Ten Tips for Keeping on Top of Time

by Gloria Boyne on March 8, 2012

I know that when I get into the Spring season, my ability to stay on top of my time seems to get away from me.  I get so busy working that I forget to do the planning pieces of time management to keep things running smoothly.

Here are ten ideas that I use to stay on top of my time.  They don’t take time and have a great snap-to-result effect for me.

    1. Each night, list the six most important things you have to do the next day –and do them.
    2. Be flexible.  If schedules are too rigid, you can bog down in worry about meeting each deadline.
    3. Delete “unmasked for” activities.  Talk to your husband and children.  Ask them what they expect of you instead of assuming what they expect.
    4. Make decisions with no fear of failure.
    5. Learn to say “no” to other people’s requests.
    6. Don’t always subordinate your time to your husband’s
    7. Don’t doubt people’s feelings about you – talk to them instead of worrying.
    8. Don’t be hypercritical of yourself -you’re not perfect, so don’t try to be.
    9. Remember – self-interest isn’t selfish.
    10. Form personal goals.  Plan to do things that interest you and the chores will start to take care of themselves.

In other words, think about time rather than just working through it!  Please share. What works for you to get instant time management results?

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Ten Tips to Advancing in Your Party Plan Company

by Dana Phillips on March 6, 2012

Congratulations on your decision to move up in your business. Be sure to stay focused on your goal to promote. Here is a handy checklist to get you started.

  • Ask everyone at every party to date a party.
  • Call back former Hostesses to book parties.  You can say: “I have been offered a wonderful advancement opportunity and I’ve decided to take it!  I’m working to become a ______________ {Manager, Director, Supervisor} and would love the opportunity to show you and your friends what’s new.  Thinking of your friends would Thursday or Tuesday be better for a party?” (Now set the date!)
  • Call back past Customers to update them or offer to do a party for them.
  • Talk about the benefits of booking a party with at least 5 people each day either at or away from parties.
  • Establish a strong party lineup for your next four 4 weeks every week.
  • Offer your opportunity to each Hostess.  You can say: “I have been offered a wonderful advancement opportunity and I’ve decided to take it!  I’m building my team, and I’m looking for a few super people to join my team. I’d love to have you. Have you ever heard the full story of our business opportunity?”
  • Start every party with a recruiting game or a proud out loud testimonial.
  • Offer your business opportunity to every guest.
  • Offer the opportunity to: best friend, neighbor, church friend, waitress, bank teller, relative, child’s teacher, receptionist, grocery store clerk, dry cleaner.
  • Observe your up line leader as she/he schedules and conducts opportunity conversations.

I’d love to hear from experienced leaders with their best suggestions!

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Napoleon Hill and Definiteness of Purpose

by Neil Phillips on March 5, 2012

I’ve recently had the opportunity to go back and reread some of Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich.  Written in the 1930’s, it has now sold well over 20 million copies. Napoleon Hill is generally considered one of the major influencers on personal success literature. His touchstone phrase was “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

This video segment is about the first of 17 principles, Definiteness of Purpose. I’m always astounded by the sheer quantity and organization of the thoughts that comes from Hill. He can speak of core concepts in clear sentences and then point to mounds of evidence to support them.  This video is several minutes long, and my guess would be that note takers will put down more than a sentence or two.

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When you stop to think about it, having a clear purpose is pretty fundamental to achieving a goal.  Will you get a notebook and follow his directions?

What’s your take?

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Gloria Boyne Joins Team Connections

by Dana Phillips on March 2, 2012

If you know Gloria Boyne, I know that you will share my excitement with this new coach and trainer who has joined Team Connections. Gloria is a direct selling authority. With over thirty years of experience as a top producer in Mary Kay Cosmetics, she led her organization to the top five in Canada, retiring in 2011 in the number four position.

Gloria is paying forward her experience and expertise as a coach and we are delighted to support her as one of the Team Connections coaches. She is a Certified Business Coach with the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches, and she already has a thriving coaching practice with direct sellers. Her expertise in the profession provides her with great insights as she coaches groups of emerging leaders as well as top leaders in a variety of companies.

If you are a top leader in a direct selling company, and you want to work smarter, not harder, you will appreciate coaching with Gloria. Her unique ability to challenge leaders to be their best, design action plans with them, and hold them accountable serves her as a coach to those who want to grow.  

She hasn’t stopped growing as a coach, and is on her way to a credential with the International Coach Federation, the most renowned professional coaching association in the world.

Gloria lives in the Edmonton, Canada area. Contact Gloria at Gloria@teamconnections.org for a complimentary coaching call.

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Five Key Attributes of Great Leaders

by Gloria Boyne on March 1, 2012

Direct Selling Key to LeadershipLeadership is one of those words that we all seem to struggle to find just the right mix of great attributes to include. Some items are prescriptive (what we’d like to see) and some are descriptive (what we generally find). Here are my current five:

  • Leaders have integrity. Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word. Integrity is one of those cornerstone concepts for me. Leaders without integrity tend to fall short on key aspects like trustworthiness and transparency.
  • Leaders are becoming. Have you noticed that leaders never stand still? They are always becoming something else. They choose to grow and, as a result, continue to become the kind of leader that people will follow voluntarily. They are the type of leader that attract followers even if they have no title or position.
  • Leaders are solution oriented. Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about problems.
  • Leaders receive respect. Respect is a key determinate of high-performance leadership. The leader’s team may respect her because she gets results; maybe it’s because she really cares; perhaps it’s because they see others respect her. Whatever the case, respect often determines how well the team performs and how satisfied they are with the results.
  • Leaders see unused capacity in others. Leaders have an ability to get extraordinary achievement from ordinary people. They see people as capable of so much more than what they are. Leaders see what can be rather than what is.

Last week, Dana Phillips provided some of her core concepts in leadership. This week was my turn. What’s your take? We’d love to have you share some thoughts.

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The Three R’s of Customer Service

by Dana Phillips on February 28, 2012

Customer ServiceAt it’s best, good customer service is characterized as a “YES” answer to three questions.

“R” You Reachable?

Can your customers contact you quickly and easily? Be sure to have business cards with you always-and hand them out! Also, it’s important to stamp all your sales materials, including flyers, brochures, and catalogs, with your business contact information. Finally, you’ll want to use an answering machine, answering service, or voice mail with a greeting that’s friendly, current, and professional.

“R” You Responsive?

Do your customers receive the attention they need? Do your best to return phone calls in less than 24 hours, and take personal responsibility to answer questions and resolve problems as quickly as possible. Also, thank-you notes to customers, Hosts, and potential new Consultants are a courteous, professional touch that always make a good impression.

“R” You Reliable?

Can your customers count on you? Nothing disappoints customers more than being promised one thing and delivered another-or nothing at all! Always be as accurate as possible when talking about delivery times, delays, product shortages, and other occasional problems. When they receive a simple, honest explanation, your customers will understand and appreciate you for it.

 What are you doing to make your customer service exceptional?

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Why Be Consistent?

by Neil Phillips on February 27, 2012

Hobgoblin of Small MindsI was recently working with a group of direct sales leaders when this quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson came to mind, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” They were in the position of making an announcement of some new products and promotions and were trying to work through the idea of “what would be a fair way to announce it” for everyone on their team. While they were hashing out the issue, the hobgoblin phrase wanted to bounce off the end of my tongue.

Luckily for me, it didn’t. I remembered the quotation as “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” and I was omitting that important word, foolish. The issue they were discussing was about treating every one equally. There were some good reasons for it: not giving anyone an advantage through an early announcement, following the company guidelines on announcements so the excitement of the new products peaked appropriately, and making sure they had the right materials in place for following up. I was being flippant and on my agenda. In retrospect, those were not foolish consistencies. These leaders were trying to grapple with some significant issues.

What would make for a foolish consistency? In my mind, that phrase applies to a situation where I am trying to be consistent for the sake of being consistent. Consistency doesn’t have a value in and of itself; it’s what consistency produces that should be the touchstone.

  • · If I won’t do a special order for Customer A because I wouldn’t do one for Customer B last week that might be foolish.
  • · Refusing to admit I made a mistake because “I always double check that and it can’t happen” is foolish.
  • · Not taking special care of someone on my team when she is going through a family crisis is a foolish consistency.

In short, my advice would is to not be consistent just to be consistent. If consistency isn’t working, then don’t do it.

What do you think? What decision making rules are important for your business?

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Seven Attributes of a Charismatic Individual

by Gloria Boyne on February 23, 2012

CharismaThink about the most charismatic person you know, and you will discover that he or she has developed all of these traits. Some of them may have come naturally; others possibly took a lot of concentrated effort. This list is not meant to be exhaustive. Rather, these are some obvious traits that you’ll see.

I’m willing to bet that with some practice, you can develop these characteristics, too!

1. Keep Smiling – When you smile at people, you will make them feel good about themselves, and they will appreciate you for it.

2. Try Not to Argue – When you find yourself wanting to argue, say something like, “go on” or “I hear you.” Charismatic people listen well, seek to understand, and they will rarely opening contradict you.

3. Give at Least Three Compliments Every Day - It you do, you’ll be amazed at how different people treat to you. It can be a comment about someone’s dress or personal appearance. It can be as simple as, “My, you’re in a good mood today, ” or “you did a great job on that assignment.

4. Make an Effort to Physically Touch Three People Each Day – Touch a co-worker, your business associate or customer on the arm, pat her on the back, or give a friendly hug. Your efforts at physical closeness will allow those around you to do the same.

5. Mirror the Positive Emotions of Those Around You - If someone is excited about her new car, you should show excitement too. If they’re smiling as they tell you a story, smile along with them.

6. Maintain Eye Contact When Someone is Speaking to You – When you maintain eye contact, it makes people feel as though you are really tuned in, listening and responsive.

7. Work on Your Sense of Humor - Try to tell one or two jokes a day. Charismatic people make us feel good about ourselves by lightening the mood.

Which ones come naturally to you? Which ones will you make an effort to cultivate?

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Real Leadership

by Dana Phillips on February 21, 2012

When I was in the first grade, my mama started leadership lessons with me and I didn’t even know it. This amazing, brilliant woman left school in the seventh grade. She pushed us all to be our best and provided all of us with a healthy dose of common sense.  More than once I heard her say, “book learning is good, but common sense will carry you the extra mile.”

One of her favorite sayings that stuck with me was “A real leader makes everyone else feel like they are the leader.”  In this day of hundreds, if not thousands of books on leadership, I am pretty sure that she summed it up well.  Making others feel like the leader encompasses servant hood, strength finding, empathy, good communication, delegation, vision, influence and about a hundred other “irrefutable” dimensions of leadership.

Mama did a deep dive with me when I was elected first grade student council.  It comes up now because I have used this process over and over.  She let me know that being a representative of the children in my class was more than a popularity contest; I needed to lead by listening.  She told me I should ask the boys and girls in my class what they liked about our school and what they didn’t.  She told me that if I listened really well, I would hear the way to solve problems that I didn’t have to think up and I could be a voice for my friends.  Mama was right.  When we listen to enough people we can listen for solutions and cast a clear and compelling vision.

I learned that to make everyone else feel like a leader, I needed to see their strengths.  Notice what other people do well.  Look for good qualities in others and it is easy to make them feel like the leader.  She taught me to sincerely compliment people and speak their strengths back to them, not for what they could do for me, but because it was the right thing to do.  Even today, I can sense that winning, leadership feeling emerge in others as I focus on their strengths.

I want to be a real leader.  How about you?  Let’s keep the dialogue going about what it takes to be a real leader.

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Victor Frankl’s View of Leadership and Meaning

by Neil Phillips on February 20, 2012

Ever since I read Victor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, my choice of the book to be shipwrecked with has been easy. I often tell people that if they are only going to read one book this year, pick Man’s Search for Meaning. It is one of the most widely read books on the holocaust and at the time of Frankl’s death in the late 90’s, had sold over 10 million copies in 24 languages. (Wikipedia has a nice summary of the book, but can’t come close to touching the power of it’s ideas.)

As a coach, I find Frankl’s philosophy an invaluable touchstone because my client’s search for meaning in life is their own and I have no alternative but to recognize it. As a person, however, it digs even deeper into me. I’ve always resonated to the idea that my mindfulness and vision of the future has a lot to do with where I end up. That’s one of the core messages I draw from Frankl’s book.

Recently I came across this YouTube video that was part of a presentation that Frankl did in the early 1970’s. I think it’s a powerful explanation of the leader’s role in supporting others to find the meaning and purpose in their life. I think it’s worth the 4:21 minutes to watch.

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Here is the link if you can’t see the video in this post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD1512_XJEw&feature=player_embedded

What do you think? What is your role as a leader?

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