our call, he was genuinely excited to get back to exploring how networking and sales could feel easy, not hard. It’s not because we figured out a sure fire way to meet his goals but because he was excited to show up, learn and be engaged.
There are often consequences to coming up short on goals, especially in the workplace. And if and when you know how to perform with action—do it!
But if you’re taking action to mitigate the uncomfortable feelings of not knowing how to get there, you’re missing out on your innate ability to adapt, learn and succeed just by following what feels like the right next step.
Is there one thing that feels hard for you but would change everything if it felt easy?
Recent Comments