Mar
15
Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites.
Filed Under Year Of Original Content, gurus, leadership, mindset, resources | Leave a Comment
The 3rd of Colin Powell’s 18 lessons of leadership is “don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites” and could at first glance challenge many people’s perceptions, given the focus on gurus and elites in this industry!
“Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.”
In our industry so many people will lionise gurus and experts and elite groups. There is no doubt that a small number of people – gurus – have done a fantastic job with the programmes and business models they’ve brought to the market. Also, there is a widely held belief that anywhere from 90-97% of people coming to the industry will fail to be successful. I’m not totally sure what this means and I haven’t seen the actual data & evidence…
Does this mean the gurus are talking rubbish or are the cause of so much failure?
No!
It’s a bit like the morality issue with a gun – you can use it to hunt for food and so stay alive, or use it to shoot another human being – the gun is not the issue, once it’s been invented. The issue is the intent of the person with the gun. And so it is with the products and mindsets on offer from the gurus. If people don’t put in to practice in a way that works for that person the lessons and tools on offer, then failure will be more likely. Equally, blindly following a guru, or lots of gurus, is equally asking for failure too…
So my call to action with this is simple – go in with your eyes wide open, be prepared to go ‘off piste’ as it were, to adapt things to your own situation and strengths, and be discriminating – choose your gurus with care!
Cheers
Martin
- Being Responsible Sometimes Means P*ssing People Off.
- The day your team stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.
- Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites.
- Don't Be Afraid To Challenge The Pros, Even In Their Own Backyard
Mar
15
The day your team stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.
Filed Under Year Of Original Content, leadership, mindset, resources | Leave a Comment
The second lesson of General Colin Powell’s 18 lessons of leadership is summed up as follows:
“The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is theday you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”
So what does this have to do with network marketing?
Well, if you have a download, they’re like the soldiers that Colin Powell refers to. So, if they stop coming to you with their problems, you’re leadership has, for them, failed.
How can you ensure they feel they can trust you, that you can help them in some way, either by pointing them to a solution, helping them find their own way to a solution, or just being there to hear and share the pain?
Years ago I served in my country’s air force on a helicopter squadron. One day we were told that we’d have to give up the weekend, that we’d have to work to support a short notice operation. It doesn’t matter here what the operation was. The squadron commander could easily have stayed away – the squadron personnel knew what to do and how to do it, and didn’t need a senior officer getting in the way… but the commander stayed, making coffee for lower ranks, making sure they were OK, getting fed and so on.
He was sharing the pain and being ‘one of us’ – so why wouldn’t we come to him with problems?
This is just one example – and I know you can find your own.
A great starting point if you are new to leadership is to take a look at the Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner – see www.leadershipchallenge.com or click here.
There you will find out more about their 5 element framework – the 5 exemplary practices of leadership, listed below. Nearly 30 years of research make this a very proven & robust model.
- Model the Way
- Inspire a Shared Vision
- Challenge the Process
- Enable Others to Act
- Encourage the Heart
Good luck!
Cheers
Martin
- Being Responsible Sometimes Means P*ssing People Off.
- The day your team stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.
- Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites.
- Don't Be Afraid To Challenge The Pros, Even In Their Own Backyard
Mar
15
Here’s what’s rising from the grave of traditional PR
Filed Under Year Of Original Content, fundamentals, marketing, strategy, web 2.0 | Leave a Comment
I friend of mine forwarded to me an email excerpt of a blog entry on Penelope Trunk’s blog at Brazen Careerist.
It eloquently and succinctly describes the new paradigm that Web 2.0 and social media represent to the PR and advertising/marketing industries.
So many organisations simply don’t get it – they will though – they’ll have to. If you work for a big corporate, you may find your next VP of Marketing is a ’spotty youth under 20 who lives & breathes social media…’ (!).
To put it crudely – the old PR way, where you seek to control the conversation & message is out – you cannot control anything. All you can do is influence it. I recently was telling a good friend of mine who’s spent her entire working life in PR/marketing and is fast approaching 60 yrs old (and moved in quite high places) about Web 2.0 and social media marketing. Her response was interesting: “We’ll just not go to social media marketing then, if we can’t control the message”.
I told her simply – “You have no choice – whether you join in or not, people will talk about the company, its products, services, and what it seems to truly stand for. If you aren’t there to influence the message, your competitors might be, and do you want them influencing the message about you, in your absence?”
She knows this is the future, but as she said, it’s hard to turn the clock back on nearly 4 decades of fighting to be in control…
We live in interesting times!
Judge for yourself, read the blog entry I mentioned, here.
Cheers
Martin