When I work with sales managers, the first lesson I teach them is about the value of behavioral economics. You must be able to remove your emotions when managing people. Your job is to manage, not just systems or processes such as sales and marketing tasks, but people as well. The problem with this reality, however, is that we tend to be very subjective in this regard when objectivity would be far more valuable. We want to view people in a qualitative manner ("he’s a good guy" or "she’s a nice person"). But are these the qualities you seek in a salesperson? Does "nice" close more deals?

When you evaluate an individual’s job performance, you are actually assessing their work behaviors as they pertain to the specific position and goals, not their personality traits. You are not evaluating the human being but the working professional, and it is crucial that you separate the two.

I’ve worked with managers who lose sleep because they have staff who are under-performing and don’t know how to tackle the challenge. Maybe your kids go to school together or you are members of the same community group, so you worry about the confrontation. These are personal commitments, not professional ones. The concern here is more focused on not offending the offender, when it should be tuned in to achieving the goal of betterment. Think of it this way: When you help an individual to improve, you improve your own value as a manager.

Performance is a reflection of attitude, and attitude is a behavior, not a person. Someone who is perpetually late is not a bad person, but simply an individual with bad behavior. Make it clear that the behavior, not the person, is unacceptable. Look at this worker and say, "I’m not judging you as a human being. I’m judging your behaviors, and what I’m seeing is the choice not to comply with the behaviors required for this job."

It’s not personal. It’s business. So don’t personalize your personnel management tasks. You have a business to run.

Posted In: New Home Sales Management Training

Tags: behavioral economics, management, new home sales management, performance evaluation, personnel management