The Secret To Creating Layers Of Leadership
by Barry Gruber

In order to build a successful home-based networking business, you must develop defined layers of leadership throughout your organization. In network marketing (and most other businesses), it’s all about leverage. To quote billionaire J. Paul Getty, “I would rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of my own effort.” Leveraging your time and money is the only way to create true generational wealth.

Developing layers of leadership in your team is the only sure-fire formula for creating leverage. Without layers of leadership, you will never be able to generate passive (walk away) residual income. Without layers of leadership, the best you can hope for is linear growth (adding new members one at a time) in your business.

As you embark on a mission to sponsor strong leaders in your business, the first step is to decide what qualities you are looking for in these business partners. You are now the CEO of your own home-based business. To be successful, you must treat your business with the same level of commitment as any CEO treats their business. We’ll elaborate on that topic in future articles, but for now we will be focused on the recruiting aspect.

Just as with any business venture, there are many factors that will contribute to the success of your home business. One of the most important factors is the structure and quality of the individuals who make up your organization. The higher the quality, the more leverage you employ. As CEO of your business, one of your most important tasks is filling your ‘Board of Directors.’ These are the people, the leaders, who you will entrust with the vital role of helping lead your team on the climb to the top.

What are some of the qualities that strong leaders possess?

• Entrepreneurial – has a business mindset and likes to be involved in big decisions. Leaders prefer to work for themselves.
• Independence – makes up his/her own mind about things and takes the initiative. Leaders are all about action.
• Work Ethic – understands that anything worthwhile in life requires commitment, dedication and persistent & consistent effort. Leaders roll up their sleeves and go to work.
• Desire – realizes that to be successful you really have to ‘go for it.’ Leaders possess an inner desire and do not need to be motivated and convinced to put in the necessary time & effort.
• Integrity – knows that the best way to build a strong, productive team is to shower people with honesty and respect … and demand the same in return. Leaders treat others the way they themselves want to be treated.
• Persistence – will not give up at the first ‘roadblock’ they encounter. Leaders work through the challenges that every business faces and complete their mission, even in the face of tough odds.

Now that we understand what type of individuals we are looking for, how do we go about finding them? For most networkers, this is where they make the fatal mistake. They spend their precious time and money chasing after everything that moves. And once they find a ‘live body’, they spend most of their time trying to convince those people to join their business.

This ‘hunter/hunted’ approach rarely works, because your prospects are not making a buying decision, they are making a ‘working decision.’ Talking them into it means you will probably need to spend the next few months talking them into working their business. Even if you’re successful at convincing them to join, the vast majority will quit at the first sign of rejection and/or when they realize how much work is involved. This is because they did not have realistic expectations starting out in the business.

So how do you go about finding and selecting true leaders for your team? The industry’s highest earners do not chase after anybody. They do three important things differently than the masses: 

1. They utilize systems to do the recruiting for them (websites, email marketing, advertising, postcards, viral marketing, etc.)
2. They ‘interview’ new team members to locate the serious, committed leaders. They make their new members prove they are worthy of investing time in training and mentoring.
3. They duplicate this process throughout their team by teaching their leaders the exact same process.

How do you get started with this strategy? Simply interview your team members and select one, or more, leader(s) from the candidates on your team. Share your philosophy and approach with them and assist them in interviewing their team members. Repeat this process until you have 10-12 members for your Board of Directors … and work with your team to help them fill their board with 10-12 quality leaders. With just 3 layers, you will have 1,000s of serious, motivated, self-sufficient members on your team.

When you adopt this approach, this new mindset, you will be amazed by the changes in mindset, attitude, and productivity of your entire team. Retention rates will dramatically improve (we have amazing members on our team who have been with us for over 8 years), leaders will step up to the plate, and your business will begin to experience geometric growth.

© 2007 Barry Gruber. All rights reserved.
http://www.YourWealthResources.com

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