As important as it is to learn what it takes to be a leader in network marketing, it’s equally important to understand what leads to failure as a leader so you can understand when you might be failing. Once again, knowing what not to do is just as essential as making sure you do the right thing. As a leader in network marketing, you must be careful to project leadership qualities, your success may depend on it. Leaders recruit leaders, so you need to distinguish yourself as a leader if you want to attract the “big hitters.” Here are 10 keys to success as a leader as outlined by Napoleon Hill, with a specific network marketing insight for each.
Don’t fail as a leader
1) Inability to organize details. Effective leadership requires the ability to organize and master details. No genuine leader is “too busy” to do anything that is required of them as a leader. When someone, regardless of whether they are a leader or a follower, admits that they are “too busy” to change their plans or pay attention to an urgent problem, they are admitting inadequacy. The successful leader must be the master of all the details related to her position. That means, of course, that they must acquire the details of the details relegated to capable business partners.
Network Marketing Take: This one is tricky because you need to be able to provide tools and answers to people without creating a culture of dependency with your team. You need to make sure the people in your group provide everything they need for success, but the onus should be on them to execute the tasks necessary for success. As a leader, it’s a tall order to provide enough leadership and answers so your team can succeed (because your success depends on their success), but not so much that you’re constantly on the hook to carry them through it all yourself.
2) Unwillingness to render humble service. Truly great leaders are willing, when the occasion calls for it, to do any kind of work that they would ask another to do.
Network Marketing Take: This fits the description above perfectly. You need to have knowledge and experience in the areas you are advising your team on to make sure you are leading them correctly, but also so that your team sees the action you are taking and can’t help but try to emulate it.
3) Expectation of payment for what they “know” instead of what they do with what they know. The world doesn’t pay people for what they “know.” Pay for what they do, or induce others to do.
Network marketing point of view: It’s great to give people services for free, however, there’s also some merit to charging for training because oftentimes giving training exclusively for free will diminish the value of what you’re offering in the minds of your customers. leaflets. What Napoleon Hill is referring to, however, is not the aspect of charging people for knowledge of him, but to say that a leader should demand payment for the translation of what he knows into what he can provide to others. his team. The way he does this is by targeting the training that others provide, but also by packaging what he has learned into customized training modules for people looking for solutions in his area of expertise. In this case, charging for training can often be the best route, as it shows value, however you must deliver on what you promise!
4) Lack of Imagination. Without imagination, the leader is unable to deal with emergencies and to create plans in which to guide his followers effectively.
Network Marketing Take: There will always be things you can offer your team as a leader, however without the imagination to provide value that dynamically responds to the issues your group is having. There are many training systems you can plug your team into that will show them how to be successful in whatever your marketing strategy is; however, it takes real creativity to give your team unique tools based on the training foundation you provide them. with. Instead of considering the creativity of yourself as a leader, consider how you can spark the creativity of the people on your team. From my experience, this is best accomplished by providing tools and letting them loose over a period of time so they can personally go through the problem-solving process and think about how they can personally implement marketing strategies outside of the training framework you provide them with. .
5) Fear of competition from followers. The leader who fears that one of his followers might take his position is almost certain that sooner or later he will realize that fear. The capable leader trains people to whom he can delegate, at his whim, any of the details of his charge. Only in this way can a leader multiply and be prepared to be in many places and pay attention to many things at once. It is an eternal truth that people are paid more for their ability to get others to perform than they could ever earn through their own efforts. An effective leader can, through his knowledge of his work and the magnetism of his personality, greatly increase the efficiency of others and induce them to render more and better service than they could without his help. .
Network Marketing Take: Built on the network marketing business model is the essential nature of having your team succeed. This creates a financial reward for you and them and should occur without worrying that they will earn more than you. In fact, you should encourage it. However, if you are doing attraction marketing and may be giving people training that will help them in their development at a competing network marketing company, this requires a bit more discipline. This could manifest itself by providing unfavorable “word of mouth” about their leadership, a missed opportunity if they decide to change businesses, or if they had referred you to someone who wasn’t interested in their own business, but might be interested in yours. .
If you can create a team of mutual success where everyone works hard, this can create a great referral team in network marketing business.
6) Intemperance. Followers do not respect an intemperate leader. Furthermore, intemperance in any of its various forms destroys the stamina and vitality of all who indulge in it.
Network Marketing Take: As a leader, you need to display the qualities of success and present an image worth following. Your actions are noted and will be considered when your group takes on other business opportunities. It is not enough to simply enroll them, their behaviors must remain helpful and positive to foster an environment of success. Remember that every time you face a problem in your team, it is much more constructive to seek proactive solutions instead of pointing fingers at others.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
7) Selfishness. The leader who claims all honor for the work of his followers is sure to meet with resentment. The really great leader claims none of the honors. They are happy to see the honors, when any, go to their supporters, because they know most people will work harder for praise and recognition than money alone.
Network Marketing Point of View: This is a difficult question because in network marketing there are usually no exclusive prizes as success is often mutual. However, with attraction marketing for your network marketing business, it’s easy to take credit or “elevate” the ideas of the people on your training team to use as your own. While it’s certainly not a problem to use the ideas you get when you talk to people, however, directly copying your team’s ideas can only cause problems.
8) Disloyalty. Perhaps this should have come to the top of the list. The leader who is not loyal to his trust and his associates, those above and those below, cannot maintain his leadership for long. Disloyalty marks one as being less than the dust of the earth, and brings on its head the contempt it deserves. Lack of loyalty is one of the main causes of failure in all areas of life.
Network Marketing Point of View – I’m going to address this one in relation to how I operate with my team, whether it’s my core network marketing business or my attraction marketing campaigns. My mission statement for my company is to foster an environment where hard work is rewarded and mutual success is encouraged and essential. What I mean by this is that there are no free trips, but the hard work will be rewarded among all and we will actively work to expand each other’s business, even if it is not the same network marketing company.
This works great because then you’re not convincing people to join your business that they don’t really want (these people rarely work out, by the way), but you’re directing them to people who have different opportunities they’d be interested in. . As a result, if that person you’re giving the hint to is faced with a similar situation, who do you think they’ll turn to first? That’s right, back to you. This way you can increase your recruit range by many times for everyone in your party.
9) Emphasis on the “authority” of leadership. The effective leader leads by encouraging and not by trying to strike fear into the hearts of his followers. The leader who tries to impress his followers with his “authority” falls into the category of leadership through force. If a leader is a real leader, he will have no need to advertise that fact except by his conduct: his friendliness, understanding, fairness, and a demonstration that he knows his work.
Network marketing point of view: It’s a fine line between bringing in an authority that positions you as a leader while also fostering an encouraging and productive environment. The careful part of this point is that you have to make sure that your team doesn’t become 100% trustworthy to you while rooting for them. Often times, if there is too much pure guidance and not as many subtle nudges in the right direction, it will prevent your team from having the kind of growth that is needed to ensure your success and also from feeling overwhelmed with responsibility. to micromanage your team every step of the way.
10) Title emphasis. The competent leader does not require any “title” to earn the respect of his followers. The individual who attaches too much importance to his title usually has little else to emphasize. The doors of the true leader’s office are open to all who wish to enter, and his work spaces are free from formality and ostentation.
Network Marketing Take – This is more of a point that relates to a traditional business format with owner to employee, but in network marketing, you generally don’t have an authoritative role to command the people in your team at your will . Despite this, if you want to be an effective leader, you need to be attuned to the needs of your team so that you can provide them with MLM ideas that are geared towards what they want. I can have a great vision of what I think the keys to success will be, but if it doesn’t fit the style of the people I serve, the overall message of training losses won’t resonate. with those for whom it is intended. To do this, you need to think about what they want and deliver a product with that address in mind.