Over the years I’ve tried many ways to motivate my team. From offering incentives to working like crazy to get as many team members to attend various motivational speakers and events!
No matter what I do, I can’t seem to motivate my team.
It was a hard lesson for me to learn (and sometimes still is), but the truth is, I can’t motivate anyone.
All this time, I’ve tried to hold team members’ hands, coach them along, and get them to see that if they put forth the effort now, it would pay off in the long run. I take team members out with me and teach them to talk to people and prospect for both customers and recruits. And most of the time they do great! They do a wonderful job! But if I’m not there with them, they just don’t do it on their own.
These self-motivation skills should have been learned a long time ago. I am not their mother and it is not my responsibility to teach them to be responsible for themselves and their own actions. So what do I do?
Well, first off quit trying to get them to do something they don’t want to do. Jim Rohn talked a lot about this. He said you keep sowing the seed. The birds will get some of the seed, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Some of the seed will fall on hard ground and won’t be able to take root, and the sun will kill them off. Some will start growing and will get choked off by weeds. Again there’s nothing you can do about it. But some of the seed will land on good ground and will flourish.
But he also talked about how some people will give their business 20% of their effort, and you can’t do anything about that either. There’s nothing you can do to get them to give 100% of their effort. Some will do 50%, some 80% and a very small percentage will give 100%. So we need to appreciate our team members for what they give and not expect them to give more.
But there are people out there who don’t need to be motivated. They have no problem motivating themselves. These people are often referred to as “self-starters” and they are out there. Maybe we haven’t found them yet, or maybe we’ve found a few. The longer we’re in the game, the more we’ll find. But I believe it is totally possible to attract these types of people to us.
It’s all about posture. When you position yourself as someone who’s attractive to work with, and you develop a reputation of being a winner, these types of people will start coming to you.
Why? Because people who are driven to succeed and who have a track record of getting things done want to work with people who know what they’re doing. They will actively seek them out! Even if you haven’t become successful yet, people sense those skills in you and will see you as a leader.
I see this all the time in my Avon business and even with myself when I first started Leadership. We know it takes 3+ people on our team (along with the sales requirements) to achieve the title of Bronze Ambassador.
But for most people, having 3 Representatives doesn’t quite cut it. Most of the time it takes 4-6 before you can reach the sales goals to achieve the title.
I believe it’s because when we’re new to Leadership, we haven’t acquired the posture yet. We may be timid, or we may revert to almost begging to get the new Representative signed up, and we’ll take anyone who we can convince to join us. Therefore we’re attracting those types of people who respond to those types of tactics.
After we get 10-15 Reps on our team, we’re starting to feel a little more confident, and so we start attracting a higher quality of person to our team. (Please note, I mean no disrespect by the term quality – I merely mean that once you are more confident, you will automatically attract those self-starters).
After you have several hundred Reps on your team, your posture is totally different again. Now, of course you want to help everyone and offer them the chance to have their own business which could totally change their life, but it’s really not an issue to you whether they decide to join or not.
If they’re not interested, you’d rather they just told you so to save you from wasting your time. You are looking for quality rather than quantity at this point.
The great thing is that you don’t have to wait until after you become successful to be called an expert. The fastest way to become successful is to position yourself as an expert. Look for those who already have that internal motivation.
No matter how persuasive or convincing you are, trying to sell your opportunity to people who aren’t interested can never compare to the results you’ll get by offering it to people who are already looking!
Start by not chasing down your prospect. The chasing won’t end after they’re signed up. If that’s how you got them to join your team, you’ll have to chase them to place their order every campaign, you’ll have to chase them to attend the meetings, etc. When you find the ones who are already motivated, you won’t be able to keep them away from the meetings.
So keep offering your opportunity to everyone you meet. Don’t prejudge anyone because you don’t really know until you work with them, and it really is sort of a “numbers game.”
But spend your time and energy on those who deserve it. Once you find those qualified Representatives, I bet you’ll find that they don’t even need your time. You’ll call them up and see what help they need, and they’ll tell you, “Thanks but I already have it handled”.
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