Leigh Ashton’s Post

Sales leaders need to get comfortable with emotions... If you're having a one-to-one conversation with one of your team and they start to cry, what do you do? Do you get uncomfortable or embarrassed and suggest they go to the bathroom? This is the very worst thing you can do. You're sending them out of the room where they felt safe enough to open up their emotion and you've just sent them away. They push their pain back down into their body and return with the pretence that all is okay. When someone in your team gets upset and shares something that is painful for them, that's a sign they feel safe with you. They trust you enough to share their deepest pain. That's a huge honour. Sending them away is a rejection. When somebody gets upset just shut up and listen. Don't try and fix anything. Avoid that overriding desire to sort things out for them because that's not what it's about. Let them open up and release what has become too difficult to hold inside. Only when it's released can the emotions start to dissipate and create the space for them to move on. Be sure to have water and a packet of tissues for all one-to-one conversations. You never know when you might need them and it makes it so much easier for your sales person to stay in that space of release.