Today I was coaching a sales leader who shared how important it was for him to protect his team’s culture as he brought in a few new hires.
When I asked what values he wanted the team to hold, he said: open communication, teamwork, and accountability.
On paper, these sound obvious. Who doesn’t want those things? But as any leader knows, values don’t matter when everything is easy. They matter when things get messy. So I asked him: “How do you know when your team is NOT living these values?”
That’s when it got interesting…
He explained that one of the biggest challenges is making decisions about who gets which opportunities. In sales, that can be incredibly high-stakes. He worried people would become territorial, that things would start to feel unfair, and that the team could slip into toxicity like competing with each other in unproductive ways or even sabotaging their peers.
And he’s right. Having coached many sales organizations, I’ve seen this movie before, and it’s not a feel-good ending.
So we dove deeper: What’s the difference between being a good boss and being the best boss in situations like this?
We discovered that “open communication” is actually twofold:
This second part made him nervous: “But how do I convince them my approach was the right one if they’re upset?”
Here’s the truth: you don’t have to convince them. In their mind, they might never fully agree with your decision.
But here’s what you can do, something only the best bosses do: show you care about their perspective.
When a salesperson comes to you frustrated that they lost a lead to another teammate, don’t jump to justify. Instead, ask them to tell you more. Listen. Make sure they know you truly heard them.
And here’s the deeper leadership takeaway: be very intentional about what you promise.
You can’t promise that every decision will feel fair to everyone. You can’t promise that people will always get the outcome they want. Leaders who try to do that usually fail, because they’re making promises they can’t possibly keep.
But you can promise this: “I’ll always make time to listen, I’ll always care about your point of view, and I’ll treat you with respect, even when you don’t like the call I make.”
When you consistently uphold a promise like that, you create something powerful for your team: certainty.
They know what to expect from you, even in tough moments. That consistency builds trust. And trust, over time, builds respect.
In short, you don’t have to make everyone happy. But you do need to be the kind of leader who holds firm to a core value that can guide every interaction. That’s what people can count on.
And that, more than making every call feel perfectly “fair”, is what turns a good boss into a best boss ever.