Reignite your team - unite through learning

I witnessed a beautiful progression within a team that I just have to share with you that shows the importance of stopping to learn and re-educate on a topic that is draining your team. In this particular instance it was sales/retailing/selling issue. When I first met the owner I intuitively picked up something and within moments and unexpectedly for the owner she confided honestly and authentically in me. She described how disengaged she had been and rightfully distracted with a young family and yet bills still had to be paid and they are recovering from the Covid pandemic that shutdown their business three times. 'They're not selling' she goes onto say ' I have to engage with work again so I can pull the money in and set a good example'. I asked her to delegate some of the load to me, and would she be up for letting me have a go and transform their mindsets. She agreed and we booked a date in the diary, I communicated afterwards with no response and thought maybe the appointment would be cancelled but momentum was not lost and two days before the session was due she confirmed. I punched the air with absolute joy!

Can you imagine what the team thought they were in for, training organised by their boss with a sales rep. Energy was drained, I'm sure I even saw an eye roll as I arrived. I smiled at them all knowingly. One person was standing up and stretching so I said 'how did you know we were going to start this session standing up'. The boss had bought hot drinks and cakes and I was making them stand up. I've got them at 4.30pm in the afternoon, after hours of standing or sitting for long durations and there 'oh another sales course attitude' was running through their minds.

I talked about changing state, transitioning into learning and just how important these next three techniques would be to use going forward. I got them tapping and padding their bodies from calves to heads and face 'notice where feels tense in your body' I say. We move onto breathing once using their hands around their ribs when exhaling to stretch their mid-backs and secondly hands at the chest to guide the breath out while lowering the shoulders and lengthening the neck. Now get comfy, take your shoes off if you want to.

I pull 4 essential oils out of my bag - I've got their attention now I must look like a magician pulling a rabbit out of my hat at this point! I take off the lids and describe four scenarios;

1. Are you feeling a bit foggy-headed and can't see the wood for the trees? Two say yes immediately.

2. Are you aware of the past, and have a massive to-do list ahead of you and struggle to be present? Ums and ah's to this one.

3. Do you need a shock to your system to say get into the zone for learning now? By this stage their engaged so they bypass this one.

4. Do you love learning but then forget it all and struggle to recall? Two more say 'yep, that's me'.

So now I'm aware of my audience, where everyones at and now I can start so I hand Holy Basil (Tulsi) over to group one and Rosemary to group four. They have fun guessing what they are and can't stop smelling them and I say they're your oils for this session, reach for them when you need. If you're curious, group two would have been given Helichrysum (Immortelle) and group three Peppermint. Prior to starting I checked if anyone had epilepsy as some oils can be triggering.

I hand out two printed versions of my powerpoint and pull up another visual on my laptop I share a beautiful quote from Maya Angelou

People may forget what you said, they may even forget what you did but, they will never forget how you made them feel

To feel does not have to be via human touch, it can be 'feeling' heard. This is where the retail training starts to unfold as I state that we are about to translate knowledge into recommendation and adapt our communication based on who we are talking to but first we need to understand our stance.

I share how I used to flush bright red when retailing to customers, I hated the pressure of targets then one day I met a lady who trained me in a course called 'Don't sell, recommend'. It was just one word that changed, the word 'recommend' that I could relate to. After all I was sharing knowledge to help them improve something right. This kickstarted a skill I never thought I'd master and thought it would be a heavy load in my career that switched to something that was light and fruitful. I laugh at the thought of where I started and what role I had got into later in my career which at this time is a Sales & Training Manager!

I watched this team evolve from a disengaged team not retailing, not hitting targets to being open to listening to this style of approaching retailing. I talked through the types of people they are and who they communicate with everyday from friends, to family, to clients. Asking them to acknowledge people in their life but most of all themselves and see which parts of what I was saying resonated most. They had reluctance in parts and weren't fully sure of their own type but could easily identify others. As the training layers progressed and we expanded on how who we are had changed during this time of a global pandemic they started to open up personally. I kept threading in how different people like to shop, how they make decisions and how to engage them. I also reinforced how it was important not to box people in to one way of being but it's important to clock their personality quickly so that you can build rapport and engage them quickly and build from there, then and only then will communication flow and evolve.

The first steps to bringing this training alive are simply to be aware - notice the different personalities and your reaction to them. Session two will build on where you get too.