#49: Listen as Alli Rizacos, leadership coach and founder of Alli Rizacos Coaching, discusses the importance of trust when building effective and successful teams. Alli helps leaders understand and defeat imposter syndrome so they can step into being an authentic mentor.
Listen to the episode by clicking play below OR search “the sales lift” wherever you get podcasts.
Important Links:
Alli’s Personal Coaching Website
Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:
Issues with Leadership Training (:49)
Alli has found that there isn’t really a true leadership training program when going from an individual contributor to becoming a leader. Companies take this risk by not training their leaders properly and hoping they figure it out as they go. That’s when imposter syndrome often sets in
These leaders often feel imposter syndrome because they don’t have the training or the support. They feel like they need to figure it out independently, and everyone else must have already figured it out.
60% of folks leave their job because of their manager. She attributes this to a lack of growth opportunity. Their manager didn’t provide any additional value or development opportunity to them other than just being their manager.
The leader’s job is to motivate and empower your team. If you’re a really good manager that they love to work with because you’ve given them these awesome opportunities and feel so grateful that they’ve grown, they’ll want to stay.
Finding Solutions (4:30)
Everyone should have a coach to support them in unlocking their leadership voice and style.
However, it’s very much a balance between training and coaching. Training will give the tactical skills, product training, and the sales process that needs to happen. But it needs to be reinforced with coaching because coaching is a long-term strategy.
Another issue is we put so much on leaders. We’ve given them so much data that they get lost in the data and forecasting that they often forget the human behind these deals, who they are supposed to be coaching.
That’s not to say the data isn’t great because it can help leaders make quick decisions and help their reps efficiently.
Trust as a Foundation (11:28)
If we’re so focused on data, revenue, and performance, it can be at the expense of the person behind it, which doesn’t benefit anyone in the long run.
The basis of being a good leader is about actually spending time listening to, speaking with, and caring about getting to know your team.
People who care so much about the number we know deep down only see us as a number. When you take the time to learn about your team and their families, etc., they start to see someone who actually cares and not just a “manager.”
Metrics vs. Performance (16:16)
If your leadership team only cares about your metrics and not you as a person and the people on your team, it’s going to be pretty hard for you to be an amazing leader.
This runs the risk of skewing values. You’ll be performing, but you will be rewarded for different things: one’s going to reward you for creating a team that trusts each other and has your back. The other will reward you for meeting the quota.
If you start at the bottom, it’s going to be pretty hard to roll that stone up the hill. So you have to start from the top and work your way downward.
Alli’s Bio:
I am a Co-Active Coach and Certified in Positive Psychology. I’ve spent the last 7 years coaching clients from companies like Salesforce, Deliverect, Neilson, Vendition, Reprise, Klue, Plative, Fort Robotics, Rasa, SocialChorus, Unmind, Cinchy, and many others.
I work with sales professionals and leaders who leverage my coaching to unlock their highest performance, create effective teams, and progress their careers. I do this by helping my clients understand who they are (what they value, their strengths, their life purpose) and what gets in their way (imposter syndrome, feeling not good enough, not trusting ourselves, etc).
My clients report feeling more empowered and authentic. They translate that into being able to build trusting teams who feel safe and inspired to perform at their best and hit quota. I’ve spent my entire career in sales and enablement.
I spent 8 years at Salesforce holding various individual contributor and sales leadership roles. I’ve most recently led the creation of a Revenue Enablement function at a tech start-up, which had a transformational impact on their revenue growth (increased win rates from 15% to 40%+ in less than a year).