Celebrate Progress

Here’s something extremely useful I picked up from an old HBR. Each year it seems they suggest ten breakthrough ideas for the coming twelve months. Last year’s first was a belter.

What really motivates workers – understanding the value of progress looked at what helped provide us with “best days” at work. These highs were in part identified by the mood of a respondent being “buoyant”.

It’s a fascinating insight and one that all salespeople, and most tellingly, sales managers can readily put into practice. Here’s a key takeaway;

“scrupulously avoid impeding progress by changing goals autocratically, being indecisive or holding up resources”

So on 76% of such “great workdays”, progress was cited as a key factor. At the opposite end of the scale, a ‘setback’ often defined a “worst day”. In short;

“celebrate progress, even the incremental sort”