Courage Is the Single Most Important Quality of Leadership#
Courage is the single most important quality of leadership. And courage comes from acting courageously whenever courage is required.
Sales management is a tough job. It demands a particular kind of person — someone who can keep going when results are down, when the team is shaky, and when the comfortable choice is to retreat. The decision to stay the course — to “keep on keeping on” no matter how tough it gets — is the true mark of courage and character.
Persistence Is Courage in Action#
“Persistence is the one quality that will inevitably guarantee your success. And persistence is the demonstration of courage.”
Two implications:
- Persistence is not stubbornness. It is the daily, visible expression of courage.
- Every time you persist when retreat would be easier, you are practicing the leadership quality that compounds over a career.
Self-Control Is Necessary#
It is lonely at the top as a sales manager. Unlike your salespeople, you do not have the luxury of sharing your problems, fears, and concerns with the team:
- Keep your misgivings about the business climate to yourself.
- Keep your doubts about other people to yourself.
- Keep personal worries away from the floor.
Sharing your fears with your sales staff will only demoralize them. Once expressed, those fears spread — and you cannot un-tell them.
The discipline of internal pressure with an external smile is part of the job description.
“Smile even though your heart is breaking.”
However you feel inside, you must discipline yourself to be cheerful and confident on the outside. This is a key requirement of leadership.
The Reward at the Top#
Sales management can be richly rewarding. Many of the top executives in the world’s biggest companies came up through sales management. They earned their reputations on the battlefield of competitive sales activity — the same battlefield you stand on every day.
You need courage every day to face the inevitable ups and downs of the profession. There is no version of this job in which courage becomes optional.
Pray for Peace, Hope for War#
A military maxim that captures something essential about career growth:
“Soldiers pray for peace, but hope for war.”
Soldiers do not want war — nobody wants the pain and suffering involved. But soldiers know that rapid promotion through the ranks is only possible during war.
The application to sales management:
- The more problems you are wrestling with right now…
- The bigger your difficulties…
- The tougher the competition…
- The greater your challenges…
…the more likely it is that you are on the fast track to growth, development, and success.
You cannot advance quickly when everything is going smoothly. You can only advance and move up by contending against a sea of troubles and overcoming them.
When the situation is at its worst, there are great opportunities for you to learn and grow.
A Closing Reflection#
Brian Tracy ends with these lines from Dean LeBaron Russell Briggs of Harvard:
Do your work. Not just your work and no more, but that little bit more for the lavishing’s sake — that little bit more that is worth all the rest. And if you suffer, as you will, and if you doubt, as you must, do your work. Put your heart into it, and the sky will clear. Then out of your very suffering and doubt will be born the supreme joy of life.
You Have It Within You#
You have within yourself the ability to become one of the great sales managers of your generation.
When you practice the tools, techniques, and ideas in this book — recruit slowly, train deeply, supervise with clarity and consideration, motivate with money and recognition, discipline with kindness, and lead by example — you get better and better.
- Your sales force becomes better, stronger, more capable.
- The numbers follow.
- You will achieve all of your goals in your business life.
The pivotal skill is the sales manager. The vital quality is courage. The work is the rest of your career.
Action Exercises#
- Identify the situation in your current work that demands the most courage right now. Decide on the next concrete action — and take it within 24 hours.
- Adopt the daily practice of “smile even though your heart is breaking.” Notice what changes in your team’s energy after one week of unwavering visible composure.