CHAPTER 01
I am looking for leadership
When I wrote this article, I was on a plane heading to meetings in three Scandinavian countries. The first meeting was that evening.
I asked myself what I could offer the people giving me their time and attention. Then another question followed: What result was I really travelling to create?
The answer was simple. I had just never seen it so clearly:
I am looking for leadership.
If you want to build a substantial organisation, you need to identify and develop leaders. And to do that, you must show leadership yourself.
CHAPTER 02
Showing is different from telling
Leaders keep moving along their personal learning curves. They love learning and growing. Becoming a leader is an extraordinary journey, but it takes discipline, persistence, strong commitments and focus. Knowledge, skills, attitude and habits: KASH.
Many want the outcome. Fewer are prepared to pay the price. Some retreat into their comfort zones along the way.
Show me a successful organisation and I will show you the leader behind it.
Too many networkers confuse being a good trainer with being a leader. Telling your downline what to do is not enough. Leadership means doing the right things yourself. People see the results and want to follow that example.
I have seen excellent trainers who were not especially successful networkers. And successful networkers who were neither great trainers nor impressive speakers. Those are different roles. You cannot turn the attitude of a leader into just another training skill.
Leadership is an ATTITUDE, not a SKILL!
CHAPTER 03
How the spiral begins
Leadership keeps taking you outside your comfort zone. That makes it possible to lose focus and change your activity without really noticing.
I call the resulting cycle the death spiral of a leader. Momentum disappears. Frustration grows. Eventually you quit, perhaps with a convincing explanation already prepared.
To avoid it, learn to recognise the four stages.
1. Leadership mode
You do the right things. You lead by example and set the pace. Your activity is attractive and produces results. Your partners follow enthusiastically and duplicate what they see.
2. Management mode
You stop doing the work yourself and start telling everyone else what to do. You advise and train, but no longer get your own hands dirty.
People notice. Momentum falls. And you begin duplicating more people whose main activity is giving instructions. More managers.
3. Excuse mode
You are back inside your comfort zone. Productive action has faded, along with the results. Now you explain why things are not working. There is a reason for everything.
That duplicates too. Responsibility becomes excuse-making.
4. Blame mode
Now the company, upline, downline or products are responsible for your situation. You point outwards rather than examining your own behaviour. You have reached the bottom of the spiral. I have watched it many times. From here, leaving the business often becomes the next step.
CHAPTER 04
Which mode are you in?
This pattern applies beyond network marketing. Giving away all responsibility also gives away your ability to change something. You stay in the hole explaining who dug it.
Check yourself daily. Am I leading? Merely managing? Making excuses? Blaming somebody else?
If you recognise management mode, react immediately. Do not wait until the behaviour has spread through your team. Get back to the activities that actually move the business.
Leaders do the right things. Managers do things right.
We look for leadership, develop leadership and show leadership. We lead by example. What matters is not simply what you know, but what you do.
If you meet me on my travels, remember what I am looking for: people with the talent and commitment to move this business forward. If you see yourself as one of them, come and speak to me.
All the best, Sven