I’ve watched Dave Kurlan speak at Executive Luncheons a few times. The two hour presentation is jam-packed with take-aways for everyone in the room. Every time, he’s pointed out the duties of an effective sales manager and had everyone in the room agree that it was a 60 hour a week job. And he winds up asking the question,  “If you’re a CEO working 60 hours a week, a salesperson with a full quota, an owner with administrative duties, or hold any other position in a company, how can you expect yourself to commit another 60 hours a week to being the sales manager. Most of the room nods in agreement and make a note to find a good, full time sales manager.

So, what made me post about this?

Mark and Robin went to a wedding this weekend and Kai and Zane stayed with us this weekend. Zane eats everything. Kai eats nothing. Zane crawls faster than I can walk. Kai runs in the other direction. We went to the park. The farm. The store (while they were napping). Elaine and I went to church separately. Dinner dishes didn’t get done until after baths, stories, and bed. Noon Friday to Noon Sunday. We were grandparents. Nothing else. I didn’t email. I didn’t talk on the phone. I didn’t read the overview in my briefcase. I didn’t blog. I didn’t call my mother. Neither Elaine nor I did anything but be the best grandparents that we could be.

And we were awesome!

    

But it made us appreciate what Robin’s life is like. Her ‘job’ is Kai and Zane. She doesn’t do a lot of what she used to do and the lesson for this post is that if your sales manager isn’t willing to do the job and forget everything else, they won’t do nearly as well at their job as Robin does at hers.