Salespeople tend to focus on themselves and products and services they sell. Businesspeople focus on solving business problems and opening new opportunities, focusing on outcome of solutions they employ rather than technical details of products and services they offer.

Most managers have felt this way about certain employees at some point in time.

Let's face it, some employees have a very hard time consistently executing tasks that "should" be relatively simple to complete.

So what are barriers getting in way of their success?

Actually, there are several types of barriers - but perhaps not typical sort of barriers that you may be thinking.

Barriers can be classified in three major categories. Each category identifies strong barriers that, if not quickly identified and corrected by team leader, can negatively impact progress of your team. The Three Major Types of Barriers are: (Hint: Remember A, B, C)

A-ttitude Barriers B-ehavioral Barriers C-onceptual Barriers

Attitude Barriers Every employee must take ownership of his or her own attitude. A manager is NOT in charge of anyone's attitude except her own. If an employee has a poor and non-productive attitude and is not willing to correct it, that is a personal choice and that person needs to be held accountable for that decision.

Quite simply, there are too many quality people who are willing to learn and add value to an organization, for a leader to invest time and money on anyone who makes conscious "choice" to portray a poor attitude.

Keep in mind, if a leader does NOT hold team members accountable for non-productive attitudes, then he/she has in essence told team "it's ok".

Employees’ displaying poor attitudes is NOT ok. A leader should never allow herself to be seen as "sanctioning" this kind of behavior.

Here is a great way to communicate expectations about "owning your attitude" to your team.

Go to any hardware store and buy largest coat hook that you can find. "The Hook" will be a visual reminder to your team members that you expect them to leave any personal issues or poor attitudes on this hook prior to beginning their day.

(Suggestion: You might want to paint The Hook a bright silver or gold color, and perhaps even mount The Hook on a nice piece of stained wood. Hang The Hook in a common area, away from customer view, where employees will see it often and be reminded throughout day about your expectations of leaving poor attitudes on The Hook - as they do not belong anywhere in workplace.)

When you introduce "The Hook", and your expectations relating to attitude, you might say something like: