Leadership - The third leadership level of development

Welcome back!

leadership-level-three-coaching Dear Readers,

After looking at the first two levels of development in the last issues, today we want to examine more closely the third level of development. However, before you concern yourself with the details of the third level of development, there are a number of questions you should look at more closely in order to check your own progress and your personal development.

• How many of your company have you identified on the second level of development?

• What have you done to support and challenge the people in your team that are on the first level of development?

• How have you increased the commitment of the members of your company on the second level of development?

• Which of your measures have had concretely measurable positive results?

• Which measures have had no concretely measurable results?

As you see each level of development leads to activities and actions you ought to implement as a leader in order to advance the growth of your company or organization. In addition, it is important that you use a duplicable system because in network marketing your success is directly dependent on the competence and commitment of your company. Therefore after reading each article you should spend a few minutes writing down your thoughts (whether on paper or on your computer) about how you can implement the tips and strategies so that they become a tactic you can use every day.

In the course of the remaining columns on this issue not only will you learn about the most important 4 of the 5 levels of development and understand why your company, business partners, customers behave as they do, you will also get to know further strategies. But in order to avoid a situation where you stand alone in your everyday routine, in this column you will constantly receive tactics, tips and techniques you can use concretely so that you will be in a position to implement the strategies described in practice and can increase the growth, turnover and profit of your company or organization. And if you need help over and above this simply contact me. I will be pleased to assist you and your company or organization in word and deed within the framework of my consultancy and coaching work .

The third level of development

After the members of your company have gone through the first two levels of development (and remember: There is no time limit for staying on a particular level!), they will now move onto the third level of development. This is one of the most difficult levels for members of your company and also confronts you with challenges and even certain internal conflicts. But why? Well, just lean back for a moment and consider what has already happened in the development of the members your company. They have had a recruitment interview with you, you have then made a contract with them and they have started work.

The new members of your company have moderated their initial euphoria, their commitment was very high at first and has reduced during the second level of development. The dreams that they brought into this new opportunity have adapted somewhat to reality and have also been influenced by it. In the course of time their competence has risen and they were able to develop it further. The new members of your company on the third level of development now have a high level of competence (you remember? Competence = Knowledge x Experience) and have already been able to achieve some good results. At first glance they are a “perfect company.” But precisely because those on the third level of development are already taking over responsibility, there will be problems here because as a result of their higher level of competence they regard themselves as being considerably more responsible than they are in reality.

For this reason the personality problems that your company have, come more to the fore and will also be revealed more because, after all, their own results seem to prove them right. Members of your company who are on the third level of development lack leadership skills. From this mixture fluctuating commitment also arises (you remember? Commitment = Goals x Self-confidence). Outsiders often describe people on this level of development as being “arrogant.” But when we examine this arrogance more closely is is inn the final analysis simply the expression of lack of self-confidence. People come across as being arrogant when they try to show more self-confidence to the outside world than they actually possess. A mental image that is apt here is the idea of a person wearing a suit that is much too big and too long trying to do a 100-meter sprint. As a result of the clothing that is too large and too long they repeatedly trip themselves up and stumble. This is what comes across to other people as being “unauthentic.”

The decision

The third level of developments is also described as the “level of decision,” because it it here that the members of your company show whether they have the potential to “make it big,” or whether they reached their limits and cannot grow further. As a leader it is important that you consider that it is your responsibility to lead your company through this difficult period. The “teenage phase” that began on the second level, will be even more apparent on the third level. But the loss of people from your company at this level are the most expensive losses you can suffer. This is the most expensive turnover of company – but this is something that many leaders in network marketing do not recognize. Often uncomfortable members of the company are discarded and collaboration is ended at this point because leader sees no point in dealing with and this “uncomfortable person.”

Often if the company has good results they are left alone because the leader does not want to lose the results. But the result of such behavior is then often increasing difficulties, problems and discussions. This then tempts many leaders in network marketing to avoid dealing with the this person and to attempt to take over their company directly. At first glance this appears to solve the problem for many leaders – but what is often not understood is that you have begun to cultivate a problem that every company partner after that will run into! Because they will all come onto the third level in the course of their development. In addition you should also take account of the fact that also people who have reached the fourth and fifth levels sometimes fall back to the third level – but more on that later. And in the long term it is simply impossible to always go over the headof one of your company (or to bypass them) and to take over the best members of their company directly. In the long term this will destroy the success you would like to create. In order to avoid this expensive turnover of company you are on the line as a leader.

In order to be able to lead people through this level you have to challenge them. The need your support to get their fluctuations under control and in order to work on their competence and to be able to develop further. In addition they need your help to strengthen and consolidate their self-confidence. At this level you must always see to it that you yourself and your company remember the common vision you concretized at the end or the recruitment interview. From time to time you can share responsibility and authority here, however, it is important that you show your company at this level of development their limits again and again and to make clear where they still have work on themselves. And you help them to do so. As the leader you ought to listen to your company a lot. Not so that you can accept everything the members of your company say at face value, but in order to understand why they act as they do, what they are thinking and why their commitment fluctuates.

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The pain

This represents the most difficult part of the third level for most leaders. Many leaders want maintain a good relationship with every team member and to get on well with them. Fundamentally there is also nothing against this. But in order to maintain a good relationship with somebody you lead, you need to to take the factor pain into consideration in some situations. Because at this level of development the members of your company require a strong voice they can listen to – no matter how much they may rebel against it on occasion! Have you ever considered that it might be the case that the reason they are rebelling and being awkward and making problems for you because they would like your attention and that it is really a call for help? A call – resulting from disorientation – for more orientation!

This is something that in some situations you can only do through pain. What do I mean by that? Check them, Praise them when they do things particularly well, but allow yourself to criticize their actions and performance clearly and precisely when these do not correspond to the expected results. At this level you can criticize – however you have to do it properly. It can be painful, but it should not destroy the person being criticized but build them up in the medium term. One possibility of implementing this in practice is to give the person more work and to let them define the goal (or the result) clearly. In this way it will become most clearly apparent where there are problems. But since you always formulate the goals concretely together with them you will have clear indicators you can use as an orientation. My own mentor once said to me: “Catch them when they are right – it is essential. But hit them hard, when they are doing wrong – but never destroy them.” So you help your company on this level a lot and you direct them very little. And check them. Take the time to do so and make sure that the goals and actions defined in advance are clearly measurable and leave as little room for interpretation as possible because otherwise you will find yourself involved in endless discussions again.

Now take up the list of members of your company again and go through the names individually and ask yourself whether this person is on the third level of development. If YES, then write the number 3 beside their name. Then take another sheet and write down what you can do concretely to help and direct this person. Ask yourself concretely:

Which periods do you need to set aside in your timetable to help this person to develop further?
How can you help them to achieve their goals so that they can gain more self-confidence?
How can you check them in order to be able to give them feedback in the form of praise and criticism?
How can you challenge them in order to raise and stabilize their commitment and to build up their competence further?

Make concrete appointments for the next few days in order to implement your measures. Always remember: Leadership is action and not position!

Kindest regards,

Your Coach Nuno F. Assis