It kind of flew under the radar, but back around 2010 Google ran an internal study called Project Aristotle, trying to figure out what actually made their best teams outperform the rest. It (of course) involved data analysis of not just their own internal teams, but teams outside of Google, across business, sports and creative arenas. They expected to find it came down to talent, or tenure, or some clever mix of skills, or maybe the best teams had one particular star carrying the weigh. Instead, the single biggest factor was something they ended up calling “psychological safety”. The teams that performed best were the ones where people felt safe speaking up, disagreeing, admitting a mistake, or challenging an idea without fear of being punished or embarrassed for it.
I’ve seen this at work with sales teams and the same concept proves true.
There’s a story about Miles Davis that gets at the same idea from a completely different direction. Davis was known for being bluntly honest with the musicians in his band, and he expected the same honesty back. His guitarist John McLaughlin once said of him, “He never told you what to play. He would throw you curveballs to make you think about it. He always wanted to get your honest response. He was the most blunt, honest person I ever met.”
Notice what Davis wasn’t doing. He wasn’t handing out sheet music and demanding it be played note for note. He was creating a space where honest, sometimes uncomfortable, creative response was not just allowed but expected.
Sales teams work the same way. You can manage a process. You can hand someone a call flow and a set of stage gates, pull out a rubric and rigidly hold them accountable. Anytime I see this approach, the result back is compliance. Reps start doing the minimum just to “check the box.” Compliance becomes so paramount that the actual goal of sales revenue becomes secondary to the process. What you don’t get is a rep who tells you honestly that a deal is dying, or that the pitch isn’t landing, or that they disagree with the approach, because they don’t feel safe saying so. The vicious cycle then goes on.
Salespeople don’t need to be managed into following steps. They need to be led into thinking for themselves, the same way Davis pushed his band, with honesty going both directions. That’s the real difference between a manager and a leader. One builds compliance. The other builds a team that will actually tell you the truth in order to make real, actual progress towards the goal.