Leading with empathy

- One of the most successful senior sales managers at HubSpot hires carefully for key attributes. Empathy and honest interest in HubSpot's products are priorities. These enables sales reps to connect authentically with prospects and customers. There is much behavioral questioning during the hiring process. He is clear that in this new environment the best sales teams collaborate well and the lone wolf approach is not successful. As an executive or manager, adapt your leadership style and approach, responding to new conditions and processes which means moving away from command and control type directives from the top. Sales leadership at HubSpot focuses on culture tenants that promote psychological safety, open discussion and collaboration. Traditional, fear-based and ego driven managerial tactics have limited effectiveness and block empathy such as by putting people on the spot in sales meetings. Sales leaders are proactively transitioning to coaching approaches that emphasize listening, observing and enabling. So, recognize how new conditions impact your sales team members using empathy to understand what they are experiencing and how best to engage and support them. How are the adjusting to the new faster pace of marketplace developments with more frequent product and service updates? Do they feel prepared and empowered to be able to respond quickly? Actions speak louder than words, so set the example by modeling relevant behavior to confirm how you want team members to act and so they can feel safe to follow your lead as habits change. Look out for and utilize appropriate coaching moments to demonstrate new process elements and highlight and reinforce points. With an empathetic approach, you can also identify how to help each team member transition and connect by tapping into their perspectives and ways of seeing with their world, their interactions with prospective customers and how they develop relationships. Each person on your team is different. You will be able to excel as a leader when you recognize that and support them individually and enable them to get comfortable with new routines and responsibilities. Help them practice empathy to improve their interactions with other team members as well as how they communicate and create meaningful connections with customers. It's up to you to show them how it's done.