How to vent:
❌ To who you report to
❌ To who reports to you
✅ To your peers (but tread cautiously)
To clarify, venting is different from emotional dumping.
Venting = Two willing participants
Emotional Dumping (complaining) = One willing participant
Venting in moderation is healthy. Emotional dumping is not.
Why should you care about this?
When you vent to the wrong person—you create a reputation for being incredibly hard to work with.
You'll get passed up on promotions. Your employees will talk behind your back.
Avoid doing this at all costs:
❌ Venting to your boss
A classic mistake: venting to a person (unintentionally) about said person.
Your boss was a big part of devising the new sales approach, but it's not working for your team. You vent to him/her about it in your meeting.
It's an easy mistake to make. But this puts a tremendous emotional burden on your boss.
And you build a reputation of being the one they dread meeting with. Word about that spreads quickly.
Don't like the new comp. plan? Don't like the new territory assignments for your team?
Power in numbers: Talk to a few of your peers and approach your boss as a team with a proposed solution.
❌ Venting to your employees
Imagine if your mom vented to you about your dad.
The effect? A weird power dynamic where your employees are forced to listen to you vent. But they can't say anything because you're their boss.
Don't complain about your boss or org-related stuff to your team. When they vent to you—empathize, but don't add to it.
Talk about that stuff with your peers.
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Be consistent with this and it'll help you build a great reputation within the sales org.
Agree or disagree?