By Dale Calvert

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What is your specific game plan to start your new distributors on the right track to success?

Unfortunately today in network marketing, far too many distributors are giving what I call the “go sickem” training program. They are brought into their program by a close friend or family member who has no experience or background in the networking profession.
Let’s face it, the industry is full of the blind leading the blind. Is it any wonder the drop-out rates are so high? Even worse, the internet is full of self-proclaimed gurus trying to distract or steal members of your team, hiding behind the title of “consultant” or “trainer.”

In today’s environment, more than ever, it is your job to lead your team. If you don’t provide them a track to run on, somebody else will.
There are four dominant leadership styles: DIRECTING, COACHING , SUPPORTING and DELEGATING.

What is your dominant leadership style?
DELEGATING: these distributors bring new people into the program and have them call cold lead lists immediately, or do some other activity that new people have no business doing. Delegating activities and responsibilities to new people too soon is a major mistake.

SUPPORTING: this is the dominant leadership style of most network marketers. They are ready and willing to help; unfortunately the new person doesn’t have any idea what they might need help with. You will hear dominant supporters say things like, “Let me know if I can help you; if you would like for me to do some 3-ways calls with you, just let me know.” The new person is thinking, what is a 3-way call?
COACHING: these leaders have a “tell-show-do” attitude and approach to the business. They tell the person what they want them to do, they show them how to do it, and they do it with them. They coach and monitor systems. Unfortunately, most financially successful network marketers have not built their business based upon systems; they have flown by the seat of their pants and built based upon their own drive, determination and work ethic. Personality is NOT duplicable.

DIRECTION: Directional leaders can come across as a boss. Most people don’t want a boss—this is one of the reasons they get involved in this business. However, directional leaders with proven systems in place are the best at getting new people started and in action. They will tend to be control freaks and have a major challenge encouraging, supporting and eventually delegating to their team members, but in the beginning they get the job done.
So what is the answer?

As a network marketing leader you should learn to use different leadership styles with different team members based upon their time in the business and level of success.
This may sound confusing, but is really quite simple after you get the hang of it, and understand the logical, sequential process of developing people and future leaders on your team.

When people first join your team, they NEED and WANT Directional leadership. They need you to lay out their first assignment— the first steps they need to take. When those assignments are completed, then you move to step 2, then step 3 and so on. The first 90 days are the most critical period of everyone’s network marketing career, and people need strong directional leadership and specific proven systems to get their business off the ground and moving forward.
I call it playing ball, you throw the ball to them, they complete the task or throw the ball back. This back and forth, teacher/student relationship is created from day one and maintained until you have a developed leader who you can delegate to. Directional leadership from day one is where most distributors drop the ball.

People tend to want to support their new distributor. New distributors don’t need a friend, they need a leader that is going to help them get their business off on the right foot and moving forward. They don’t just need someone to tell them what to do with jargon and terminology they have never heard before. They are looking for someone who will roll up their sleeves and go to work with them, someone with a “tell, show, do” mentality who acts like he has done this before.
People are looking for a leader that has a “follow me and I will take you where you want to go” mentality, they don’t need a cheerleader. You can cheer all you want, but if they don’t know specifically, exactly what they should be doing, they do nothing.

When you first sponsor a new person on your team, you need to provide them with strong directional leadership at least for the first 90 days. Then you move into a coaching mode with them, where you teach different methods of lead generation until they have mastered lead generation and recruiting. At this point, their success depends mostly on doing what they already know to do, so you can move more into a supporting mode with them. They don’t need directional leadership or coaching at this point, because success comes down to just doing what they already know how to do. Finally, the numbers and the ratios all come together for them as they are able to devote their full time efforts to the business and at this point you are delegating.
I like to call this, turning over the keys to the McDonald’s. At this point they know what to do, they have done it, and most importantly it can now be duplicated.

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