Why are Monthly Review Meetings such a scary affair for all? Salespeople dread the event which happens once in a month. They hide during the meeting, hoping they would not be asked to present their performance. No such luck. fifteen minutes of torture (bamboo), then relief......
And of course, ZERO value add from the Manager in charge of the team. Reaffirms our belief - do we really needs MBAs to ask the question "sales kitna hua?"
We started asking a fundamental question - why should these monthly meetings be a source of fear? Why can't we run them in such a manner where a team member is inspired to attend, where he actually gains from the meeting?
How?
Dr Spencer Johnson says - "Catch people doing something RIGHT".
Most of the time, we do the exact opposite. We keep catching people doing something wrong. We ask them to do ten things, they do nine things right, they goof up on the tenth thing. What gets all the attention? The mistake.
At an fmcg company, we tried a different technique. we celebrated only the winners. We started the meeting by the question "all those who have sold more than hundred petis (boxes) in the month, pl stand up". Two people stood up. Congratulations. Area Manager called them forward, pl share experiences, what did you do? how did you do it? what can we learn from this? etc. No comment for the other 17 sales people.
Next month, same question - "all those who have sold more than 100 boxes pl stand up". This time 6 people stood up. The Regional Manager was there at the meeting heartily congratulating all the six people. No attention paid to the other 13 people who are by now very very uncomfortable.
Another month goes by. Meeting starts with the same question "all those who have sold more than 100 boxes, pl stand up". Every body stands up. Everybody gets a hearty congratulations. Next question "all those who have sold more than 250 boxes, continue standing, rest of you sit down". 9 stay standing, ten sit down. The sales meet continues.
The region - Punjab. Basic people management techniques like these have taken this soap brand to the No 1 position in the state.
The concept works - Catch people doing something right.
.................story contributed by Kishen Kishore, former Regional Manager (North) at a large fmcg company.
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