We all know how important it is to prospect consistently and to do the work before you present so you are well-prepared every time you see a potential client. The business of sales is largely about being connective, highly relational, and consistently appearing helpful to potential clients until they think of you as “in their inner circle.”

Whether it’s criticism, embarrassment or unresolved conflict, anything threatening credibility, self-worth or identity can trigger defensiveness. High-level leaders aren’t immune to wanting to shield themselves from vulnerability. The first form of self-protection is defensiveness. Rather than protecting the leader, defensiveness has the opposite effect: exposing insecurities and making the leader seem arrogant or unapproachable. Here are four ways leaders can stop being defensive and create a more collaborative culture.

Micromanagement. We have all experienced it – and if you are a leader, you have mostly likely done it. Yet no one ever says that great leaders are micromanagers. If it isn’t effective and we don’t like it done to us, why do we micromanage? Not all the items on this list will affect or afflict all leaders in the same way, but all are among the reasons why we take over, step in, or “try to help.”

This is the glorious time of year when most leaders are engulfed in budgets, planning, meetings, and deadlines. With less than six weeks until 2023, let’s dive into a few things to check off or add to your list. Always Start by Looking Back Data is your friend so take the time to review your performance metrics, leading indicators, pipeline performance, and how accurate your revenue projections were/are.

Recently, I had an interesting conversation with an executive. It was a large organization. By most measures, it was extremely successful. Year after year of good (perhaps not great) revenue growth, good profitability. They checked all the boxes the financial markets tend to care about and it was reflected in their stock price. But the executive was uncomfortable. As we peeled back his concerns and started looking at the data, we discovered some interesting things:

(By Alec Drake) The holy grail of inventory and yield management is to reach sellout at preferred prices when demand is extinguished. This pursuit of maximum revenues is a core responsibility for sales managers selling their OTA inventory. When demand is not there to drive inventory pressure and revenue, we should intensify our focus on unsold inventory (Spoilage).

Recognize the Humanity in Others as You Navigate Workplace Conflict To effectively navigate workplace conflict, prioritize connecting with the human at the center of it all. Begin by acknowledging the situation and expressing your optimism about finding a resolution collaboratively.

You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers. Hi, I’m Kevin Eikenberry, answering the questions that new leaders ask us. Actually, it’s our goal to help all leaders be more productive, successful, and confident. Today, I am answering a question about how much leaders talk. Are you ready? Let’s get started. Lots of leaders have asked me this question: Kevin. Am I talking too much?

Any treatment of the topic of power in the workplace is sure to generate energy. (OK, sorry for the bad pun.) Add in guidance that the pursuit of power might be healthy and lead to personal, group and organizational success, and, well, the discussions are sure to become high-voltage. (Stop me.) Yet, I argue that your relationship with power — specifically cultivating power — is essential for your success and the success of the people around you.

Could you be solving the wrong sales problem? In other words, is the culprit behind a lack of sales the real issue or an easy “scapegoat,” which is masking the real problem? If this is occurring in your business, or any business for the matter, it could spell trouble. Trying to “fix” something that isn’t broken only to have the real problem go unaddressed is a recipe for disaster.

Mindfulness, a key component of Buddhist philosophy, has become quite in vogue today. Get on the right path by asking yourself one question. As a leader, it is critical to be mindful and present in interactions with your many stakeholders throughout the day. While this is very easy to understand in theory, it is incredibly difficult to do in practice.

Organizations, to their detriment, often overlook opportunities to spotlight exemplary behavior—ethical behavior in particular. Increasingly remote workforces, with limited non-essential communication, likely worsen the situation. And the situation as it stands isn’t that great. Most of the time, the focus of employee recognition is not on ethics but on metrics related to the bottom line, or subjective perceptions of overall performance.

This Nano Tool for Leaders from Wharton Executive Education offers techniques for developing an “awe mindset” for greater creativity, improved collaboration, and better decision-making. Nano Tools for Leaders® — a collaboration between Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management — are fast, effective tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes, with the potential to significantly impact your success.

As a kid one summer, I captured grasshoppers in a glass jar. I was transfixed watching the mechanics of them jump. I remember the ping as they flung themselves against the tin lid I’d punched holes in so they could breathe. Before going to bed, not wanting to wake up to a jarful of dead grasshoppers, I removed the lid, fully expecting them to hop to freedom. But the oddest thing happened. They could pop right out, but they only jumped as high as the lid had been before I removed it. I finally had to dump them from the jar to save their lives.

I hear this a lot from business leaders — and it’s always kind of sheepish: “Chris, how do we actually make a sales process?” And I get it. Sales processes don’t just happen. They don’t just appear out of thin air. Instead, growing companies realize that they don’t actually have a sales process in place, so they either let their sales reps do their own thing — or they cobble something together that pleases no one.