Sports teams, performing arts, spelling bees, robotics competitions, software development teams, and sales orgs.
What do these nouns have in common?
All of them…
- Are performance activities
- Require skill
- Require competent execution
…to perform at a high level.
—-
Yet any time there is execution, there is a test of character. A test of trust. Between themselves and the people involved with their performance (whether on their team our not). Doesn’t matter what the activity is.
This is where it gets juicy.
How many times have you seen people cut corners just to get results? Cheat, rig, or fabricate?
Yah, f*ck those ideals. That ain’t it.
I never could respect the actions of those who needed to ruin relationships for the sake of results, even if i was enamored with the magic of their seemingly untouchable skill set. Which, inversely, I do respect.
This conundrum – high performance without losing relationships – It’s the quagmire of my life.
How I am so drawn to high performers, but simultaneously rage-fuming about their disregard for humanity, hating those actions just as much.
Why do i want to meet them but never give them the satisfaction that I’m ecstatic to learn from them?
Deep, right?
Maybe, but then at least things are rooted deeply in a philosophy that’s unbreakable.
This is where The H2H Method lives — the in-between – in the suspension, the tension between high performance and human-to-human.
See, after many-a-existential crisis, what I’ve found is that achieving high performance while sustaining trust and relationships requires a higher standard – a tolerance for tension and strain to hold the two together.
Example:
Alex is a new sales rep at Vought Industries. She has been commissioned to cold call decision makers at midsize companies to set up meetings. So many times, when he calls, he reaches a gatekeeper. The leadership at his company says that she needs to force her way through the gatekeeper by either saying that the decision-maker (let’s say his name is Craig) knows she’s calling when he really doesn’t, or, strong arm the gatekeeper by slighting them and saying “this is an important call and you’re wasting my time blocking my access to Craig”.
This doesn’t sit well with Alex. But really likes her job and needs it. After some time, she realizes that the gatekeepers are really just inquisitive more than they are annoying or preventative. But it’s tough, because they aren’t gonna let anyone just walk on through. In fact, whenever she calls, she does get hung up on if she just casually asks for the decision maker without any other fodder to work from.
She starts gets creative. She’s stressing about it, but has hasn’t given up without testing a few hypotheses that would help her keep her job without continually giving sales a bad name from her company. She starts pretending to treat the gatekeeper as if they were the decision-maker. She begins training them with authority, and asking them questions about their current situation.
She has a breakthrough.
One of them actually passes her off because the gatekeeper said that wasn’t an area she handled, but it’s something that they’ve been looking into. She transfers over to the decision maker. She’s elated. She can’t believe it worked and is eager to keep this going.
The next time, she pitches the gatekeeper again. The gatekeeper begins asking questions and Alex begins wondering if this person’s gonna be wasting her time to just get hung up on. But just before Alex almost gives up, the gatekeeper says “the reason I’m asking all these questions is because I actually manage that area. I’d be interested to learn more.”
Alex is shocked and can’t believe her ears.
You mean to say without barging on through, disrespecting the position, without using pushy, using unethical tactics, etc., she was able to not only talk to the right person, but get a meeting?
I think she’s onto something, people. While being assertive, she wasn’t aggressive. While being persistent, she wasn’t pesky.
This is H2H .
The tension just the beginning.
Stay tuned for more as we dive into the H2H movement with new posts, courses, softwares, and more.
In high performance and high trust,
Ryan P
Cold Call CEO