Leading Growth

2Transformation

A TRANSFORMATION IS a “burn the boats on the shoreline” kind of change. It's not an incremental change. It's a revolutionary change, one that suggests the past is no more. When you remove the possibility of going back to the status quo, you eliminate everything but the future.

Your vision is the starting point of your transformation and your path to revenue growth. There are two reasons these transformations are necessary. In some cases, a transformative change initiative is necessary because a sales team is failing and needs to change what they are doing to improve their results. But more often, a sales leader decides to pursue a transformation because they recognize their team has latent potential that will unlock even better outcomes. In both cases, the only way your results change is if you lead your team by articulating and applying your transformative vision.

Transformations are never easy and rarely rapid, movie montages notwithstanding. Transformation isn't something you do by providing your team an email about the change you want or a training program to improve your team's ability to make a cold call, neither of which is likely to drive the behavioral changes necessary to go from good to great to exceptional. In Chapter 1, we looked at resistance to change and several strategies to enroll your team in your vision. By all means, devote your time and energy to inviting people to join the adventure and be part of something big. But no matter how well ...