Not every work conversation is a fun one. Maybe a rep is missing their numbers or struggling to manage a key client. As a sales leader, you can’t avoid these conversations forever. But you can change how you approach them so they feel less tense and more like a chance to get back on track.
A post on The Center for Leadership Studies blog says it’s important to create accountability that doesn’t feel confrontational. You want your feedback to be developmental rather than performative or punitive. So, how do you do that? We share tips from the blog post in this issue of PromoPro Daily.
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Don’t draw conclusions before getting context. The post says leaders sometimes arrive with conclusions instead of observations, which makes the decision feel predetermined. Other times, employees may not fully understand what’s expected of them. Accountability feels unfair if they’re not given a chance to course correct.
Don’t make people feel evaluated. It’s better, according to the post, to help them feel engaged. You want them to ask, “What can I learn from this?” rather than “How do I protect myself?” The post points out that when accountability feels like a threat, employees prioritize minimizing immediate consequences over building sustainable capability. Trust erodes and performance stagnates.
Don’t periodically check in. The Center for Leadership Studies says accountability should be a continuous alignment mechanism instead of a periodic evaluation event. It is something that continues after the formal discussion ends, rather than something resolved inside it. This requires leaders treating performance as a co-owned context rather than a one-sided judgment.
Start with shared reality-building. This means aligning on what was expected versus what was understood before discussing outcomes. The post recommends leaders ask questions that surface gaps in interpretation before they harden into performance judgments. Examples might include “What did you think success looked like for this project?” or “What constraints or challenges affected your approach?”
Make expectations explicit and re-visitable. Shared ownership does not dilute accountability, the post says. Rather, it makes accountability more precise and actionable by ensuring both parties know what good looks like under changing conditions. Leaders should treat goals as evolving contracts, clarifying success measures at the outset and revisiting them regularly as circumstances shift.
Don’t just point out what went wrong in your performance conversations. Ask questions and listen to the other person’s perspective. Make sure you both agree on what was expected and revisit goals as things change. The conversation may still be uncomfortable but it can also be useful and give sales reps the support they need to learn and improve.
Compiled by Audrey Sellers
Source: A blog post from The Center for Leadership Studies.
