I used to think that leaders distinguished themselves by rising above their people. It’s the “cream of the crop” theory. That was a mistake. I’ve learned that MLM leaders distinguish themselves by rising with their people, and there’s a world of difference between those two.

Leaders take people with them on the journey. You don’t go by yourself. If you’re going by yourself, you are not a leader. You might be a very self-made, successful person, but you’re not a leader. You’ve got to decide whether you’re going to be a tour guide or a travel agent.

Travel agents give you brochures and tell you all about the trip, but they’ve never even been there. They get the tickets for you, give you a planner and send you off somewhere. You don’t want to be a travel agent; you don’t want to be sending people where you’ve never been, you want to be a tour guide. You want to bring your people along with you and say, “Let me show you something. I’m going to take you places where I’ve been and lived, and tell you all about them as we go. I’m going to let you in on the journey.”

Because I felt that leaders should be separated from others in my younger days, because I mistakenly felt that leaders should rise above their people the following things happened:

1. I was lonely.

We’ve all heard the expression “It’s lonely at the top,” haven’t we? Well, I was at the top, lonely. (By the way, a leader never said that, you know that, don’t you?) Because if you’re at the top all alone, nobody’s following you! I’d get off the mountain if I were you. I’d go find the people.  That’s just what I did.

2. I seldom asked for help.

The reason I seldom asked for help is because I thought it was a sign of weakness. I thought that leaders had to be Ms. Answer Woman (or Mr. Answer Man).  Why would you ask somebody for help? After all, that would make you kind of like them, and after a while, you could be a commoner if you weren’t careful. Sooner or later, everyone needs help, and admitting it does not make you less of a leader.  So I got comfortable asking for help.  The thing I learned is you’re actually weak if you don’t ask for help because you remain as you are instead of getting stronger and becoming more.

3. I was very position-conscious.

I was very position-conscious. I was making sure that I had my title and my position and “my rights.”  Let me tell you something: leaders come from all walks of life, and they often lead people without the benefit of a position or a title. They do it by building influence with others. People who are focused on their position are too wrapped up with rights and responsibilities to influence anyone.

4. I was very competitive.

I became very competitive during that whole process, and the reason for that is very simple: I was always trying to beat someone else. People are not apt to follow you if your goal is to defeat them and make a loser out of them. Leaders encourage people and make them feel like winners.

So by now you probably have an MLM Team growing so the question to ask yourself is Are you Rising with your People?  Are you in the Game WITH them or allowing them to flounder on their own.  It doesn’t take much to find out what your People think.  Just ask them!  If you’re serious about growing your MLM organization, you will openly seek feedback from your Team!

A few questions you can ask:

1. What is it like working with me?
2. What is your expectation of me?
3. How is it best for me to work and support you?
4. What supports you to stay in action and be accountable?

These questions only go to the personally sponsored you work with and wouldn’t it be exciting to know it is duplicating down so everyone can Lead…through Inspiration and encouragement?

Tags: MLM leaders, MLM Team, personally sponsored

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 10:57 pm and is filed under MLM - multi level marketing, Network Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.