90 days of 1:1 coaching for sales managers in the first 18 months in role. Stop hiding in your spreadsheets, your one-on-ones, and your reps' deals. Lead the team you actually have.
Being a manager is not a bigger version of being a top rep. It is a different job. The old reflexes work against you. The new ones nobody trained you for.
If two of these are familiar, you're in the window. If all three are, you've been in it longer than you want to admit.
The invites landed in week one and you said yes to all of them. Three weeks in, your week is built by other people, and the work that's actually on your scorecard is what gets sacrificed.
You can see the pipeline softening. You noticed the energy shift in last week's one-on-one. You haven't said anything yet, because saying something means having a conversation you've never had from this side of the table.
A rep has a blocker, you jump on the call. Marketing missed a deadline, you build the asset yourself. Every hour you spend doing someone else's job is an hour you aren't building the team, the systems, and the clarity only you can build.
of the time, companies pick the wrong person for management. Most new managers are doing a job they were never set up for. The pattern is structural, not personal.Gallup, State of the American Manager
We map the calendar, the team, the boss, and the deals. What is burning you out. What is hiding in your inbox. The conversations you have been avoiding for longer than you want to admit.
One-on-ones that develop reps and lift the forecast. Pipeline inspection that doesn't take the deal over. A feedback muscle that holds up under a soft quarter. The mechanics you wish your last manager had.
You're working the new system live, against a real quarter. I pressure-test, you adjust. By the end, the habits are yours, the Foundation document is written, and the next manager you become is one you actually chose.
Day one I had reps looking to me for answers I didn't have. I started small. Tiny, actionable things my team could test inside a week, while I learned the terrain. The sweeping changes came later, after my feet were on the ground. Most new managers I coach are sitting in some version of the same moment.
The Foundation is built for that window. Before the bad habits set. While the job is still being shaped.
Coaching that doesn't show up in your quarter is coaching that didn't work. Here is what the work produces, in the language of the job you actually do.
Structured, coaching-led, and short enough that nobody is hiding from it. The forecast conversation belongs somewhere else and you know where.
Best case, commit, worst case, with the deal-level inspection that backs each number. No padding. No surprises in the QBR.
Direct, specific, respectful, on time. The hard conversation you used to put off for a week, you have on Tuesday afternoon.
Block-out time you defend without flinching. Meetings you canceled. A weekly rhythm that survives a bad quarter and a busy month.
Showing up in QBRs, exec syncs, and deal reviews like a peer, not a senior rep with a new title. Trust that builds toward the next role on its own.
Who you are as a leader. Where you're going. The mindset that holds it all together. One document, built with you, kept by you.
Stop performing confidence. Start practicing honesty. The day I stopped pretending was the day my team started trusting me differently. I hadn't become a better manager overnight. I had become a real one. They could feel the difference. People always can.
Showing up in the one-on-one, the skip-level, the exec sync. Listening to what your rep actually said, not what you wanted them to say. Being in the room you're in.
Forecast accuracy. Coaching to the deal. Building the team's number, not just defending your own. The discipline that turns a quarter into a habit.
You're a partner, a parent, a leader, a person. The job is intense. The work is sustainable when you build it into a life that holds, instead of one that buckles every March and September.
The Vibe Check is twelve questions, scored against Presence, Performance, and Integrity. Five minutes. Instant results.
Less than one missed quarter, paid for by the person it changes. Most clients pay out of pocket. The companies that promote you into a manager role rarely fund the development that makes you a good one.
A research call is a low-stakes conversation about where you are, what's in your way, and whether this is the right time. No pitch deck, no pressure.