Ten Phrases Only Bad Managers Say

(This post was originally published by the Market Research Executive Board and the Communications Executive Council but we have updated it from the sales perspective…)

For many years I looked to Bill Lumbergh from Office Space as my “what not to say” as a manager tutor (“I’m gonna need you to…”).

But we now have an updated list of phrases that should never pass a manger’s lips thanks to workplace expert Liz Ryan.  She recently blogged the 10 things only bad managers say.  Among the most groan-inducing:

“I don’t pay you to think.”
“Who gave you permission to do that?”
“In these times, you’re lucky to have a job at all.”

What’s the common denominator behind these infuriating catchphrases? Clearly, it’s an overbearing approach to management, which is guaranteed to stifle any agility, innovation or creativity. Years back, this might have been deemed a minor irritant – a trivial complaint that employees’ whimsical ideas weren’t being taken seriously. But as more and more deals today become stuck in ‘no decision’, we’ve got to rely on creativity and innovation in order to get them to close.

So, what do good managers do differently? Our research shows that, in addition to basic management fundamentals, successful managers are great coaches and innovators, and they enable this innovation in their reps.

Top performing sales managers are skillful in each of the three critical components of sales innovation: investigating obstacles, creating solutions, and sharing best practices. Here are some resources to help build your managers skills in these areas:

Help managers and reps understand how to uncover obstacles in the customer’s decision process with our Investigative Questioning Toolkit.
Help managers break their biases and generate new ideas with our Ideation Toolkit.
Reinforce manager innovation skills through peer cohorts – see how Bombardier did this.
Determine how effectively your managers are leading sales innovation efforts with our Manager Innovation Self Assessment.