I offended a sales rep

And this one time... on the sales floor....

I offended a rep. Uh oh. 🙇

Okay and truth be told, maybe it happened more than just one time. And it was more than just one rep.

I've made several boneheaded moves as a sales leader where I said things without really thinking.

Something as simple as

👎 starting off a meeting with "Hey guys..." OR

👎 on a forecast call when a rep is predicting a big deal to come in...."don't tease me unless you're going to please me" (learned that one from a former Sales Manager BTW)

What was I thinking? Clearly, I wasn't.

I didn't INTEND to offend anybody. And then the rep got offended.

The intention doesn't matter. As a leader, nobody cares about your intention. We need to be better leaders and step it up.

I had one Director tell me one time, "People are just too sensitive these days. We need to create a POLICY where people aren't allowed to get offended."

Uh, that doesn't fly. As leaders, we need to be better than this. We need to be more sensitive (yes I just wrote that).

💡 The learning lesson here is that as leaders we need to

✅ remember that our words matter. We are the example.

✅ Be sensitive to how our message might be PERCEIVED by people on our teams before we say it or write it. Perception is reality.

✅ Learn to apologize when we offend someone and take responsibility for OUR words and actions and improve and get better.

Are ya feeling me?