Once a team has established trust, they have powerful potential to progress to a higher level – accountability among teammates.

In being accountable to each other, everyone takes on the responsibility of leading the team towards the accomplishment of the team’s goals. At this level, team effectiveness and efficiency is multiplied in numerous ways:

• “Buy-in” or “ownership” of the team increases dramatically
• Team members develop skills and abilities that contribute to the team and enhance other areas
• New and innovative solutions are generated
• Team members focus more on the team’s goals
• Team members provide feedback, accept constructive criticism and address issues head on

In many organisations, employees are accountable to their managers and to themselves – introduce accountability amongst teammates and enjoy the rewards.

Trust in others and in one’s self is developed only when team members are interdependent – they are respectful, encouraging, loyal, and hard working.

When you display trust in others, showing them that you believe in them and that you have confidence in their skills and abilities to contribute to the team success, they will trust and encourage you to use your skills and abilities to help reach the goal.

For team members who may be struggling with trust, challenge them to let go of some past thoughts, habits, attitudes and activities causing these issues.

A team strengthened by trust minimises stress, eliminates misunderstandings and saves time as you get more done. It also works on the other side of the equation – customers come to believe your organisation keeps its promises and genuinely cares about their needs.

Keep an eye out for next week’s blog post on how to generate trust with accountability

1. Asking a prospect or customer to take action is the natural conclusion to an effective sales presentation. Closing isn’t a separate or isolated part of the sales process – closing is a series of small steps that occur throughout the entire presentation process.
2. People don’t just buy based on logic or fact. They buy to gain a benefit or avoid a loss, or to gain or avoid a feeling. In other words they are motivated to take action because of an emotion; when salespeople create this emotion using sound and logical sales processes, asking for the order is easy.
3. The buying decision is like a see-saw. As the salesperson progresses through the sales presentation, more and more benefits, and reasons to buy add weight to their side of the see-saw, tilting the balance in the salesperson’s favour. When sufficient evidence or weight has been built up the customer is ready to buy.
4. On many occasions, prospects and existing customers will be ready to buy before the salesperson completes the presentation. They can, therefore, respond positively and give buying signals before the salesperson expects them to.
5. At the end of every sales presentation there is likely to be speed bumps called stalls. These are caused by the natural hesitancy that prospects and customers have about making a ‘wrong’ decision. They need reassurance to get over the speed bumps before they proceed.
6. A hard-sell approach, driven by salespeople only interested in getting sales at all costs, kills more sales then it closes. Prospects and customers know when the salesperson is focused on their own desires and needs rather than their customer’s needs.

New data suggests that the concept of Employer of Choice is taking on new dimensions in the minds of many as employment markets tighten and economic concerns remain front of mind for most organisations and their leaders.

‘Employer of choice’ is a term often used to describe organisations that are the preferred or most desired to work for in an industry or sector. Through the L.E.A.D. Survey, Leadership Management Australia has looked at the concept on several occasions over the past five years to identify what organisations can and should do to present as an Employer of Choice in their industry or sector in order to attract and retain talent.

Latest results suggest that Business Leaders and Senior Managers have an expanding list of expectations when it comes to seeking an Employer of Choice. Family/life friendly workplace practices has rocketed into the top five factors along with the organisation actively seeking input and feedback from its staff, presumably including its leaders and senior managers:

Middle Managers and Supervisors are also placing increasing focus and attention on family/life friendly workplace practice. This suggests that in tough economic times, it is a person’s life outside of work that suffers most in the drive to sustain or survive:

From a Non-Managerial/Supervisory Employee perspective, little has changed in recent times with one key difference in their list of Employer of Choice factors showing up – is a place where your can have fun and enjoy working. In difficult times, being able to enjoy work and have fun is a coping strategy and enables the team to ‘soldier on’ even if things look somewhat bleak. Recognition and reward, investment in learning and development of people and having passionate and engaging management also play a prominent role in employees seeking organisation for which they would happily work and apply their discretionary effort.

Interestingly, when asked whether they feel they have the right balance between work and other aspects of their lives:

• 59% of business leaders and senior managers felt they had the right work/life balance

• 60% of middle managers and supervisors felt they had the right work/life balance

• 65% of non-managerial employees felt they had the right work/life balance

The connection between Employer of Choice and perceptions of the right work/life balance is clear – even in a tough/patchy/soft employment market, people will only continue to work for organisations that are able to provide for their needs.

Employers of Choice routinely and consistently deliver on their people’s needs and in return they enjoy a stable, productive, engaged and empowered workforce that is focussed on achievement for the organisation as much as for themselves – great payoffs for focusing on becoming an Employer of Choice.

What should leaders and managers do?

• Take the time to understand what the new shopping list looks like when it comes to employees hunting for an employer of choice. Identify what is possible for the organisation to provide and what it is prepared to do to attract and retain top talent.
• Pinpoint the extent to which the organisation can trade on its offer and performance in the most important employer of choice areas. Identify strengths and make these a focus in the presentation of the organisation to prospective employees.
• Don’t be afraid to showcase other employer of choice factors than just individual or personally-focused factors – in a tight contest for talent where all else may be equal, the more altruistic elements may just make the difference between getting and losing the talent.