My Weblog

We get what we teach

I had an mlm'er contact me from a company that will remain random.  Not a bad guy but still lot's to learn.  He wasn't very good at handling my aggressive nature as I was in control of the call in less than 2 minutes.  I took a bit of pitty on him and decided to give him a 10 minute coaching session to which he replied "I have scripts for this."  I realized the industry in the 9 months since I last worked with anyone hasn't changed much. 

It amazes me that we expect people who are clearly under practiced and timid on the phone to have any kind of success.  TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING.  Please for the good of all of your sales types in any industry learn to communicate, internalize your scripts, and make it a part of your natural vocabulary.  Finally, don't try to be interesting and shove your product down anyone's throat, be interested, find out what this person needs/wants and if/how your product can help them.  All products are not for all people and in an aggressive marketplace wisdom in a small market will grow your income and sanity more than going after anything that breathes.  Good luck to my young friend, he will surely need it if he doesn't practice being professional and up his ability to match assertiveness, seek first to understand, and internalize what he's doing.

www.thehilgroup.com

Working with Friends

This from a popular blog that I subscribe to about organizational hiring habits.

(http://blogs.bnet.com/teamwork/?p=247&tag=nl.e713)

"If you’re trying to change your corporate culture, bolster diversity, or bring in new skills or talents, it’s harder to do if you’re hiring clones of your current workforce.

And as we all know, some referrals have more to do with nepotism or friendship than with professional criteria — e.g., “John’s a great guy, lots of fun!” rather than “John has excellent project-management skills.”

So although employee referrals are the top external source of hire, don’t forget to keep casting your talent net wide enough to catch a few nonconforming fish. Your team and your organization will both benefit."

One thing I ask a lot in leadership is whether or not such referrals are a good thing or not.  Assuming I might want to change the corporate culture I might agree that one should perhaps begin by looking outside of your employees circle of influence for new talent.  With that said, why not bring your friends on board?  What do you think?  Is your circle of influence the type of people who can get things done and be a positive reflection of you or should you tell your boss to look elsewhere?

Mikhail

http://www.thehilgroup.com/

The Price of Success

Recently on one of the forums I belonged to I gave the advice to someone that they should find something they love doing and focus on it. A well meaning poster said to me “life isn’t that simple.” He then went off to list all the people who have gone off and failed or done poorly in life because of advice like. He then went on to explain what he had to learn in order to be good at his current profession. I thought he made a good point here but noticed that he was more or less agreeing with my statement but couldn’t quiet “see it.”

So is it really that simple? Find something you love and go for it? Yes. Is it easy? No. You see even the best athletes have to sacrifice “fun” time to work on their skills. Consider this, as a college athlete I woke up at 6am for weight training. I would have a conditioning session at 12 PM or 6PM depending on the day. I would have practice at 4 or 6 depending on the day. I would be in bed most nights before 11:30. Freshman year I had to spend extra time working on some of the skills that were hurting my game. Weekends of away games I was on the road until late Saturday or early Sunday afternoon. If there were no games that weekend we had 8 am conditioning to ensure we weren’t out partying. Over the summer I would sit down and watch film, not the most fun thing to do but it helped my growth going into the up and coming season. All this to get some game time and create a winning team.

On the surface there is nothing complex about what I did. But it wasn’t easy. I had to have the discipline to get my schoolwork done, to spend the extra time improving my skills, to monitor my food intake, I think you get the point. Nothing that took advanced levels on knowledge but something that took an incredible amount of discipline and commitment.

The same can be true in everything we do. To be the best you must learn to see the entire picture. You have to turn over the ugly “stuff” that is stopping you and learn to deal with them. Conflict is inevitable, hard times are inevitable, the key is to find ways of improving and getting better so that you will continue to have success. I would suggest finding 2 or 3 people who have done what you hope to do. Evaluate everything they have done. If you have the chance, go and interview them. You will find this to be particularly helpful and it will also give you a clear idea of what to realistically expect.

Too often people are given the incorrect expectation that winning is easy. That all you have to do is…..(fill in the blank). Just think to yourself, if it were that easy then wouldn’t every one be doing it? There is no cheap way to success. It takes a significant investment of our time and energy.

To your success, Mikhail http://www.thehilgroup.com/

Why people never get what they want

As quoted from a book I read recently called The Millionaire Next Door, “Most of us want to be wealthy, but most of us do not spend the time, energy, and money required to enhance our chances of realizing this goal (94)” I can say this is true for more than just wealth. Most of us want ______ (Insert your needs, wants, and desires here) but we do not spend the time, energy, and money required to get there.

If not here then where do most of us spend our time? For some it may be that we spend most of our time watching television in which case how much is your television costing you? For others it may be that we are “just too tired” to allocate the needed time to get what we want out of life and instead of raising our hand and taking responsibility we blame it on other things. My personal favorite is that some of us just get sucked into doing nothing. It’s really easy to do and really hard to get out of. And finally, some of us just spend a lot of time getting ready to get ready or simply doing the wrong things to get there (this was one that I was a little….ok a lot guilty of on my path towards success).

I have been working with people for many years and I’m sure I’ve heard it all. Everything from “I had a relative die” (it’s amazing how many relatives can die in six months by the way) to “I don’t know what happened, my phone/computer/brain just stopped working.” If it sounds very harsh it’s because it is, but it’s also very true. The simple fact is that most people just don’t have what it takes to get where they want and they are unwilling to develop the skills they need to get there. No one said it would ever be easy but that’s why so few actually realize the goals that they have out of their lives.

Look at it this way: Most people finish High School but not all. A majority of people finish college but not all. Many people enter Grad School, most of them never finish. I could go on and on but I don’t spend too much time on this phenomena. Life and I have come to the agreement that there are many reasons for it but the plain reality is that life is a tough and nasty game. It can be very unfair and its no respecter of persons.

So how do you avoid this pitfall in your own life? I would suggest writing down what you REALLY care about and what you REALLY want out of life. This will ensure that when things are tough that you stay have a higher chance of staying committed. Then find a way to devote a part of your life/time to this endeavor, start small so as not to get overwhelmed and learn how to get better in that area. As your skills grow and as you create a lifestyle of consistent action you will find your become more and more capable of handling the harder parts of your projects and before you know it you will have realized that goal, whatever it is.

So get off your couch....No really why are you still reading this get going :)

http://www.thehilgroup.com/

Prospecting for the "Right One's"

I recently wrote an article about finding the right prospects for your organization.  You can Google it or just follow this link rriiigghhtt….here.  Hmm, if you clicked on the link you would find there is no link.  I had to resubmit the article so when it's approved I will send it out to you guys.  Anyway I began to think about something.  The internet is synonymous with feeding into the laziness of human beings.  We want success and money without the hard work that’s required.  Many of you reading this will recall how much work it took for you to reach where you are.  Was it easy?  Did you just flip on a computer or pick up a phone and meet with instant success?

This is especially true in the sporting world.  The best athletes may have a natural ability towards something.  For example, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is very tall with broad shoulders, long arms, and big hands and feet.  It would be safe to say that he has a natural inclination towards swimming but that alone doesn’t make him a world number one.  He spends countless hours working behind the scenes, sacrificing nights out with friends (but apparently not too many nights), certain foods, and a very large amount of time in the pool practicing because that’s what it takes. 

Likewise in your current profession whether it’s online or not, you probably spent a very long time acquiring the correct skills to reach where you are today.  If you aren’t where you planned or hoped to be it might be safe to say that you spent countless hours focusing and practicing the wrong things.  Sorry to say but reading the latest celebrity news is not market research.  Every once a while and I do mean rarely will outside variables play such a large role that if you gave it your best you just couldn’t reach your goals.

So consider this. You want a strong organization whether it be a network marketing company, your small business, a church, a sports team, take your pick.  Why would you advertise that you’re looking for lazy people who don’t want to do what you know it takes to become a success?  Some of you don’t know any better but consider the current ad’s online.

Ad:  Retire Wealthy in Less than Five Years!

       Finally! A Business That Includes All Aspects Of Wealth Generation:

Financial Planning

Debt Management

Tax Reduction

Asset Protection

Estate Planning

My Thoughts:  “Mikhail I don’t really want to teach people how to manage others.  I’ll make them rich if it kills me because I’m recruiting people with little control over their money, high debt, poor planning for the future, and most likely a high consumption lifestyle. Somehow I plan to get rich off having them on my team.

Ad:  Own Your Own Successful Business

            -No Sales or Technical Ability Required

            -Turn-Key Training package & Ongoing Support

            - Successful Business model in a high demand industry

            -Not

MLM

! 

My Thoughts:  Don’t blame

MLM

if you can’t make money online. Blame yourself.  Rarely is it the tool, often it is the carpenter. You want people who aren’t able to sell or build technical ability in a “high demand” industry which will also mean high competition. Where is your edge?  What will separate you from the rest if you don’t have people willing, able, and preferably already aware of the basics of sales/communication or any of the technical abilities that inevitably will be required after you blind side your news business partners.

  Why would you poison the quality of your organization with so many people who would rather focus on their “desk being dirty”, their day being too long to work on another project, and their emotions being wiped out from an angry boss that they just couldn’t possibly give you or your organization the time the deserve.  Food for thought as your build you team.  Find the right ones and let everyone else stay where they are.

Mikhail

http://thehilgroup.com/

When good projects go bad

Recently I had some people approach me about a problem they were having in an organization they belonged to.  A small group of people had created a project that was gaining momentum.  The leaders of this organization were very excited to have their members begin to take initiative on this project and decided to take a “hands off” approach.  This left the members in charge of organizing and executing the project, providing the resources, and making all the decisions.  So far so good.  As momentum began to build some of the key members who first got the ball rolling began to disagree on the best direction for this project. 

            The fighting got very bitter and the upper leadership decided to simply facilitate.  What happened?  The issue was never resolved, the project lost momentum, and it took a few months before all the details were ironed out.  This is a classic case of a great idea gone bad. 

            There are several lessons to be learned here.  The first is that as leaders, especially in places where people volunteer their time without any financial incentive, you must ensure that a proper chain of command is in place.  When there is no channel of leadership or communication being followed people won’t often be sure of who to take the problem to and where the problems are occurring. 

            I’m sure we have all been there.  We are moving along in a project, problems arise and the people we need to go to are either gone or not helping.

            When things were going wrong no one had any experience making and committing to decisions.  Very few people in that or group had any experience being leaders in structured environments and the people who suffered the most were the participants who just wanted to get involved with something exciting.

            Second, when you run an organization, provide the guidance to your people who are stepping up.  Give them wise counsel and provide them with resources.  You don’t have to get involved in every aspect of the decision making process but you need to be actively involved behind the scenes making sure that people have what they need in terms of resources and giving them advice to help them learn how to walk through this initial level of management.

            

Finally, only give your new leaders enough rope to hang themselves.  When the chair is getting kicked from underneath them you need to step in.  Don’t watch and say “sometimes you have to learn the hard way.”  If you are the head man (or woman) it’s your responsibility to make sure that when you have momentum on a project you keep it, and that no one is getting burned out or stressed out. This is a sure way to lose good leaders and good potential leaders from a fall out. 

Think back.  Was there ever a time where you had a great project good bad?

Mikhail

www.thehilgroup.com

The Funny thing about Network Marketing

            So I spent over three years working in the network marketing/direct sales arena.  I learned a lot about the industry and about some of the pretty solid companies that are out there.  You may have heard about some of these companies: Amway, Herbalife, Nuskin, Ameriprise, or Xango. There are literally thousands out there, some better than others, some that really stand out above the rest.

            I wasn’t a member of any of these companies but what has been interesting to me as I have since retired from actively building an organization is how misrepresented the industry is.

           It is one of the few places that in theory can become one of the most organic and ethical forms of business.  However, the sad part about this is that it is an excellent lab for how not to run any other type of business or non profit. All of the rules that gave me elite level results in my other ventures are directly ignored by many people in the industry.

            For example a distributor, let’s call her Sally, has been involved in a company for a few years with very little success.  She has made a few minor checks since joining, watched her sponsor drop out, and spent hundreds of dollars on different trainers who says that success is either in a secret ebook, internet leads, going to the mall, or talking with all of your friends, family, and coworkers (yes they actually teach this stuff).

            No one has sat her down and explained that in other organizations you identify your strengths and weaknesses, learn everything about your company, its leaders, and its products, and spend the first part of this new profession learning how to set proper goals, identify the best methods of marketing, and figure out the best communication methods that meet her personality and her consistent game plan for marketing.  In other words, no one told her it actually takes work and management skills beyond a local burger king to make it work.

            I can hear other network marketers saying “well that’s unfair.”  But I have lost many a member to what I’ll call mlm cancer.  It’s the ugly silent stuff that people choose not to talk about because they can’t put a finger on it or train it easily. But don’t feel bad, I see this in other places too.  Currently I am helping to restructure a campus Christian group.  They are moving from a small three man (and woman) operation to a place where they need at least double those numbers to manage their growth.  No one told them over the past year that you can’t get from step 1 to 5 without having steps 2,3, or 4 in place.

            So why does network marketing have such high respect in my book?  Its potential in terms of leadership is amazing.  When done correctly you end up with a core group of people who willingly give you the right to lead them. 

             There are few places where people will pay you to help them change their lives and give you access to their circle of influence.  And probably most importantly, it will punish just as well as it rewards.  A poor job in planning, communication, or execution will equal a poor paycheck at the least and a poisoned organization at the worst.  There is no middle ground in leadership and it very clearly reflects that.  If you dig beneath the hype you get to see people for who they truly are.

Mikhail

http://thehilgroup.com/

How to stop making Stupid decisions

            I can sum up what it takes to be successful in two sentences.  Make lots of really good decisions.  Make very few bad decisions.  Sounds simple enough but how often do many people follow this rule and isn’t a “good” decision subjective anyway?  So let’s break down each one of them and see. 

            I will define a good decision as making a move that would likely give you a favorable outcome.  Obviously then anything that would not be likely to give you a favorable outcome would be a bad decision.  All throughout my formal education for example, I excelled in anything dealing with conceptual leadership/management, communication, history, and other social sciences.  If I took a class dealing with a hard science or higher level math I usually didn’t do too well.

            So I remember being particularly ambitious about starting college and deciding that I was going to take physics and trig my first semester along with German, English, and a class on French History (I can stop here and do a case study that would prove my point, but I quiet like France and would prefer to one day return there for a vacation so on we go). 

I remember my sister telling me to take classes that I was strongest in because your GPA the first year sets the foundation for the next 3 years of ones college life.  Had I followed this “make many smart decisions” principle I would have done very well my first year.  That first semester I went from a 3.5 mid semester to a 2.75 GPA by the end of the term. 

            Determined not to be defeated by sound (and very logical) advice I then took 17 credits my second semester of college that involved a very hard bio course, another math course, and a full spring season of division one rugby (I played for Penn State).  I did this against the good advice of a team mate who suggested 12 or 13 credits because of our spring travel schedule.  Doing marginally better I scraped by with a cumulative of around 2.9 by the end of my first year in college.  While it was better it was also very stupid.  While I agree a 2.9 could be a lot worse I made several mistake that we will take a look at here.

Mistake 1

I made the same mistake twice expecting different results.  I should have focused on my strengths and stayed within that realm, feeding my mind and my GPA with information I was passionate about and knew I could do very well.  After noticing that I needed some other foundational materials to excel in the other classes I should have kept my ego in check and swallowed a bad decision from the previous semester.

Mistake 2

This is actually a result of mistake one and more of an observation.  I have kept my overall GPA around a 3.0 since then but because I didn’t lay solid foundations in the beginning, I hurt my potential to have my GPA be an accurate reflection of my capabilities.  So in the future I need to make sure that my current life is a result of many smart decisions that reflect not only what kind of decisions I have made but what I am also capable of.

Mistake 3

I got my ego involved and wasn’t able to accept the hard facts that I just didn’t do enough in the previous years to have success in a higher level bio course or calculus class.

So how does this affect our lives?  Think about the many different ways that you have made consistently bad decisions that have led you to where you are today?  How could you change them and as a result change your life?  I suggest starting small and improving bit by bit.  Set goals and create direction for yourself.  If you can start to do that, you will be well on your way to a happier, simpler life. 

Mikhail

http://thehilgroup.com/

How Trust is Valued in Organizations

           Organizations are a funny thing.  If you are reading this I am assuming you are a leader or person of influence in some capacity of the word.  I am assuming that people look up to you, that they trust and respect you, and that they believe in you to help them push their lives forward.  Recall the last time you were simply a member of an organization.  It could be a nonprofit, a church, a sports team, or even a network marketing company.  Do you remember the excitement when you first joined?  Do you remember the passion that you had for the organization?

            I’m sure early on in your experience there was a small group of people who you looked up to, who you were probably a bit nervous around for the first few times that you met them.  These people carried a command presence that would change the atmosphere in a room the minute they came in.  As time went on you began to learn more about them, about their lives, their family, and the many wonderful things they did for your organization or team.

            I remember the first time that happened for me, it was the first organization I had joined through a cadet program by the United States Military.  This person was only two years my senior, and was a member of that organization for almost three years before I jumped on board.  His name was Paul and would one day become one of my best friends.  Paul would walk into a room and conversations would stop.  This phenomenon intrigued me and I began to think about the underlying reason this could have happened.  It was that day that I realized one of the most important things ever about leading an organization.  That first foundation of anything I did had to involve the currency of trust. 

            Trust is a funny thing.  It isn’t very loud, in fact, it’s very subtle and often overlooked but it commands large amounts or respect.  Trust in a person is transferred very quickly from one person to the next.  Looking back on that first experience, I did not know anything about Paul.  I knew of him from what my training instructors had told me.  I knew of his accomplishments that he had done in such a short time, and I immediately knew that because I had trust in my trainers I could immediately have trust in him.  They were a reflection of his leadership and that immediately gained my respect.

            Trust is an organization can be quickly earned for people like this and throughout our terms as leaders, we continue to make deposits in our relationships with the people we work very directly with.  Without it we can not hope to have our followers buy into our ideas, we can not have clear communication, we can not expect them to work up to our standards, we can not motivate them, and we certainly can not hope that they would buy into our clear vision for the future.  Trust is a very important factor in our leadership, and a firm foundation for everything.  So I submit to you, what’s the level of trust in your organization?  Is it high?  Are you exercising it?  If not, why not?  If so, how can you do it better?  Even more importantly, are you aware of it?  Is it hurting your results as a team?  I sincerely hope that for your sake as a leader that you would be well aware of this currency and find new and exciting ways to both gage it and gain it, for the good of your organizations future.

Mikhail Hutton

The

HIL

Group

http://thehilgroup.com/