Help Shift Their Thinking

Your team performs the way they do and get the results they do because of their thinking. Yet, shifting their thinking doesn’t always feel like an easy task. Sometimes it feels like an impossible task.

Here are two secrets to help you influence their thinking. One, start by reviewing with them what they did. This will help you understand their thinking in action. As you know, they do what they do because of their best thinking at the time. Two, once you have discovered what they did, help shift their thinking specific to that situation.

Let’s say your team member shared with you the challenges he had trying to sell additional products to a client. Once he has finished reviewing the situation, you might ask some of the following:

• “What other product(s) might someone in a similar situation need?”
• “What additional product(s) could they have saved money on?”
• “If they had bought another product, how much time would they have saved?”
• “What additional questions could you have asked to help the client even further?”
• “How could you have positioned those additional questions as an advantage to the client?”

Often your team members perform the way they do because they don’t see alternatives. By asking them questions to open up their thinking to other options, you increase the chances that next time they will engage in new more sales productive behaviours.

Who on your team is stuck in a performance rut?

What do you know about the thinking behind their behaviour?

What can you do to help shift their thinking next time you are coaching them?