***Quick note that I had to resend this as my previous send got mucked up 🤦***
I had managers going back to my high school summer job days. From one manager to the next, the interaction never changed. They would watch for mistakes, criticize, hover, blame, command, push, humiliate, and generally make my life hell. Seemed like they all studied the same book on management which required people to boss around their underlings.
In my first tech job, I experienced a new type of manager, the absentee manager. It was management by not doing anything. He was a nice enough, certainly did help when asked, but for the most part he either hid in his cubicle or was in meetings. I just did things until either they were done, or someone got mad because I was doing things the wrong way.
The company then made some major organizational changes and I found myself under a new manager that had previously been managing our key product line. I was skeptical as I had never had any prior interactions with this person and did not know if they understood the work I did. Also my experience showed that I would either end up with a micromanager or and absent manager.
Before the change was official though, I got a message from my new manager to get introduced and chat. I scheduled some time and looked forward to yet another boring, pointless meeting where I would be told what I should do and that everything else that is not what my manager wants is wrong.
Meetings always start with pleasantries and go downhill from there. I shared a bit about my very brief work experience since I had only been out of college for less than a year. My manager shared about past work and excitement for the current role. My manager then asked me questions, genuine questions about my college days, my activities, what I thought of the job so far and the company, and what I would like to see changed in my work to make it better. We went on like this for over an hour, with me doing a surprising amount of the talking. We finally ended the meeting and my manager said that if there was anything that I needed help with, just call and it will be taken care of.
The biggest issue I faced over and over again was unrealistic deadlines for project work. In the first week of my new manager starting, I got another absurd request to do two months’ worth of work in two weeks. My manager stepped in and got the project restructured to deliver more realistic timelines. Another issue was equipment and having to swap out machines every couple of months because they would get fired. My manager gave me budget to find better, more reliable laptops for the team. Every time I had a roadblock, my manager was there to step in, reset expectations, and negotiate better approaches and outcomes.
My manager and I would also do something I never expected. We would have regular 1:1’s where the majority of our conversations centered in what I wanted out of the job. My manager also asked a lot about my future and different paths that I might want to explore in the company. Anytime I had a question or needed advice outside of our 1:1’s though, my manager was there to listen.
This was a completely different way of working from what I was used to in my career. I had some that seemed to take an interest in me and in my success. For the first time, I felt I had someone on my side, rooting for me to win. It felt powerful to have someone advocating for me In the company. When I planned to leave for another job that was going to double my salary, my manager worked to get my salary adjusted and then supported my move to San Francisco.
I eventually did leave the company, but I am still in contact with my former manager to this day. I have had many manager’s since and have managed many people. Yet no one in my career journey has better exemplified what embodies the best of management than that one manager. She was and will always be the best manager I ever had.
When I think about the spectrum of manager’s I have worked with, I have for the most part been fortunate. None have been outright vindictive or negligent. Some have even been quite helpful, truly taking an interest in helping me be better in my work. It just happens all the managers I have had that had the most positive impact in my life were women.
Before everyone jumps in with their exceptions, I fully understand there are plenty of awful managers both male and female. My experiences though have mirrored many other conversations I have had with sales reps and leaders over the past decade. The general consensus is that female managers tended to listen more, showed more empathy, and looking for more collaborative solutions.
The past few weeks I have listened in on a number of Women’s History Month events. One statistic that jumped out in the sales conversations is that women make up only 11% of all sales leadership roles. This is an abysmally low number given the number of women that are entering into sales, especially in B2B tech roles. It is also unfortunate because the very same characteristics that make for great sales managers such as listening, empathy, and collaboration are in such short supply, creating a cyclical effect of junior sales reps being discouraged from sales and leaving the profession.
The challenge is that the very behaviors that are lauded as being “management material” are viewed as negatives when women. Assertiveness and decisiveness however are only valuable when used in the context where listening, empathy, and collaboration are valued. I had plenty of managers that could make lots of decisions, but the best decisions were always where input was earnestly solicited and incorporated.
We have a major management and leadership deficiency in the sales profession. It is telling when the average job tenure for sales VP’s is less than 18 months. If we are going to change the perception of sales, elevate sales results, and create more positive work cultures on sales teams, we need a new batch of leaders that come with different ways, perspectives, and experiences. This is why diversity matters.
How do we begin to change this dynamic and increase the number of women in sales leadership roles? For the male sales leaders reading this, proactively encourage, mentor, and support promising female sales reps on your teams into the management track. For the women reading this, raise your hand and fight for those management and leadership opportunities. Also get involved or start an Employee Resource Group (ERG) for other women sales professionals in your workplace. Join communities like Women Sales Pros by Lori Richardson and a community called Women in Sales on Clubhouse started by Alexine Mudawar and Gabrielle Blackwell. These are incredibly helpful groups to get support and advice on rising up the management and leadership ranks and building support groups within your organization.
If you have other communities or people you would like to highlight doing great work on the topic of women sales leadership, please let me know. One of the core values of the Enterprise Sales Forum is to encourage and promote diversity and to be an open, welcoming, and diverse community for all B2B sales professionals.
Thanks again for reading and for your support for women in sales!
Mark Birch, Founder of Enterprise Sales Forum
P.S. I am hosting regular Monday and Friday discussions on Clubhouse at 5 PM EDT / 2 PM PDT every week. Join the Enterprise Sales Forum club and get alerted to new talks that are coming up. Also if you need an invite, I have plenty of invites to share.
The Enterprise Sales Forum is a professional community championing the practice of sales through monthly sales talks at chapters globally. Our chapters provide an open, collaborative and diverse environment to share new ideas, network and learn actionable insights for professional sales development.
I was actually picturing a guy when you were describing your manager, because it sounded almost word for word like the male manager I had at the startup I worked at. I've had good female managers, but both the best and worst managers I've ever had were men.