“Men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown proposed as things forgot”
-Alexander Pope
Have you ever heard someone say, “I told them once and I shouldn’t have to tell them twice!”? In his book, “The motive”, Patrick Lencioni makes the point that CEOs often need to be “CRO’s. That means Chief Repeating Officer.
When I was in my early 20’s, I was going through sales training. I was fortunate to have a mentor coach who truly cared about me and wanted me to succeed. Like any good trainer, Mark believed in sticking to the fundamentals.
For my first couple months, Mark joined me on my sales calls. There were several instances where I overlooked a fundamental he had already taught me, and that weakened my sales presentation. After each call we would do a brief review. When Mark needed to correct me, he did so as if it were the first time he was telling me. He didn’t start out with, “Look Steve, like I told you before… Instead he simply repeated the fundamental as if it was the first time I had been told. I will never forget his caring and gentle persistence. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t remember Mark and something he taught me…with relentless tenacity. If we want to be strong coaches we need to stay in there with people and utilize the power of repetition.
