Dear readers,

Last week I was preparing a training for my team on the 21 characteristics of leadership.

This is a good practice for  us as network marketers who are looking for leaders to join our business.

What qualities make for a good leader?

These are qualities you want to look for when you’re recruiting.

I did some research for my training and found a great web site at the University of Oregon’s Holden Leadership Center. See the full list of leadership characteristics here.

Here are a few from the list:

• Proactive
• Flexible
• Good Communicator
• Respectful
• Confident
• Enthusiastic
• Open Minded
• Resourceful
• Evaluative
• Organized
• Consistent
• Delegator
• Initiative

You can click the link above to read in more detail what the University of Oregon says about each of these 21 characteristics of leadership.

These lists weren’t originally created for network marketing but we can use these as a guideline in our business.

Where can we meet people who exhibit this leadership qualities?  What types of groups or organizations have friendly, outgoing, positive, upbeat, intelligent, inspirational, leaders?

If you can figure that out, you’ll find more quality prospects than you can handle.

Here’s a tip… Look for people who are involved in personal development and improving their skills. That might be a good place to start. Don’t you think?

- Ben Fitts

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When we think of personality traits we want to see in our team members we often think of the good traits.  We try to find people that personify the leadership we are looking for.

However one thing I’ve discovered is that it is a little like “Yin and Yang”.  The reverse is just as important.  It’s equally important to know what the negative traits are.  Especially when you have big teams you want to focus on working with the right people.

A few “experts” out there might not approve of my calling it like it is, but when you have a team of hundreds or even thousands or tens of thousands of team members you have to focus on the right people.  You cannot allow the bad people to drag you down.

I for example have some people who I come into contact with that are maybe overly selfish. They’re only worried about making money for themselves not helping their team make money.  Maybe they’re only focused on new people and not people who they’ve already sponsored.   Other people might talk bad about team members or cause negativity in the ranks.

A lot of times you’ll find team members that ONLY focus on the negative.  They only call with complaints.  They never do things for themselves but always call you to ask you how to do it.  You want to figure out who these people are so that you can make their contacts a low priority.  You might not want to answer their phone call but instead let it go to voicemail.  You might not want to return their phone call right away or perhaps respond via email only. Often times by forcing the negative distributor to wait they will get over their issue which was so urgent to them.  They might actually go and figure out how to do it themselves or perhaps their anger or frustration over their issue dies down and they’re able to think and react more clearly.

You have to keep your distance from the negative people so you can have more time to focus on the positive.  This is how truly successful leaders get to whether they are.

What do you think?  Am I off my rocker?  Have you had any experiences like this? Do you have any tips?

- Ben Fitts

MLM Training > leadership

Are you a network marketing professional?

Are you interested in taking your business to the next level… Are you interested in doubling your income?

Guess what? It’s actually simple to give yourself a raise.  It’s NOT easy but it is simple.

You see each level of income requires a new you.  You have to constantly get better. You have to develop new skills and new attitudes in order to make more money.  Here is an example that might make more sense.

1. You start out learning the basics and recruit a few people.  Call this skill level #1.
2. You become a team builder and master the aspects of recruiting and marketing. You have recruited dozens of people to your  team. Call this skill level #2.
3. You become a team leader and start looking for other leaders on your team to work closely with. You find those 5% who are showing leadership and put them in a position to succeed. Call this skill level #3.
4. You are a world class business leader. You not only recruit leaders but you help those 20% er’s on your team that have a lot of potential learn to develop into leaders.  Call this skill level #4.

For me it’s pretty obvious because I can look back at my business and see where I was at a lower level.  I thought I was doing well but to take my business to that next level I had to develop some new skills and develop as a person.

It’s kind of like I’ve built a big team.  I’ve hosted the big events.  Now I’m moving on to the next phase in my own organization.  I now have big leaders who have their own teams and their own events and now my role is to not host my own events but be a guest speaker at my team member’s events.

If you look at my 4 skillsets above, where do you fit on the scale?  Are you at #1 still?  Are you at #2?  Compare where you are now to the next skillset then think about what you need to do to advance to that next level of your business.

If you have questions or if I didn’t do a good job of explaining it, let me know!

- Ben Fitts

MLM Training > leadership

Do you have leadership?

Earlier this week someone from my team called to ask for some advice.  She was complaining about her lack of upline support and she was reaching out to me because her immediate upline hasn’t been helping her.

While upline support is important it isn’t essential.

I don’t have an upline any more.  They quit or sold out of the business years ago.  So it’s just me.  There’s no one else for me to blame but myself.  If I don’t succeed it’s just me to blame.

Some people might be shocked.  But the reality is when you know you have leaders is when you know that they will continue in the business with or without you.  When you have real leaders they are the kind of perrson that can do things without you.  Sure you’re help can help them succeed faster but they’re unstoppable.  Even if you quit the business they would continue on and continue building without you.

I’m not saying upline support isn’t helpful. Upline support can help you go faster because you don’t have to do it all yourself.  Your upline can provide training or resources that you can plug your team into.  You won’t have to create these tools and training materials from scratch.  That allows you to focus on recruiting and helping your new people get started quickly.

But you know you’re a leader when your upline isn’t helping and you STILL succeed.

- Ben Fitts

If you’re looking for upline support that provides free training, free marketing web sites, and support then I think I do that (learn more about my business here.)

Natalie says “I really do appreciate all the help and support that you provide.  It makes the business so much better to have support like you. Have a wonderful day.”

MLM Training > leadership