What got you here won’t necessarily get you there!

As we travel through life we build up an armoury of beliefs and behaviours that we feel have in some way been successful for us.  Once these beliefs and strategies are embedded in our behaviour we set our focus on looking for evidence to further support them, embedding them deeper into our core so that they become us and us them.  Unfortunately we not only look for evidence to support our beliefs but we also repel all evidence that contradicts them!  Many successful people have developed an array of beliefs that have made them successful in whatever roles and situations they have faced so far.  

 

These are very strong beliefs supported by a significant evidence base.  

As situations and environments change, what were once empowering beliefs can become limiting beliefs?  For example, energy drive enthusiasm and forcefulness may make a salesman very successful in certain markets and it may eventually get them promoted to a position where they manages others.  

 

Unfortunately to be a successful sales leader you need empathy plus inspirational and motivational skills, none of which will have been developed in becoming a good salesperson.  Energy drive enthusiasm and forcefulness may still be useful but may also work against success in a leadership role.  Leadership is about empowering and motivating others to achieve results, helping them to be successful, rewarding them as high achievers and making them feel good about themselves.  Strong salespeople are often selfish, competitive, driven to be the best and keen for everybody else to know this, thus making other feel inferior or not good enough.

 

What we need to do is review our beliefs, look for evidence that support opposite beliefs to those we hold and work out logically what beliefs will make us successful as we move forward into our new role, new environment or new situation.  This is a difficult process as beliefs can be much embedded, they are designed to make us feel good and we have spent a long time strengthening them with evidence.  Most will back down from this challenge as it will make them feel very uncomfortable and contradict what has given them their identity. However if we are successful the effort will be rewarded with great success at a completely different level to any we have enjoyed previously.