The Importance of Networking in Business

How to Build a Winning Team

Team building is the catalyst of all you want to accomplish. When your home based business grows and you have created a team in your business there is no better way to serve your followers than by directing, motivating, training, delegating and gratifying.

There are five basics to built a great team:

DIRECTING

When you give people direction, challenge them to use their talents, and give them the autonomy to achieve a goal, you have helped them fulfill their personal potential and that of the team. Keep directing your team based on their mission and refer to their sense of pride as motivator to excellent work.

MOTIVATING

After you start directing your team, you must motivate each individual person in your team. One of the best ways to do that is through recognition and rewards. Most of the time people will do anything for recognition and that is more important than a paycheck to the human kind. There are two rules you have to remember. The first one is that you have to Praise in Public – Correct in Private. The two important benefits of doing this is that the person being praised feels good and the listeners benefit by knowing that if they do well the leader will acknowledge them also. The second rule is Praise what’s Right – Train for what’s Wrong Train where improvement is needed. People will be more motivated when the feel satisfied. Satisfaction comes from being part of an effective team and feeling that you are important to that team.

TRAINING

People are motivated to learn when they see that it will improve their lives and their potential. As a leader you must make education a top national priority. It is the key to staying competitive in Network Marketing. Training will make the difference between having people in your team with good intentions and those who can make a difference.

DELEGATING

You can’t built a team without efficient delegation. Most times a business owner falls into the trap of doing things themselves when they want them “done right”. This is a “luxury” that you cannot afford. Learn to delegate tasks and projects to optimize your time. When you delegate task these keys will help you go well though the process. 1. Clearly define the task. Do not tell a person how to do the task. Let them know what results you are looking for and what benefits will from its completion. 2. Give the authority to accomplish the task. Pick one person from you team who you believe he or she can handle the task. 3. Give guidelines to begin or follow. This will help the uncertain or unskilled to learn what you expect. 4. Reward and recognize effort as well as the results.

GRATIFYING

Create an atmosphere that is as stress free as possible to maximize productivity and loyalty. Make the work enjoyable and conductive to people expending their talent and energy toward the desired results.

To learn more about growing Winning Team, you can go to my website Success In Marketing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Monja_Meulstee

Business is Like Fishing

I love fishing. I enjoy it whether or not I catch fish. A good catch makes the fishing trip more than just a visit – it makes it a successful fishing trip. I prefer to catch fish. A memorable fishing adventure begins with a good plan.

What makes a fishing trip successful? For starters you need to gear up. You need to:

know the right spot to fish,
have the right vehicles to get to the right spot,
use the right bait to attract the right fish to take the hook,
know how to set the hook, and
how to play and land the fish.

Do all these things properly, and you will have a great fishing trip.

Plan
A successful fishing trip begins long before the first cast. Being at the right place at the right time might look fortuitous to the onlooker, but it’s usually the result of research and planning. Someone has taken the time to learn about the fish; habits, patterns, likes and dislikes. It is also critical to know the waterway and have a roadmap to guide you to the spot. You also want to understand weather patterns and have backup plans to deal safely with accidents or disasters.

Preparation
In getting equipped for a great fishing trip, you will want to prepare for all possible situations. You will need survival gear, fishing equipment and the suitable vehicles to get to the right location. Then there’s the fishing gear – rod and reel, the tackle box, line, lures, weights. If you’re camping you will have a whole other range of concerns and equipment to attend to.

Competition
You will need to be aware of the other fishermen vying for the same fish as you are. Too many competitors will deplete the supply of fish and you might find yourself working much harder than you want. A certain amount of competition is healthy, too much is not. If your business is competing with too many others, you will need to work much harder to capture your share of the market. If you find yourself surrounded by a throng of hungry fishermen and no fish, it might be time to pack up and move to a new location. If you find yourself engulfed by competitor advertising and your sales lagging it may be time to reposition your business.

Location
Success is only possible in both fishing and business by choosing the right location. Ideally you want to place yourself on the bank of a river where the current compels the fish to swim within a few feet of you. Fishing where there are no fish is like trying to sell goods where there are no customers. In business, you must locate yourself where customers can see you and where they can stop to shop. You can do everything else perfectly, but if you are in the wrong place customers and fish won’t even know you’re in the game.

Presentation
You can pick the right location and do many things well, but if you don’t present the right tackle the customers will pass you by. As the fish swim through your location, something has to catch their interest and entice them to pause long enough to inspect your offering. It might be some sort of bait or a shiny lure, or a combination of the two. The bait can be real food; the lure might look like food. The function of your presentation is to get the fish to stop and bite. In business, you must find ways to catch your customers’ interest and slow them down long enough to nibble on your lure.

Play
Once a fish bites you need to set the hook and reel ‘em in. If you blow this part of the process, the fish gets away and isn’t likely to take your bait again for a long time. I don’t know if fish talk to each other, but customers definitely do. Make sure each encounter is positive. Depending on the type of fish and your skill set, you might have to play a few fish and customers before actually landing one.

Landing
You can play the fish and bring it to the water’s edge, but your job is still not done. Many great fish are lost at the point of landing. Part of the trick to a successful landing is to remain calm so as not to spook the fish. With customers you will need to be attentive to the last drop, listening for objections, answering questions, focusing on the benefits. It is also critical to know when your catch is complete, and how to stop selling and start bagging.

Like fishing, your business adventure should begin with a plan. In planning your business you will:

Prepare yourself to manage and operate your business
Learn what’s working for your competitors
Research and compare different locations
Develop and fine tune your presentation

Planning will take you to a certain point and then it’s time to get out into the current and fish. Once in business you will have plenty of opportunities to learn the business trade skills of attracting, engaging and keeping customers.

Dan Boudreau is Author of Business Plan or BUST! and hosts the RiskBuster Practical Business Planning Oasis at http://www.riskbuster.com

Selling Laptops to Polar Bears

Leadership in Troubled Times

The first task of a leader is to keep hope alive. - Joe Batten

Leading an organization can be challenging, even when times are good. When times are troubled, it is even more important for leaders to come to the forefront and provide direction and inspiration. We face challenging times today with a weakened economy, layoffs, and intense scrutiny of a mistrustful public sector. As leaders, now is the time to stand up for our beliefs.

I subscribe to a value based leadership theory that has as much if not more relevance in our troubled times today than it has in the past. Leadership is about hope, vision, inspiration, communication, and trust. As a leader, you have the opportunity to provide vision and hope to those around. You have the opportunity to instill belief and restore trust to those who look up to you. And you have the opportunity to build a bond with those around you that is forged under difficult circumstances and tempered with the steel of your own personal values and beliefs. I believe that this is true regardless of what level of leader you are. Whether you are a first line manager, or a CEO your people are looking up to you for direction and inspiration. And they are looking to you to provide them hope.

Is that a tall order for a leader at any level?

Yes. But this is what separates the true leaders from those people who are leaders only by title.

I believe that Joe Batten is right when he states that the first task of the leader is to keep hope alive. I believe that the second task of a leader is to communicate that hope and vision to their employees and their superiors in a way that builds trust and respect. With a strong foundation of values, a leader can inspire their people to achieve great things, produce fantastic results, and succeed while others around them fail. Without a values based foundation a “leader” may produce short term results but will fail the test of time as employees, without any basis for trust and respect will look for any opportunity to better themselves and remove themselves from the realm of a valueless based leader.

You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) – Thirty- fourth President of the USA

Why is it that we hear about so many oppressive work environments, where the bosses belittle their employees, use the whip to produce results, and then discard anyone who questions their orders? When I read or hear about “leaders” telling their employees that they “are lucky to have jobs at all”, I cringe. For in reality, those are not leaders. Those are just the caretakers of companies that do not truly value their most precious asset …. the employees. These “leaders” violate the principles of value-based leadership and will soon discover that their lack of true leadership, their lack of vision and hope, will result in their being abandoned when things improve.

He who thinks he is leading, but has no one following is only taking a walk. - John Maxwell ” 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”

Employees are the backbone of any organization. They, not you, make things work. They, not you, find creative solutions to complex problems. And they, not you, ultimately hold the key to your own personal success. For ultimately you are judged by your ability to develop, lead, and maintain strong teams that put the goals of the company ahead of their personal goals. And that only happens to employees who are inspired by, and trust in their leader.

If you want to know if you are truly a leader or not, look around at your team. Do they follow you because they want to? Because they are inspired by you? Because they believe in you? Or do they follow you because they have to.

It is time to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Are you providing hope and inspiration to those around you? If not, when will you start.

« Previous Page — Next Page »