Active AimA Journey and Destination

One of the best parts of being in direct sales is the fact that you can recruit, train and motivate a team that works for you not only building their own little empire, but helping to boost yours as well. It’s the number one reason many direct sellers concentrate so hard at recruiting a team of their own.

Now that you are a leader of a team, you’ll need to build a strong relationship with team members to not only help them stay strong in their business, but to help your business grow stronger as well. A solid relationship will be one that’s mutually helpful and everyone benefits.

How can you make certain your team is feeling included and supported, but still maintain some sense of balance within your own life and business? It can be demanding trying to provide support to everyone (especially if you have a large team). Follow these five ideas for sustaining a supportive and good connection with your team:

1. Don’t wait to get going! New recruits need lots of communication and support. Even if she doesn’t even have her kit yet, be there to answer questions and provide training materials.

Don’t wait to communicate once she gets her kit. Start the training and mentoring the minute she signs up. You can do this easily via email or texting. Don’t make it a monumental task; just be sure to touch base frequently.

2. GIVE 15. Set aside fifteen minutes of each workday for team phone calls. Use those minutes to call one to five members of your group for a quick “just checking in” call. Leave a message if you get voicemail. The idea is to let them know that you’re thinking of them and giving them a chance to hear your voice. This is a great time to ask how they’re doing with their life as well and get beyond your company to show you care about them. They don’t want to get the feeling you only care because you are making money off of them.

3. Even if you have a personal website for your business, make a team website. It is great for communication. You can post new members, meeting dates and updates, etc. Your team can check it at their convenience and it keeps everyone connected.

4. Meetings are essential, but you can set up tele-seminars and host phone call meeting or online meetings. Whatever method you choose, just do it! Your group will falter faster if they don’t feel supported and meetings are the best way to keep them together and involved.

5. Ecards. They are FREE (great!), but also convenient and fun. Use an Internet calendar function to keep track of birthdays. Once a month go through the upcoming month and set up the ecard deliveries for the birthdays, anniversary dates for the next month or more. You can set these up to deliver up to a year in advance! Everyone likes to get an ecard!

Bottom line…communicate, communicate, communicate! Your team needs to know you are there for them and that you care about them. They’ll be more likely to stay in business, work hard and stay motivated if you do these simple things.

Technorati Tags: direct sales, downline, home business, Leadership, mlm, Network Marketing, sales

In today’s rapidly changing world due to a fast –paced lifestyle and busy workplace, one cannot help but sometimes feel down and out, which can cause

negative results that affect productivity but one thing you could do is by using influence to motivate others.

The initial step in acquiring influence and power over others, especially in a working environment is to make sure that you make yourself valuable to the

organization, not just for being a leader or manager, but to make yourself indispensable by focusing on some tasks that only you can master and one that will

be valuable to the organization.

This step basically begins with you focusing on your job and doing it exceptionally and as you continue on, you develop your reputation of being a model

employee, resulting to job promotions and better career opportunities offered by the company.

Next make yourself more helpful and valuable to more people in the organization, you can do this by going the extra mile when providing service or working on

a project.

As this continues, not only do you expand your influence over others, you also expand your network of people, who consider you a valuable part of their work

as well. The next step is for you to seek more opportunities in terms of career advancement and growth by seeking for a higher level of learning and

acquiring a higher degree.

This can also be done by innovating more processes, like for a sales environment, think up of unique concepts and ideas to increase sales and productivity.

As you continue on with your career growth and climbing up the corporate ladder, you also allow yourself to expand your influence over a greater number of

people in the organization. First thing that happens when you want to use your influence to motivate others is to first win them over.

Here are some common steps and actions to take to ensure having your edge of influence in an organization.

First, set the example. If you set the example of doing a good job or performing above expectations, people will look up to you and follow your example. You

establish your reputation and credibility by being the person they expect you to be, better yet, exceed their expectations.

Second, be able to follow instructions with little or no supervision at all. This is one sure way that you help create an impression of reliability not only

with your peers and your managers, but also with your subordinates as well.

Third, whenever you are working on something, make sure that you exceed expectations by trying your hardest and ensuring that you focus to make it work

effectively and efficiently. This is one way that you motivate others to also try their hardest.

Forth, always behave maturely in front of everybody.

As a professional, you are expected to always display a professional demeanor. Not only are you setting the example of level-headedness, but you are also

setting the environment for others to follow suit as well.

Lastly, always display a positive mental attitude, especially in the workplace. There will always be occasions where other people exhibit a sense of negative

vibes or a depressing mood, but you can break the ice by showing a positive attitude.

In a nutshell, these five steps of setting the right example will pave the way for you to motivate others not only by what you do, but also using that

influence to motivate others.

Feelings of low self worth have plagued so many individuals over the years. While there are those who suffer

momentary bouts of low self esteem once in a while, how people perceive themselves and their worth is often

an enduring idea. If you’re one of those who feel low self esteem far too often, you need not despair.

Recognizing that you have a problem, after all, is one step in the right direction. Once you’ve recognized the

fact that how little you value yourself is problematic, there are some low self esteem solutions that can help

you in the process of beginning to develop greater love for yourself and appreciation for who you are.

First order of business, of course, is to recognize if you are simply having a chain of bad days or weeks, or are

suffering from genuine feelings of low self worth. Some symptoms include withdrawing one’s self from the

rest of the world, seeking to please other people at one’s own expense, feeling unhappy about one’s body and

appearance (which can lead to some eating disorders), and neglecting one’s self. You may also worry a lot

about what others say but put little importance on what you have to say. You may be expecting too little from

yourself despite imposing impossible standards of perfection at the same time.

If these are the cocktail of feelings that you often suffer from, then the first step is to seek professional help.

This is because trained professional therapists can provide an excellent avenue through which you can

re-evaluate whatever negative feelings and opinions you have about yourself. This is the first step towards

self acceptance and recognizing your worth as a person.

While you are working towards building your own self esteem slowly with a therapist, you will also benefit

from trying to actively make choices in your various activities to inculcate a habit of self love. For instance,

for every successful activity that you partake in, give yourself due credit. Make this recognition of your

contribution to the cause more material by rewarding yourself. Have you scored well in an exam? Buy

something you like, or eat somewhere nice to reward yourself for a job well done.

Next, eat healthy, workout, and sleep well. Keeping a healthy lifestyle is a good step in order to begin

appreciating one’s body, as it is one of the steps through which you are able to gain greater appreciation of

yourself. You need not be displeased about how you look, because of the fact that you are very much aware

that you are taking care of yourself very well. You will also find that eating healthy, sleeping well, and

working out will contribute to your having enough energy to participate better in your activities and to

simply enjoy whatever happens during the day.

Whenever people ask a favour from you, first consider if this favour will involve putting other people before

your needs. You need to actively ensure that your needs are first met before you go around helping other

people out. This will help you recognize that while other people are important, you deserve the same

attention that you shower on other people.

One of the best low self esteem solutions is to participate in activities that you like. In the process, you may

discover some talent that you were unable to devote yourself to previously. Dancing, art, music, or sports can

help you find a niche of specialization, as well as an avenue for self-expression.

About Internal Branding

Most companies focus entirely on promoting their brand to create a positive perception on

the consumer’s brand that internal branding loses its share of the formula. An important

share, at that. Marketing efforts are executed to establish a high-quality brand that

delivers to the needs and demands of the consumers. But how do you ensure that you are

delivering up to the standards of your company? This is where internal branding comes into

play.

To attain good quality products and services for your brand, you need to take care of your

business’ internal processes first. Internal branding is about the focus you give on

ensuring that practices and methods utilized in the creation of products or services meet

your company’s set of values. Branding must be done inside and out. You need to be able to

reproduce these values in the mind of everyone who is a part of the organization so you

can naturally promote your brand.

How Do You Achieve It?

You cannot produce a good marketing message to the public unless you start from within.

That is something every business owner need to realize. Therefore, you need to learn

strategies as to how you can effectively execute a sound internal branding system to

ensure a cohesive take on developing a brand that will satisfy your potential customers.
Here’s how you can do it:

• Gather together all of your development team work together in the development and

creation of the brand to ensure that all methods are synchronized with your values and set

of objectives laid out by the company.

• When hiring employees to work with you, choose those that are aligned with the corporate

values of your company. Having the right set of skills will enable you to achieve the most

effective brand representation you desire.

• Keep internal communication lines open at all times. This will enable you to reinforce

and enhance whatever existing values that are being executed to meet the promise of your

brand. If you keep nurturing this in the mind of the employees, then they will be able to

develop that soon enough.
Benefits of Internal Branding

Aside from unity in your company’s vision towards what you want to achieve with your

brand, internal branding offers more benefits. If you are not aware of the potential

benefits that internal branding offers, these are just a few ways that it can help boost

your brand’s campaign:

• Internal branding produces a healthy working environment and cohesive working culture.

Once all employees understand the vision behind the brand, all components of the company

are now geared towards the same goals.

• Internal branding produces a more consistent branding message. Once your brand have

established a given brand reputation, your employees will be proud to represent your

company while at the same time be challenged to meet its set of standards.

• Internal branding serves as an avenue to push for change.

• Internal branding develops your brand identity.
Basic Priciples

If you want to create an effective internal branding system, every company must give

attention to the following set of principles:

1.) Give freedom not control. An effective internal branding management is one that

emphasizes a set of rules that are agreed on by the employees, so they could genuinely

contribute to the advancement of your brand.

2.) Decentralize. Learn how to trust your employees to deliver the quality your brand

deserves.

3.) Communicate your company’s message to the personnel first before the customers. How do

you expect your employees to deliver the type of standard you want to achieve if they do

not have proper understanding of the company’s objectives?

4.) Synchronized operation. You need to be able to pull together different departments of

the company so that everyone works at the same pace and perspective.

5.) Think long-term goals. No brand is created overnight. Therefore, you need to create

that mindset in your personnel that enables them to think of the long-term impacts and

effects of an effective internal branding system

Who among us has never procrastinated? The first time you procrastinated was probably in school when you did a project or paper at the last minute or tried to cram for an exam. It’s not easy to overcome procrastination, but it is a habit you can unlearn, just like you learned it.

The first step to solving any problem is to admit you have one. The second step is acknowledging you want to solve that problem and will do what it takes to overcome the issue. So repeat after me, “I am a chronic procrastinator. I will do whatever I must to rid myself of this nasty habit.” Well done! This is the first step toward a new “do it now” you!

Generally, there are three reasons we procrastinate. One, we just don’t like to do unpleasant things. Two, we’d rather do what we’d rather do. Finally, we put off and jobs or tasks that seem overwhelming.

Even when you can bring yourself around to doing that which is unpleasant you will find a million other excuses why the task can wait. Whatever your reason for procrastinating you must find a way to overcome the excuses.

If the problem facing you is a job you don’t want to do, then think of some way to leverage your best interest in favor of getting the task done. Offer yourself a reward once the job is done. Do something for yourself.

If there is something else you prefer doing make that your reward. If you would rather have a manicure than go to the dentist, schedule a manicure right after your dental appointment. Immediate gratification is a great way to overcome procrastination.

When a task overwhelms you break it up into small units. This is an extremely effective way to stop procrastinating. Smaller units of a big job can make it seen more achievable.

Procrastination seems like a never-ending battle, but you can overcome it. Here are a few more tips you can use.

You can set a schedule and stick to it, practicing time management and organizational skills as you follow it. Nothing works as well as a well planned day. When a task takes too long stop, add it to tomorrow’s list, and move on. There is no miracle cure for procrastination, but you’ll find yourself doing procrastinating less following these tips.

Technorati Tags: efficiency, Motivation, self help, self-improvement, work