3 Key Takeaways From “Principles” That Apply to Sales Coaching
Book # 22/25: Principles by Ray Dalio
For me, reading books is one of the most amazing things we can do as human beings, especially when they are the right books. Having the ability to soak up a lifetime’s worth of wisdom in one week’s time is invaluable. When I received Ray Dalio’s book Principles in the mail, I was a bit concerned because it’s more than 500 pages long which is a bit lengthy for my preference. However, like everything, when you enjoy what you are doing, time seems to collapse and the activity feels effortless.
What impressed me most about this book was the humility that Dalio showed throughout. It’s easy to look at one of the most successful investors of all time and just assume that he is a genius and that results come easy for him, but Dalio was extremely open about his early failures that led to his current overwhelming success, and about the extreme lengths he and his organization execute against to ensure that their failures are not ever repeated.
One of the core competencies that he touches on repeatedly is the idea of radical transparency — and he means it. His company, Bridgewater Associates, goes to great lengths to ensure that they have every I dotted, and T crossed to ensure massive success for themselves and their clients.
For example, they rely on multiple assessments to better understand everyone on their team, then they go as far as creating individual baseball cards for each employee that documents his or her assessment results. Then they use these baseball cards when determining who to put on specific tasks and objectives because it allows employees to be more engaged and effective which leads to a higher percentages of success. Bridgewater’s discipline to collaboration, process, and transparency is unlike anything I’ve ever read about before.
3 takeaways from “Principles” that apply to Sales Coaching
- You’re not perfect — In his younger years, Dalio assumed that extraordinarily successful people became successful because they were extraordinary. What he discovered is that wildly successful people are human beings that make mistakes, struggle, and worry just like anyone else. The secret to their success reflects their resolve, focus, passion, and ability to learn from their mistakes. Understand that your goal is relentless progress, not perfection, which will allow you to have a mindset that embraces mistakes in the pursuit of learning and improvement as a coach.
- Embrace and Assess Individuality — People are wired very differently, this was another common theme that was repeated throughout the book. Often our differences aren’t a product of our poor communication; it’s the other way around. Our different wiring, and ways of thinking, lead to our miscommunication. It is imperative for coaches to understand how everyone on their team is wired. To do this effectively coaches need to use assessments, ask great questions, and spend the right amount of time getting to know their salespeople both professionally and personally.
- Tough love is important love — Once you understand how your salespeople are wired, and once you’ve built strong relationship with them, you will have earned the right to show them tough love when appropriate. At the EcSell Institute, we refer to tough love as being a catalytic coach. Earning the right to have a healthy tough love relationship with your salespeople to effectively challenge them outside of their comfort zones. As a coach it’s your job to help those on your team achieve higher levels of performance than they could achieve on their own. At times this will call for tough love which is not always easy, but is critically important.
Most every important lesson Ray Dalio has learned in his unprecedented career is documented in this book. An outline is provided so that anyone can learn and execute against what he feels are principles that are imperative to individual and company success. The challenge for the reader is not going to be intellectually understanding what needs to be done to succeed, rather the challenge will be removing pre-existing emotional barriers that prevent effective change to occur — which I suppose isn’t to much different than anything in our lives.
For more sales takeaways check out EcSell’s upcoming Sales Coaching Academy which will provide you with the foundation to become a world-class sales coach.
In his attempt to help individuals escape “The Matrix”, Tom Bilyeu, founder of Impact Theory, has a reading list of 25 books which he recommends that everyone read to better understand how they can unlock their potential. I have decided to dedicate myself to reading a book per week for the next 25 weeks, and to review each book antidotally with application to coaching. Let’s enjoy the journey together!
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