Successful Sales People Play Lego
As a kid, you may have had a set of Lego blocks. Your Lego Set had blocks and bricks of different sizes, shapes and colors. When you assembled correctly, the collage of Lego blocks morphed into an attractive building, vehicle, toy or even a person.
Most sales people play seesaw rather than Lego.
We sales people are often told to lead a “balanced life.” Balance to many sales people means moving the fulcrum of balance so we can put more weight, more focus on our sales performance side our see saw life. Yes, let’s admit it, we sale people have a tendency to value our personal worth and success based on our sales achievements and ignore what is on the other end of the see saw. We find while trying to maintain this “balanced life” with a sales performance bias can be tricky, stressful and can even lead to burnout.
Successful sales people do not strive for a “balanced life.” They realize that living on a see saw is never easy as the fulcrum is continually moving because of the constant change of daily life. With our focus on sales performance, and the fulcrum of life moves, some other aspect of our “balanced life” must give or be sacrificed to keep this biased balance towards our sales performance. If you have ever played on a see saw, too much weight on one end can catapult the opposite side right off the see saw, causing both sides to end up in a crash back to earth!
It is easy to visualize what could be catapulted with an oversized weighting on your sales performance – your health, family, relationships, time, holidays, and your attitude to life. Let’s face, trying to find balance makes for a wild see saw ride.
Successful sales people have learned to get off the stressful see saw and to play Lego. They understand their life is like playing Lego. Let’s look at how you might play Lego in 2015 and lead a more fulfilling life as a sales person.
Like the person who enjoys Lego as a hobby, sales people also enjoy the honorable profession of selling. As Lego can be a passion for many, so too is the sales profession for us. Our sales profession provides us purpose and meaning. We find as salespeople, we are putting the Lego blocks of our positive attitude, professional knowledge, skills, competence and personality together to create a work life that is satisfying for both us and the people we serve.
A Lego kit comes with instructions that help a child to assemble a complete and attractive toy from all the Lego blocks found in the kit. These instructions guide the assembler to integrate all the different Lego blocks into a functional Lego toy. Sales people who play Lego play don’t need a new set of instructions for every situation of their life. Their sales leadership is built on the solid bricks of their values, their integrity, and their character. Lego players sleep well at night.
Sales people who play Lego have an integrated life. They realize there is not one huge oversized block called work that makes a well constructed Lego, but it is the integration of many blocks of different sizes, shapes and colors that lead to a satisfying “Lego Life.”
At different chapters of life, the sales person may find the size, shape and colors of each block may change to create a new version of his/her “Lego Life.” But rather than trying to balance the stressful seesaw, the Lego player can review each brick of life, add new bricks, discard bricks that don’t fit, resize or re color the bricks, and add new bricks that lead to a newer more satisfying life.
2014 is coming to a close. This past year I had about 50 bricks of 9 different colors. Not all my bricks were used and some were even discarded or replaced through the months of 2014. But I was never on the seesaw. I enjoyed my integrated “Lego Life” this year and that led to significant growth in my relationships, learning, profession, and leadership.
I entrust you had a successful year. I hope you grew as a leader. Why not take some time to review, reflect, color and size up the “Lego Life Bricks” for an integrated, successful more significant 2015?
You too can play Lego in 2015. Download the Successful Sales People Play Lego sheet by clicking on this link. I have listed out some of the bigger more colorful bricks you may have in your 2015 life in this sheet so you can enjoy playing Lego for a successful, significant 2015. Enjoy!
Photo credit:
pasukaru76 via photopin cc
Bill Ward's Brickpile via photopin cc