Oh No.. I’ve got “Klingons”
Ok, so I have taken a bit of poetic license here.. I’m not
talking about Star Trek I’m talking about those people you
have in your organization who aren’t doing anything but
pumping you for information.
First, do you really have the mindset that you are the CEO
of your business?? And if so are you pointing your downline
to the information that will help them or are you spending
an unknown number of hours regurgitating what you know one on one
so that you are so busy doing that, that you cant run your business?
You need to follow the 80/20 rule in all areas of your
business. You need to spend 80% of your time on the 20%
of your people that are doing the deed.
If you have resources to offer, which you all do, then what
you need to figure out is how to disseminate that information
ONE time using the business tools that will help you do so.
Why would you write 57 emails telling someone where to go to
be on a certain training call, or website.. thats what an
autoresponder is for. You write it ONE time, and send it off.
Are you spending hours on the phone with someone who hasn’t
taken the time to avail themselves of something you offer to
them. It sure is a lot easier for them to call you to give
them the answers over and over rather than them taking the
time to Learn and implement what you have given them.
You have your company training on products.. THEY need to
read and learn it. You have training on how to prospect and
a website that will give them tools to be better at doing so,
THEY need to be in the calls and learning the tools. If they
aren’t doing that then direct them back before you take one
precious moment of your time.
If they are DOING all of the things you are directing them to
THAT is when they should reach out for help and you should
be on the phone with them. If you want to be a coach, then
know that in doing so you are giving up your time to develop
them and it will be of benefit only if they DO it.
More often than not what I see is that people basically are
afraid to go out and TRY before they have all the answers.
“What if my prospect asks me something I don’t know?
“What do I do if they say no?”
“I don’t have a website so I don’t know how to direct people”
“I don’t know how many times to call them, and then what”
“I need a script”
“Why do I need to do this or that?”
“I don’t understand my product well enough yet”
Let me use an analogy here that I hope you will understand.
When you got out of high school or college and went looking
for your first job you needed a lot of tools.
A Resume - Well if you didn’t learn how to write one in school
what did you do?? You got a book, hired a service, asked
your parents or you just did the best you could, and you
may or may not have known enough to only apply for jobs that
you had the qualifications for but you sent it off.
Then came the Interview - You walked in the door scared to
death, or excited for the opportunity - but you had never
been in an interview before so someone asked you a bunch of
questions and you answered them. If you applied for a job
that you were qualified for, the interview was a breeze. If
not it probably didn’t go so well and you felt really bad
when you left.
But, lets just continue with the analogy… YEA one of the
interviews you went on - You got your first job- And you
were excited, until maybe 4 or 5 hours, maybe a week into
your job. There was so much to learn about “how” you do
the job the way your boss wanted it to be done. There was
protocol.. Who did you ask for help? And you were overwhelmed.
You were either the person who put your nose to the grindstone
and dug into every bit of training you could find, tried to
do it the best you could according to the training and fell
down and messed up a few times or you were the person who
kept asking everyone else what they do, how they do it,
what’s the best way before you took one step forward.
I am very fortunate that you as a group of people that are
working with me do not fall into the “Klingon” category. So you
may be asking why did I bring this all up? Well, because I am
getting tons of emails asking me what to do if this happens to
you.
when I first started out in prospecting and Network
Marketing I was thrilled to have people who relied on me. It
validated who I was because I could help them.. but then my
team got big.. not enormous but 60-70 people and growing, and I realized
that I had fostered a relationship with some of my first
people and was encouraging them to let me do all their work,
and they weren’t doing anything and my business was going to
implode because I spent more time fixing their problems than
I did building my business.
I have been hearing from more and more people that they can’t
keep up with all the demands from their team and haven’t
yet learned how to leverage their time by using resources
they already have at their disposal.
I don’t want you to fall into this trap! You should always
be a resource to your people. But use the tools to get people
the answers they need without spoon feeding them. If you have
5 or 6 people all struggling with the same thing.. set up a
conference call, or create a document that guides them. Make
it easy for them to get the information they need to move
forward and really foster that entrepreneurial spirit in your
team.
Know your tools and be able to teach others about them and
how to use them to their benefit, and set boundaries. You are
not all knowing and you can’t know and do everything. Let others help
you where you need help if you cant figure it out.. but don’t
go running off before you try to figure it out on your own.
There is no better teacher than experience.. don’t take the
opportunity away from Your team by not letting them fall down
and making a few mistakes.
I hope you take this in the spirit in which it is intended.
You always want to be a resource, and you don’t want your
people to have to re-create the wheel but they have just as
much to offer to you as you do to them if you let them fly..
and fall down, and maybe even sometimes kick them out of the
nest that is when you become a leader and earn their respect.
Enjoying the journey…
Candace