I am on the plane home to Australia right now after coming back from a life changing few days at the Blue & Presidential Diamond Summit in Arizona plus the Live Your Strengths Mastermind with Natalie and Andy Goddard and while I can’t share everything I can definitely share what I learnt in relation to powerful leadership.
For me the most important thing to understand about leadership is that it isn’t about you, it is about serving your people and allowing them to grow into the absolute best version of themselves, seeing them, believing in them and drawing out the absolute best in them so that you are helping create and shape more LEADERS, not just followers who believe they need you and that you have the goods (and that they don’t).
A common question in this business is how do I inspire people to want to build the business with me? By building trust, connection, stability, belief and allowing them to feel seen, heard and truly valued.
Behave like a leader (even if you’ve never done this in your life) from the very beginning of your business, think to yourself in the very beginning what would I be doing if I was already Diamond & above and DO THAT! Don’t wait until you’re there. You get there by starting the journey.
Check Yourself At The Door
It is crucial that as a leader you metabolise the poison. You do not engage in negativity but lead with positivity and a solutions based mindset.
“When left to its own devices the human mind becomes negative”- Justin Harrison, Master Distributor
Therefore it becomes crucial that you stay connected. This is why attending events is a must, business trainings, workshops, Convention, Leadership Retreat, Mastermind events, Blue & Pres Summits when you are at that level, incentive trips and anything else that comes your way.
In recent times I have started implementing immersion days with my top leaders where they come to my home and we focus on what’s working well, taking action, tapping, goal setting, masterminding and more. Of course my entire team doesn’t live in the same town as me so I encourage people in other areas to start up their own even if it’s one or two people to begin with!
“Every choice you make effects the whole family”- Boyd Truman
I often think to myself what would I do in this situation if Natalie Goddard or Emily Wright were with me. Do that. None of us are perfect, I have made terrible mistakes as a leader and will continue to mess things up no doubt and relationships can be a tricky thing!
When this happens it is important to let go of resentment and blame, show up and fully own your part of the breakdown. Natalie uses can we start again? And I’ve also heard help me understand? To open up crucial conversations and healing. Apologise even if you believe you have done nothing wrong. Take responsibility and move forward with compassion and understanding for where someone is at.
Maintain the Culture
Set a higher bar for yourselves as leaders. There is always room for improvement. The things that unify us are service and purpose so when you find you are being challenged or bogged down by the complications and speed bumps that come up in any business and are feeling frustrated constantly remind yourself to return to why you are doing this and gain perspective and strength from that.
My why-
“To empower people physically, emotionally, spiritually and financially and to assist people to truly ignite their light, own their value, spread hope and help people create true freedom, abundance and joy in their lives.”
So let’s create an environment where we help people lean in to who they truly are. Aim to inspire and lead with integrity, grace and humility. Lift EVERYONE. I can tell you now that helping others succeed including those on other teams will NEVER dampen your own success. In fact it will only support it. You rise as you help others rise. Isn’t that the most amazing thing about network marketing that to succeed instead of having to beat others to the top you LITERALLY have to support others to succeed and help people?
Some guiding principles Laura Jacobs shared with us
Be prepared for anything and a solution creator.
Seek to understand, instead of losing your mind and feeling angry about decisions made, choose to believe that corporate always have our best interests at heart and think from their perspective.
Spin it!!!! Find the magic and share it. There is always a way to flip things and find the positive.
Seek to be UNDERSTOOD, keep asking questions, keep lines of communication open with account managers and management, raise any concerns respectfully and calmly.
Off months are our months to take control and responsibility for our business. Don’t devalue by offering crazy stuff all the time.
Collaboration and Unity
“Humility bridges the gap between independence and collaboration”- Kyle Kirschbaum
We are SO much stronger together. It is amazing to see what doTERRA Wellness Advocates across teams create when they work together, an example is the Empowered Success series that is coming very soon and will allow us to order training resources directly from back office and be unified as a company. This has never be done in the history of network marketing and it is because of the humility and community these leaders create. Leaving their egos at the door and need to do things on their own and receive all the recognition. Instead working together for the greater good of all concerned and understanding the true mission.
Secrets to Motivation
Watch this Ted Talk that Andy Goddard shared with us to more fully understand the puzzle of motivation and principles of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose!
Personal & Professional Development
It is crucial to constantly fill your own cup and invest in your own growth so that you are able to serve, teach, inspire and lead.
Try listening to podcasts such as Ange Peters Hol Fit, and Action Catalyst. Of course tapping is a huge one for me, check out Brad Yates youtube channel, Blinkist is an amazing app where you can get the Cliff notes from books (thanks Gina for this tip!). Of course attending events, showing up and constantly doing the inner work so that your outer work is far more effective.
Remember that you CAN change the code. You are not who you were yesterday, a year ago, five years ago. You are the Director. Or CHIEF ENERGY OFFICER (CEO) of your business. You have the power to grow, change and rewrite your story constantly by investing in and choosing to do the growth.
Lean Into More of Who YOU Are
It can be so easy to go to a business training, conference, summit, mastermind etc and listen to other incredibly inspiring leaders and think CRAP I need to implement ALL THE THINGS and become paralysed by overwhelm.
NOPE. You do you babe. I loved Ange Peters sharing on the panel about stopping the panic on needing to be more of someone in the room and just nailing what you do well.
It’s so much more awesome when we play to our strengths and allow others to play to theirs without feeling that need to be more of them.
We feel unity when we give each other permission to be unique and different. Let’s create a movement that celebrates our differences.
Leadership Principles from Dave Stirling
“It is our choices (actions) that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”- Albus Dumbledore
Learning to be present. Truly present. Don’t answer the phone when you’re with people. Don’t be texting. Don’t be floating off in your thoughts. Be there. Truly there when you’re with someone.
Enabling the dreams of others.
Providing HONEST feedback. Letting people know what can be done to be even better. Have the guts to have crucial conversations.
The power of apology. Even if you think you’re right. “Can we start again?” Are the worlds Natalie Goddard uses when relationships become tricky. “Help me understand” is another great one as I shared above (sharing again as this is TRICKY stuff for me!)
MAKING OTHERS FEEL SEEN. This is my favourite and most important to me. Part of my strengths is that I’m a Maximiser.
What is a maximiser? People who are especially talented in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.
We did this at the Leadership Retreat I ran for our Gold and above Leaders in Byron Bay in November. I had an idea come to me that we would have each of us sit in the centre of the circle and move around and have the 20+ leaders around the circle take it in turns to tell the person in the middle all values, qualities and attributes they see and appreciate in them and why they love them. You can try this exercise in your team even with a few people or one on one. This was powerful. We sobbed as we were made to receive. Not just one compliment on something superficial but the deepest meaning others found in us. It was extremely transformation and powerful.
Even send them a Facebook message. A written letter. A card. Tell people to their face. Do this regularly. As often as possible. LIFT people. Love them. Encourage them. Value them. This transforms people.
And the last one. Listening with affection. Powerful. This is what so many in my life bring to me and I want to be even better at bringing to others.
Use these leadership principles and ask yourself to show up and be even better at these things than you already are (while acknowledging how truly incredible you are already). You can change the code.
If you want to find out what YOUR strengths are and help your team discover theirs take the Strengths test. You can find your top 5 or do all 34 at http://www.strengthsfinder.com/ it is $19.99 USD to take the test.
I hope you found this helpful. Feel free to share it with your team members!
Remember shine your light as boldly and fiercely being yourself and showing up inspires others to do the same.
Jessie
Love this!! So much.