What steps did Sara Gupta, VP of Sales at Amperity, take to acquire a leadership role and how have her main focuses changed over time?

Check out this clip to learn more.

Sara Gupta:
I think like many, when I entered into leadership, or aspired to be in leadership, it was to get more access to strategic projects, to kind of meet my own ambition, and just to kind of continue to push the boundaries of my success.

As I've been in leadership now for some time, the purpose for me has shifted pretty significantly, in that I am now really in it to serve my team. My success is their success and rooting myself in that. Ultimately, that's true. The most successful thing I can do as a sales leader is have a team that's cranking, and that every individual is exceeding quota and is wildly successful.

But rather than coming from that, as we know from cracking the whip, it is a, what do you need for me to support you to be successful and meet your goals? What is your goal? How do we get you there? Let's think about sort of how we're going to operationally support that, but then what do you need to sort of be mentally supported in that way?

I try to really coach my team as individuals. You know, what makes them tick? What motivates them? What's driving them to succeed? So that's been, I think, a real shift, in that the joy for me in leadership today really comes through seeing my team be successful.

Carole Mahoney:
That's absolutely where I have found that it starts as well. I've had a lot of people ask me lately, "What do you mean a cognitive behavioral approach to sales?" I'm like, "It's all mental." So if all of our mindsets and beliefs impact our behaviors and outcomes, then if we can change those mindsets and beliefs, and like you said, truly work with your team. That starts with, like you said, understanding what's going to drive them to make those changes? What's personally meaningful to them? It's not going to be their quota.

Sara Gupta:
That's right.

As you well know, there's a lot of research on that, right? That very few people, actually, at the beginning of the day, wake up and saying, "I'm going to go make a bunch of money today." That's the lagging indicator against all of the other leading indicators around having a fun work environment that feels purposeful, it feels like you are progressing, you're pushing the boundaries of success and who you are on a daily basis.

So, really trying to lean into what actually drives results for people.

Carole Mahoney:
One of my favorite things to quote in this is that there was actually a meta analysis that was done by the Journal of Vocational Behavior and they analyzed, I think, over a 100 different studies of motivation on people and how it affects job performance. And found that those who were intrinsically driven by something personally meaningful was a stronger predictor of job performance, and it also helped them to learn and change behaviors and have fun. Who doesn't want their salespeople to have fun with their buyers? That is so, so very key.

Stay tuned to learn more!
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