Hi everybody! Welcome to Mondays with Mike, I’m Mike Staver, which would make sense. Here’s this week’s question:
I’m a leader of a group of 25 salespeople who have recently become negative, complaining, impossible to please crybabies. It makes me crazy! Why do you think they all have gone sour? Any thoughts on what I should do?
So you’ve got a bunch of negative, complaining, impossible to please crybabies. Tell them to knock it off! You’re the boss of them for crying out loud.
Here’s the deal. This is what I do with my Harley. So, when I tell people I ride a Harley you know what they do 100% of the time? They tell me a story about how somebody got killed on a motorcycle. That’s what they tell me 100% of the time. So you know what I tell them? If you’re going to tell me a bad story about being on a Harley or a motorcycle you have to tell me three good stories. You know what, they never tell me the bad story because they don’t want to work that hard.
So the first thing you do with these crybaby, self-entitled salespeople is say “if you have a complaint I’m willing to hear it but I want three positives about your life, your job, or the world you live in if you’re going to share the negative.” That’s first.
Number two. I create a positivity zone in my organization. We start every meeting with wins. We always talk about wins! Now, we’re not always happy and positive. I’m not! Some days I’m just positive I’m in a bad mood. So I want you to start every meeting with wins.
The third thing. If you have a chronic complainer I want you to just call it out. Bring them in, say “you complain constantly, we need to work on that, and I want it to change.” And then work with them and coach them on how to make that better.
The most important thing is to not get sucked into the vacuum of their negativity.
I’m Mike Staver, this is Mondays with Mike, take care.
