MLM Leadership: Team Productivity and Motivation

MLM leadership is all inclusive and multifaceted.  What’s fun about network marketing is that you have total freedom to shape your leadership style. No one is holding a gun to your head (!) As well, there is no set corporate culture. No boss; no expected way to be; no ”shoes to fill.” So have fun! Here are some leadershop questions: How hands on or hands off should you be with your team?  What are the best things you can do to effect the business building productivity and motivation of your network team?  Let’s learn from this story.

MLM Leadership: The Experient

Picture the middle of the Great Depression between 1924 and 1933. At the massive Western Electric manufacturing plant called Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois, (Chicago) the company began to conduct productivity experiments. This was very progressive for the day. Western Electric was the Apple of their time and on the “cutting edge.” Western was doing a lot of inquiry as to leadership, worker motivation and management. “Scientific management” of labor was being seriously questioned (time, motion and physical environment). The Harvard Business School was contracted to complete the experiments.

MLM Leadership: Manipulation of the Workplace

The Hawthorne experiments first experimented with lighting. Worker productivity increased when the lighting was changed. But here was the catch: it didn’t matter how the lighting was changed(brighter/dimmer). Next music and temperature were altered. Same thing, productivity went up no matter what changed. The purely mechanical/physical/sensory aspect seemed arbitrary.

MLM Leadership: Positive Attention

The long and short is that by the end of all the experiments (and by other studies of these studies) it was concluded that worker motivation increased simply because someone paid attention to the worker. Amazing. Typically during the studies the workers were set apart. To the workers it seemed like management cared and treated them as special. At the end of the studies with nothing particularly special going on, productivity slumped to belownormal.

MLM Leadership: Relationship

The main research conclusion was that the needs and motivations of the worker as ahuman being in relationship with other people, including management leaders, was the most important factor in productivity. Thus the “human relations” movement in leadership and business management was born.

MLM Leadership: Takeaway for Network Marketing

So what is the takeaway for your MLM leadership and what you can do to increase productivity of your downline? The clear insight is that a silent  MLM leadership style is not going to work at all. On the other hand, paying constant attention isn’t going to help either. Somewhere in the middle is the balance point.

Here are some practical tips for MLM leadership that are RELATIONAL:

• Be available.
• Give personal attention to your team members and leaders; be relational and let them know that you care about their success.
• Whenever possible try to spend time with team members individually or in a small group: accompany them to a meeting, discuss business challenges over a cup of coffee.
• Give compliments, advice and assistance.
• Hold live events for training and save time to connect socially.
• Let team members know you are watching―meaning you know how they are performing, and you genuinely care about them.
• Check in on a variable schedule (in other words not fixed and predictable).
• Offer new insights and help to meet their particular needs.
• Encourage and affirm their value on your team by mentioning them to others.
• Comment positively on actions taken in the right direction.
• Encourage team members to change the ring tone on their cell phone so they know when you’re calling (!)

Source: http://www.courtneydayonline.com/mlm-leadership-team-productivity-and-motivation/