Channel feedback
Effective salesmanship allows people to reach their own conclusions about a concept or product. You won’t make people believe what you want them to believe. You have to lay out your case and let them reach you with questions or feedback until they’re satisfied with the answer.
It goes beyond the oft-referenced open-door policy or personally answering your e-mail or walking the halls each day. Those are effective mediums for engaging employees and initiating dialogue on your idea or plan, but the best leaders use those interaction opportunities to continue building their case for change.
“A manager or employee that is not generally sold on a concept is not going to be able to convincingly engage other people,” Bicket says. “You have to make sure that not only the public dialogue but also the private dialogue with oneself or with colleagues confirms that they get it. You have to surround your managers with your message because everybody must be given the respect of learning where we’re taking the company and why.”
Bicket concluded all of his initial barnstorming speeches with his telephone number and e-mail address as a means of gaining some basic feedback. But really what you’re attempting to do by setting up feedback channels is to develop relationships with your people. You can’t have every moment of every day wrapped up with employees who want to pull you aside and critique your latest communication. But you do want a corporate culture in which employees aren’t afraid to pull managers aside — all the way up to the executive team — and air out an idea or concern.
“You have to do it face to face,” Bicket says. “Quite frankly, I’ll give myself credit for getting some things right directionally. But the fine-tuning, many times, came from sitting down with me or catching me in the hallway or the next time I’m at a given location and talking things over. I’ve had many great mentors in my life, and many of them have told me that the most reliable truths a leader will hear will come from their team — the people who are closest to the customer and closest to production realities. If you start those relationships and don’t maintain them, don’t follow up with them, you’ll start to lose credibility.”