4 Tips to Keeping Your Team Focused

Reading time: minute(s)

Keeping your team focused on daily, weekly or even a monthly basis is difficult no matter what business or organization you are in. This is particularly true for the network marketing business. 

It’s been said that the average person is only focused for 6 hours a week!  That is less than one hour per day!  This is indeed shocking for anyone in network marketing, so your aim is to increase that number as much as possible.  Even a full hour every morning of focused work on your networking marketing business will lead to more success! 

But know this too, it is said that learning to be laser focused for extended periods of time is a skill which can only be developed from repetitive practice – most people are not born with this skill.  So what practices can we adopt to help our team stay focused?

1.  Emphasize the Strategic Vision or Objective

This is paramount. The team has to know what the overall goal or objective is on a regular basis. If it is to attain a specific reward, then keep that carrot in front of your team all the time.

I like to use a military example that my husband was sharing with me the other day.  If the team leader tells the platoon, that the objective today is to march 15 miles through swamp, bush, forest over the hill etc, then the team is not really motivated. 

But if the objective is explained that the mission is to reinforce our troops who are surrounded by the enemy and they are counting on us to support them, then the team knows the bigger picture and marching 15 miles is important to achieving that objective.  They will probably march even farther because they are motivated by the strategic objective.

That is what you need to do with your network marketing team.  Keep them focused and reminded of the overall objective and not on the every day noise. 

Tony Jeary, in his book Leverage, talks about focusing on the high level activities or HLAs. These HLAs are driven by the strategic vision or objectives. So if you want your team to do the HLAs, then you must keep the Strategic Vision or Objective in front of them, all the time.

2.  Apply Effective Communication

To be effective, daily or weekly communications have to be short, brief and to the point!  People don’t want their time wasted by long or social diatribes – they want to hear strong, clear direction to know what they have to do.  This means restating the strategic objective, setting daily or weekly goals to meet the objectives and offering specific guidance on how to achieve them.

You know you’ve been married to a military guy for a long time, when you start using some of their systems and end up getting great team results!  Here’s the SMEAC system they use in their daily briefings to keep the team focused. 

SMEAC is short for:

S – Situation:  This is the background to your problem, or a description of what has happened. What were the events leading up to where you are now?

M – Mission:  So now we know what has happened, the mission is what we need to do about it. The mission should be a short, clear and concise statement of what you want to achieve – “Our mission is to organize the Christmas Party”.  Or maybe it is to attain a certain rank “ Our mission is to attain Ruby by 15 October 2016”.

E – Execution: This is the “how” part of the plan – how you are going to achieve your mission.  Detail the steps required.  What are you going to do? Why? When? Where? Who is involved? How? The execution part of the process is usually the longest and should provide sufficient information to allow you [or your team] to go and do the job.

A – Administration and Logistics:  This is about what resources you need to do the job, and how these resources are to be coordinated.

C – Command and Communications:  This is the who’s who of the job – who’s in charge, who do you report to, and how you communicate with each other.

While you may not use every part of the SMEAC in your daily or weekly briefings and team calls,  by following it, you will keep your instructions brief and to the point. 

Your daily or weekly team meetings should only last about 15 minutes. 

3.  Encourage the Use of Existing Systems and Tools

Most network marketing companies have established a system to be followed and the tools to be used in your day to day business to achieve your team and personal goals.  Why, because it keeps it simple and consistent. It means it is easily duplicatable.

Your company is probably no different whether it is using 3-way calls, or following a meeting checklist, or using the many videos available to you. They are tools that need to be utilized every day. Would a carpenter be successful if he left certain tools in his tool box and never used them? The same point applies to you.

But many people don’t follow the system or use the tools. So they need to be reminded constantly to do this. And that is your job to motivate them to use the system and the tools on a daily basis. 

Remember, what Jim Rohn says – what is easy to do, is also easy not to do.  So keep them focused on doing what is easy – following the system and using the tools.

4.  Lead through consistent action and team accountability

Its’s up to you to provide effective leadership to your team, no one else, not your upline or your downline, it’s your responsibility, and your team is expecting it from you.  Remember this important Jim Rohn guidance in your day to day performance:

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humour, but without folly.” – Jim Rohn

If you want your team to move the yardsticks, then you have to run with the ball too! 

This means you have to walk the talk every day and do the high level activities (HLAs) that you want your team to do.  So do the things that will generate motivation in your team.  Give direction, set the agenda, establish the HLAs and prioritize the work. 

And then you have to be accountable to your team if you want them to be accountable to you! 

This means showing them what you have done, being loyal to them, giving them tips, providing them with encouragement and recognizing them when recognition is due!

So concentrate on keeping your team focused. It does take work on your part but by applying these tips on a regular basis, you will stay on track and get the results that you and your team members want and are capable of achieving!

Leadership is a skill, so if you’d like to learn more, feel free to contact me anytime.

About the author 

Deborah MacDonald

After almost 25 years as an entrepreneur, I continue to grow my business, my passive income streams and my wealth. And now I mentor others on their wealth journeys by teaching them how to fund their own freedom lifestyle.

FREEDOM GUIDE
7 Secrets To Achieving Your
Dream Lifestyle