By Dana Phillips.
The hardest lesson I learned turned out to be the best lesson I ever learned.
As a top leader, I was confident in my skills and built a strong business. I knew how to book, hold great parties, recruit, promote, and run my business successfully. If I trained and told my team what to do, they would build big teams like mine.
So, that’s what I did. I trained, mentored, and told my team how to build a business like mine. I assumed they wanted the same success I had and would put in the time to get it. I began working with everyone to “help” them reach the level I thought they should be.
That’s when things went sideways. Working with everyone to help them achieve the goals that I had for them was hard! I felt drained and was not having fun! One of my leaders told me, “I don’t want to work as hard as you do. My family comes first.” That got me because my family came first for me, too! It must not have looked like it to her.
When the results weren’t there, my response was to get mad at my team! That made things worse!
As I was sharing my discouragement with my mentor, she helped me realize that not everyone wanted to be like me and have a business like mine. No matter how much I wanted it for them, they weren’t motivated because it wasn’t their desire and goal.
I learned that I needed to treat each of my team members individually and find out what they wanted from their business and why. I learned that when it’s their dream and goal, the motivation comes from within, and my role became to help them get what they wanted. As I began finding what they wanted, my part became fun again. I was helping those who wanted more achieve their goals and dreams. Nothing could be better than the satisfaction, excitement, and fulfillment of genuinely helping others change their lives.
Once I changed my attitude and focus…I was able to build the business of my dreams. Zig Ziglar said it best: “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” He was right!
Who’s checking your intent?
When we want to get intense about the business, we need someone to check our intent. We want someone to ask us if we are still having fun. We need someone to direct our intentions in the right place.
Join The Direct Selling Leaders Network. Since you are known by the company you keep, maybe you want to find some leaders who want to share passions, principles, and practice. You can be one of the great people to hang with.
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