Craig was a top district leader with a team of 10 representatives. The least experienced rep now had two years, and the other nine had anywhere from five to 20 years experience. Craig was feeling fortunate that he had such a well-established and accomplished team. Five of the reps won the President's Award for top sales performance last year, and two were top contenders for corporate promotions. Craig was always looking to develop others as leaders and won his share of accolades, but he did not want to rest on his laurels.

The truth was, Craig was bored. A new promotion could keep Craig challenged, but getting a promotion was not a great option. He and his wife had three small children and a nice quality of life living near family in a nice town. His reputation was very important to him, as was helping his team to collectively and individually meet their goals. Craig wanted to take his team to the next level, but was unsure where he should begin.

How does a district manager continue to grow and push his/her team forward when they feels they have reached a plateau?

1. No matter how stellar we might think our team is performing or how great our last review was, it is only as current as yesterday. Seeking timely feedback even when we feel we are at the top is key to our ongoing humility and self-awareness. There are always outliers in any group who don't think you hung the moon, so be accessible, be authentic and listen.

Often managers may be looking only at sales results and not the sales communication and collaborative process. This diagnosis of how others experience you and your team is key to continuous improvement and sends the message to your interfaces that you are a work in progress—and that none of you believe you have already arrived. Humility is very attractive, especially from members of the region's best district.

2. Identifying the core skills, knowledge, experiences and talents of both the individuals on the team and the team as a whole is critical to continuous improvement. What is it that each of your team members ultimately wants to accomplish as a professional in this industry? What skills, behaviors or knowledge gaps does your team have in making that leap?

Career management is each individual's responsibility, but as their coach and guide, it helps when you show them how to develop their career in the direction they desire. It also helps when you empower them to initiate the ideas of how that growth may be achieved by them. Keeping the developmental credit on the shoulders of the representative versus the manager provides long-term career ownership to each individual, which is where it belongs.

3. Often companies ask or provide you with key targets based on the prescriptions written in a specific therapeutic area by that doctor or medical group. But what about the broader business opportunities you and your team have identified as potential new business through new-product prescriptions or switching from one product choice to the brand your team is promoting? Taking the business to the next level means identifying the hidden and sometimes obvious opportunities that nobody is working because you are a more developed and talented team—go for it! This may be the makings of a new leading practice for your team that will not only put you on the regional map, but the national one as well.

4. Demographics are constantly changing. That includes the influx of international medical graduates who want to practice medicine in the United States. Over 127 countries are represented in this group of physicians, which now represent one quarter of the physicians practicing medicine in the U.S. Are you and your representative culturally competent? Do you coach representative around the adaptation of their sales approach based on the cultural norms and customs of their customers? Working with your team to improve cultural competency will also, over the long haul, improve cultural relationships in the field with customers and help them to use those newly developed behaviors to demonstrate deference to other cultures within the sales organization. Developing your team's cultural competency may ultimately enhance their development as potential multicultural leaders.

5. It is easy for a successful team to just continue doing what they did to be successful. Bringing the team together and building up the communication process will help your representatives (and you) identify where to assist in the pull-through of strategies implemented by other strategic partners in your organization. Creating a cross-functional work team that operates strategically together is an incredibly difficult but rewarding opportunity to master.

6. Being a social steward is about giving back to those less fortunate than ourselves. There are so many organizations and options you can choose from, determining which one to support is always the hard part.

Consider identifying where your values align with those shared by your company. This strategy may mean that financial as well as human asset contributions may be made by your company to help an organization's local chapter in your area. Not only will it give you and your team an opportunity to give back to those groups in need, but it will also increase your company's overall visibility in the local community, providing positive PR for the company. Great leaders make a difference in and outside their companies.