Creating and growing a direct sales team that’s engaged and motivated takes time and effort on the leader’s part. But it’s so worth it!
Your motivated leaders will, in turn, motivate their team members better. Your engaged team will want to strive for goals together to grow as a team and as individual businesses.
And it’s more fun and satisfying for you and your team too!
Below are a few things you can do to create an engaged and motivated direct sales team.
Challenges
When you set challenges, you’ll also need a reward. Think about what your team members would love and what is convenient for you to post (not too heavy) or get to them digitally (vouchers, gift cards, etc.).
When setting your challenges, you want to target something you want them to do more of in their direct sales business. For example, you might want to set a recruiting challenge, a Facebook party challenge, booking challenges, or sales challenges.
Besides the different aspects you can focus on, you also want to have challenges for all ‘levels’ in your team. For example, I have a challenge for people to keep their accounts open, but I currently also run a challenge for people striving for the next international trip. More about challenges here.
When I see that one of my team members is coasting and could do better, I might set them a personal challenge. Some of my teamies want to extend and appreciate setting a big goal. So I work with them individually and reward them when they meet the challenge.
Recognition
I recognize people who achieve a certain standard (for example, the different commission levels in my company) or recruit or have a certain number of parties. Some teams have a monthly Top 10 for recruiters or sellers, which can be very motivating!
But I also sometimes recognize an individual who’s put in a lot of effort or stepped out of their comfort zone. They may not have achieved the goal they’re aiming for just yet, but I want them to know I see the hard work they’re putting in and cheer them on.
When you do recognition, it’s essential to do it in many different ways. For example, you can do a team Facebook post, a fun Facebook Live, send certificates or trophies, postcards via the mail, or call someone personally to congratulate them.
I use all those methods!
Another fun thing to do is to start a ‘brag thread’ in your team group. And you allow them to brag about their achievements or step out of their comfort zone. It’s an excellent way for members to inspire and celebrate together – not just from you as a leader.
Loyalty
Loyalty is about recognizing what your team members do in their business and what’s happening in their lives.
I send cards and messages for significant moments like weddings, birth, graduating from studies, etc.
I want my team members to know how much I appreciate them and how each contributes to the team.
Goal Setting
Encourage your team to set their own goals. You can set up a Facebook poll to learn about their goals and keep track of them.
You can follow up with a text or Facebook message to see how they’re going and how close they are to meeting their goal.
When they meet their goal, I congratulate them and recognize them for that!
I have created two printables for my team to use to track their own goals. It’s a ‘savings jar’ and a rocket ship that they can color in as they progress towards their goal. If you’re interested in providing these to your team, grab the printables below.
Spend your time wisely
You are probably just as busy as I am, so you want to spend your time wisely. The best way to do this with your team is to spend little time on your small players. Then invest more time in your ‘rising stars’ (people striving for the next level in the career plan) and your leaders.
It’s a bit of a tightrope: you want to create an engaged and motivated team, but you also need to guard your time.
Sometimes teams lose their mojo. They grow stale and inactive. They’ve lost the spark.
Are you part of such a team? Or are you a leader with this problem?
Here’s the solution to kick-start a team into action: hold a mega party!
Mega parties will help an inactive team to get a lot of sales quickly, but more importantly, get bookings and potential new team members to get their business rolling again.
What’s a Mega Party?
Mega parties are large parties where multiple team members book tables that they are responsible for filling with guests. Sales and bookings are taken by the consultant who’s invited that guest.
Usually, one person (a team leader perhaps) runs the party while the team members at each table make sure they have relevant products, samples, and information available for the guests.
To make your mega party a success here are some tips:
Excite Your Team A Mega Party will only work if your team is excited to make it a success. That means that if you’re the driver behind the party, you’ll need to be excited and put a little energy into getting your team behind the idea.
Lucky Door Prize Who doesn’t like a Lucky Door Prize? Have each team member contribute a low-value product to create a Lucky Door Prize. Also, use some of the products as booking incentives or prizes for games during the party.
Fees If you need to cover costs, you may need to charge a small fee. For example, you can use an online booking site such as Trybooking or Eventbee to let guests buy tickets. Or you can have your team members sell tickets for their tables.
You might think guests won’t want to pay to attend, but if you keep the fee low and the value of the party high, you won’t find it a problem. You can offer value in terms of discounts or complimentary products, but also consider make-overs, allowing guests to try out (new) products or informative demonstrations.
An advantage of charging a small fee is that guests that have booked are more likely to attend. You’ll find that cancellations and no-shows won’t be a big problem.
In the ticket price, I like to include a glass of champagne for each guest for that special party feeling.
Personal Sales Mega Parties are a great use of your time as they not only reinvigorate your team, but you can make personal sales too. Make sure you keep a table for your guests so you can make some sales at the event too.
Other uses for Mega Parties
For new team members: New team members may lack the confidence or skills to secure bookings from their parties. They may not yet feel confident enough to discuss the business opportunity. Mega Parties are a fabulous tool to help them out. Not only will this help your new team members’ business, but they also get to watch you run a party and learn from you.
New catalog launches: A new catalog is a fabulous ‘excuse’ to hold a Mega Party. The attraction for guests is that they get to sample new products and have a look at the new catalog.
Fundraisers: Mega Parties are a great way to do a fundraising event. You could choose to donate a percentage of your profits or ticket sales. Just make it clear to your guests how you contribute to the charity.
To get started, call your inactive team members today to get them excited. Then get organizing!
Have you started coaching a team member? Are you finding that your coaching sessions are rambling on for too long? They are fun, but you can’t remember what you agreed? Do your coaching sessions end without an action plan?
Yes? You need to GROW!
GROW is an acronym for Goal, Reality, Options (and Obstacles), and Way forward. It’s a simple model that will help you structure your coaching conversations to prevent them from becoming long rambling chats that don’t result in anything. And as much as you might enjoy catching up with the person, you’re coaching, that’s a separate activity.
You must guard your time as your most valuable resource as a business person. And the best way to do this is to use a defined structure. As a bonus, you’ll find that the person you’re coaching will also get more value from a coaching call when using GROW.
Goal
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. To ensure it’s a SMART goal, ask questions like: “How will we know that the goal is achieved?” “When will we know the goal is achieved?” “How does this goal fit with overall career objectives?” By answering these questions, you automatically make it a SMART goal.
Reality
Questions like “What steps have you already taken towards this goal?”, “What was the result of this?” or “What is happening now (with whom? When? Where? How often?).” During this phase, obstacles and sometimes solutions present themselves. This then naturally leads to the next step.
Options (and Obstacles)
Once you have a goal and a picture of the current reality, you need to look at the options to achieve the goal. Help your team member to brainstorm but don’t do it for them. Asking questions like “What else could you do?”, “What if this obstacle was removed? What could you do then?” or “What do you need to stop doing to achieve this goal?”, “What are the advantages and disadvantages of that option?” or “What obstacles stand in your way?” will be helpful to get them started.
Way forward
From the previous brainstorm, some viable options or first steps should emerge. Now you help them to establish how they will achieve the goal. Use questions such as: “What will you do (and when?)”, “How will you keep yourself motivated?” or “When will you review your progress?” In this step, you also decide when to get in touch again to review the progress.
Groundhog Day
I have used the GROW model in my coaching conversations for nearly a decade. In the beginning, I used to tear my hair out as coaching sessions felt like the movie Groundhog Day. The goal was the same as last month, and so was the reality. And another month had gone by without any progress.
Now that I’ve learned how to use the model properly my time management and the results are so much better!
So although GROW is a great model to structure coaching conversations, there are three things to keep in mind to get the most out of it:
It’s super easy to slip into “expert mode” and tell them what you think they should do. However, if you do that, the person you’re coaching has no ownership over the process or the goals. This means they are not motivated to achieve the goals and do the work. So to ensure they own their goals and plans, you must let them come up with ideas. This also relieves you from being the expert with the magic answers.
Nurture them along the way. It’s important to frequently get in touch to keep people on track between coaching sessions. You could, for example, schedule a quick “power call” (3 to 4 minutes) to encourage them and see how they’re tracking. You can also use text messages or Facebook to check in with them. If you ask people to “keep you posted” and put the ball in their court, you won’t speak to them until the next session. However, if you take the initiative and check in with them, they feel valued and encouraged, and you keep them accountable. I found this makes a massive difference.
Coaching multiple people makes it even more important to improve your efficiency. Group people with similar goals and realities and do a group coaching session. Group calls save you time, and they also improve accountability and motivation. Bonus!
Once you learn how to use the GROW model, your coaching sessions will no longer ramble on forever without any results. You will find that the reality will keep changing as they grow and work towards their goals. Coaching sessions will not feel like Groundhog Day but become exciting as you can celebrate wins and set new goals, whether small and modest or big and hairy.
Motivating a team is an ongoing challenge but it’s also vital to your success.
So how do you keep your team inspired and engaged?
To cater to the different personalities in your team, it’s helpful to divide people into three categories: Action, Feeling or Fun.
This makes it easier to ensure that you cater to all three types of people in your team.
So let’s have a look at these categories:
Action People
Action people are often your high achievers. They plan, commit and succeed. However, if you don’t cater to them in your communications and recognition, they will quickly lose interest.
Feeling People
These are the people who need time to reflect. They are considerate of others and often make the most nurturing and welcoming team members.
Fun People
Your Fun People really show their enthusiasm. They’re often very creative and can provide the social ‘glue’ in a team.
How to cater to your Action, Feeling and Fun people
Suggestions for Action People
They thrive on recognition. The more public you can make it, the better
They love compliments
They often thrive on challenges with a deadline
Delegate tasks to your Action People, they like being thought of as valuable and important
Many Action People like to present to a group, so you could let them help you run a meeting or training
Suggestions for Feeling People
Ask them how they feel about doing a task or setting a goal. They typically don’t like to be pushed out of their comfort zone
When coaching them, keep in mind they need time to reflect
Recognize small things they might think you haven’t noticed
Emphasize their value in welcoming and developing new team members
Recognize their efforts, not just achievements. For example, acknowledge when you know they’ve stepped out of their comfort zone
Suggestions for Fun People
Your Fun People make fabulous ‘social directors’. Make use of this when organizing special events
Fun people are often very creative with their displays, the team will appreciate their ideas
Seek help from Fun People to organize food or music at meetings
These teamies respond well to a positivity award
When working with Fun People, focus on the fun they’ll have as a result of achieving a goal or moving up the career ladder
With a bit of thought and attention, you’ll be able to cater to all the different types in your team
In addition, it will help you to create an upbeat, positive and inclusive culture in your team where everybody feels valued for who they are. This, in turn, will help to keep them engaged and motivated in their direct sales biz.
Want to become an interactive and entertaining recruiter?
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given in business (and life) is that people might not remember what you say, but they’ll remember how you make them feel.
I’ve always kept this philosophy in mind as I’ve built my multi-million dollar direct sales empire.
One of the most powerful ways I’ve applied this philosophy to my biz is what I call ‘happy mail’. The intention is to make people feel happy, valued, and recognized.
Originally all the happy mail I sent was via the post. It’s so rare to get anything but bills via the post these days, so receiving something fun in the letterbox is a delightful surprise and can lift someone’s day.
I used to love receiving handwritten postcards or letters in the mail growing up, and now it’s a rarity that it’s become a powerful gesture.
Snail mail or messages?
However, as my business grew and became global, that personal touch wasn’t as scalable as I’d have liked. I still send 30 to 50 bits of mail per month, but now I’ve extended the concept to include virtual.
Remembering my philosophy that the most important job in my business is to make people feel good, I’ve decided that ‘happy mail’ can also be virtual. But I ensure the messages are personal, genuine, and heartfelt. I send messages via email, WhatsApp or Messenger every week. The messages are always unexpected and very feel-good in content.
They are well-received and a powerful way to help my direct sales business be successful.
These days, most of my happy mail is to my team, but I still make sure I acknowledge and brighten the day of my loyal personal customers. Because that’s how you build a loyal customer base in the first place!
To make the process easier for me and to keep track of things, I created a tracker. I set a daily goal for posts and messages to send, and the tracker helps me to keep this as a business habit and helps me to reach a variety of people with my sparks of joy. I keep 2 trackers, one for my team and one for my customers. Download an example below.
I also keep a box of postcards stocked and ready to be used. If I notice that a customer or team member has a special event (often on social media), I am ready to acknowledge the occasion. I always have engagement, wedding, graduation, sympathy, new baby, and congratulations cards available.
I have one particularly loyal customer who will never forget that I was one of only 3 who sent her an engagement card. I also have a very appreciative team member who won’t forget I was the only person who sent her a sympathy card when her beloved horse died.
Always keep in mind that we’re in the relationship business. Acknowledging big happenings in people’s lives is important to strengthen your connections. And it makes you feel good too!
When you’re thinking about happy mail for your team, remember that it doesn’t always have to be about recognizing top achievers. Also, look for people who’ve put in an enormous effort or stepped out of their comfort zone. Perhaps acknowledge and thank people for contributing to your events or people who are positive and helpful on your team pages.
The opportunity to make a positive difference and have an impact on someone is plentiful when you approach your business with a grateful, happy heart.
Let me know what you send out in the comments as ‘happy mail’!
To grow your direct sales or party plan business you need to nurture people in your team to leadership.
But how do you know who to invest your time in? How do you know who the next leader is?
I have a fabulous download below that will help you with that!
In my experience from promoting dozens and dozens of team members to leadership ranks within my business, I’ve found that there are a few critical things to keep in mind.
So let me share what I’ve observed over the years in the direct sales industry.
Always work on nurturing a few team members at a time to wards leadership. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket! Sometimes things change in people’s lives and they step back from their party plan business or become less active. You don’t want to feel like you have to start all over with a new potential leader when they do. And by you not putting all your investment and hope in one person, you also put less pressure (or neediness) on your potential leaders. It’s a better situation for you and them.
Be careful with who you invest your valuable time in. If they’re not matching your efforts and actively showing you with their actions (not just their words) that they are working towards leadership, don’t continue to invest your time in them. Sometimes people ‘talk the talk’ but don’t ‘walk the walk’. In that case, just give them your ‘normal’ support for team members but stop your careful nurturing towards leadership.
Before you invest your time in someone, complete the leadership assessment to ensure their attitude, actions, and results are aligned. I’ve adapted an assessment form for you from the ‘Build it Big Workbook’ produced by the DSWA. Download the assessment form below. Go through the form for your potential leaders. If the score is below 7, I don’t consider them ready for my focused attention towards leadership.
However, the assessment should have given you a good idea on the areas they most need to improve. If you help them to build up in those areas, they might quickly become ready to work towards leadership with you!
You can also encourage your potential leaders to fill out the form themselves as a self-assessment to help them identify areas they want to improve. I suggest though, that you keep your personal assessment of each potential leader private. Sometimes these things can hurt people’s feelings and that’s not what it’s for!
I’d love to hear how you identify potential leaders in your team and if you have any tips to share with us. Let us know in the comments!
The biggest mistake I see new leaders in the direct sales industry make is to make it all about themselves and their own targets, instead of their team and their targets.
Being a leader means you make it about your team, not about yourself.
I’ve seen leaders fumble through the month and only contact their team members in the last week to find out how many sales they’re going to place so they now if they’re going to hit their target that month…..
As you know I’m a planner so watching a leader operate that way makes me itchy all over. But the worst is that that call at the end of the month is not to benefit those team members. And they know it because they’re not stupid.
So today I’d like to share with you 8 pieces of advice on being a nurturing, inspiring leader.
Talk less and listen more. I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but there’s a truth here. You need to make it about them, not you! Listen, really listen, to your team members.
Stop trying to fix everything. Some things are out of your control and that’s okay. You don’t have to be superwoman – just a sympathetic (and encouraging) ear.
Know that your team member has the answer that’s right for them. Learn to see your team members’ amazing qualities. We have a wide range of personalities in our teams and each person has a different way of working and communicating. As a leader, always look for the best in your teamies. Sometimes our faith in them leads them to discover amazing things about themselves!
Know their ‘why’ or their goal. Remind them regularly of why they are in direct sales or what particular goal they’re striving to achieve. Sometimes life gets in the way or they go too far out of their comfort zone and slip back into habits that won’t move their business forward. Gentle reminders and encouragement from you will help them to step up again.
Let them choose the action steps they’re going to take. You can discuss options with them, share your experiences and tips but in the end they have to walk their own path to success. By letting them set their own goals and action steps, they take ownership of the process and they are so much more likely to actually do the work. (Also see this article on coaching)
Help your team members to feel successful. Helping your team members feel successful will help them become successful. The more you recognize and celebrate the small wins along the way, the better they feel. Success breeds success (read more about this phenomenon in this article).
Make it all about them! Take responsibility for your own direct selling business without putting pressure on your team members to meet your targets. Be inspiring, encouraging, nurturing and helpful. Always make it about them – not about your business or your goals.
Let go of the outcome and enjoy the process. I suppose this is a bit Zen in a way – to detach from the outcome. Setting goals is important, sure, but in the end you want to enjoy the process. When you work with your team in this way it’s a pleasure. You’ll find joy in seeing them shine and grow and your direct sales team will thrive.
I hope you find these tips helpful.
I wonder which one resonated with you the most? And do you have some leadership advice to add?
I remember when the internet was still new and shiny (…did I just reveal my age?) and we used to talk about how it would create a “global village”.
Well, I think it’s here now, that global village.
I have friends on the other side of the world who I see and talk to regularly (thank you Facetime). I order shoes from China without any hassles. I do educational courses with teachers in the US and the UK and I’m loving it.
With the advances in technology, we can have truly global workplaces and global direct selling teams.
But not all direct sales companies agree.
Why is the direct selling industry slow to embrace the global village?
I’ve spoken to many people in the direct selling industry who believe that physical proximity to leaders is vital.
I don’t agree. I don’t think distance makes a difference in the level of support you can provide.
I believe what makes a difference is personal contact and attention. And you can do that either in-person or through other means.
I came into this industry with a Masters Degree in Education and I majored in Distance Education. Which is perhaps why I am biased
It was a real surprise to me when I started in direct sales that so many companies were reluctant to let their consultants expand their team outside their immediate home area or recruit internationally.
I do understand that a consultant’s largest base of influence is usually in their local area, but with social media being such a part of everyone’s life, our influence can be global now.
If I can get a university degree entirely online, if I can consult a doctor or therapist entirely online, if I can be operated on by a surgeon who’s in another country, why has the direct sales industry been so slow to embrace the global village?
OK. Rant over.
If you ARE part of a direct sales or party plan company that allows international expansion or if you support teams within your own country but in different areas, I’ve got a few tips for you on how to do that effectively.
Tools, tips & tricks for supporting a global team
While I was writing this article, I actually sat down to have a think about how many people in my organisation I’ve met in person. And it turns out that it’s only 10 percent!
I have worked with and supported several leaders for some time before I finally met them in person. And there are still several of my “rising stars” (up and coming leaders) that I’ve never met.
And although I’d love to meet them in person, I don’t feel it’s hampering my relationship with them or impacting my level of support.
I do run in-person events with my local team members. And although I really love running these events and catching up with my local team, realistically I only reach a very small percentage of my organisation. If I had relied only on physical proximity with team members in my business, I would not be where I am today!
So, how can you connect with your team at a distance? Let’s have a look at some tools:
I love using Zoom‘s videoconferencing software. It’s a great tool to run training events online or work with individual team members online . You can hold meetings and all participants can see each other and interact. You can also run a training session where all participants see you or see a slideshow you’re using.
I record the meetings and training sessions so that team members who couldn’t attend can catch up afterwards.
Pricing for Zoom starts at $0
Another great tool is Calendly. It’s a scheduling tool that integrates with lots of calendars and sends out notifications. Using Calendly will make your life easier as a leader as it stops back-and-forth emailing or messaging about setting a time for a coaching call or meeting. All you need to do is send people to Calendly where you’ve set your availability and they can pick a slot and ‘book in’.
Calendly can also adjust for time-zones, which is helpful in working out what time suits people in their local time.
Pricing for Calendly starts at $0
I use Facebook to communicate with my team and focus groups. I set up secret or closed groups and invite my team members to the group. I have a few leaders that help me as moderators, answering questions and keeping things positive and helpful.
If you want to use a different communications tool, you can use Slack. This tool allows you to communicate in different channels, which can help to separate topics out. For example you could have a Party channel for questions and ideas for parties, a News channel where you can share company news, upcoming sales, and updates, a Booking channel where you can talk about bookings, etc.
You can share files with your team, have a video chat with team members straight from the app, you can set-up private channels for certain groups only, you can send private messages, and it has a fabulous archive and search feature.
Slack works on your desktop computer and your phone and pricing starts at $0.
These are all great tools…but tools alone don’t make for success.
I’ve recently had an experience of how not to support across the globe. I’m a member of an international association with members from around the world. I absolutely love their training and resources but their live video chat sessions are always scheduled at 4am my local time. And they don’t always record the sessions either.
This means I always miss out live and often can’t even catch up on the discussions via the replay! So I feel a bit left out.
My fabulous friend Rochelle Nicole has also had an experience of not being supported that well and has taken a few lessons from that and shares them with us. Check this quick 3-minute video:
The following 3 tips help to make sure your team members don’t feel left out:
When you are scheduling meetings or training sessions, be mindful of time zones. Make sure that you schedule at least one session every quarter that suits a particular time zone. This probably means you’ll have to stay up later or get up extra early but it means the world to people in those time zones. This way everybody will be offered a live meeting or training with you at least once a quarter.
Always record your sessions so you can make it available to the relevant team members for later viewing. Even if they couldn’t make it to the live session, they can at least watch the session later and not completely miss out.
When talking to a team member individually, try to use video chat. It’s so much better to be able to see each other than just having a phone call. There are so many free ways to organize a video chat that there should really always be an option. A quick and dirty list of free video calling apps: Zoom, Facetime, Skype, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. (And this is of course where a scheduling service like Calendly comes in super handy!)
And finally, don’t forget good old email. A personal message is greatly appreciated even though it sometimes feels that email is on its way out in this day and age.
If you want to truly make someone’s day, perhaps because they’ve just achieved a major goal, use snail mail. There’s really nothing like checking your mailbox and finding a handwritten envelope with a letter or a certificate. It truly feels special when someone has taken the time to write especially to you, it’s an extra bit of attention that is greatly valued.
Key Takeaways
You can support team members who are geographically dispersed through clever use of online tools and a bit of planning.
The important thing to remember is personal attention. But this doesn’t have to be in the same room. A video call will work just as well.
Don’t forget email and old fashioned post. They still matter and they’re still valued.
I have always been fascinated by personality types and different quizzes to find out what personality type you are. So when I came across a personality quiz specifically designed to help direct sellers, I jumped at it instantly.
The quiz was developed by the fabulous Mary Christensen. In her book you’ll find 8 personality types, but I’ve found these four the most common and helpful to distinguish:
Peacocks Peacocks are the most colorful of all the personalities. They are enthusiastic, spontaneous, and passionate. They follow their instincts, radiate warmth, and make friends easily. Peacocks are drawn to the limelight. They talk a lot, often speak fast and may embellish a story for dramatic effect.
Doves Doves are the most sensitive of all personalities. They are caring, nurturing, and kind. Doves bring harmony to any group because they are thoughtful, considerate, and tolerant of all viewpoints. They will turn away from disagreement rather than hurt someone’s feelings.
Eagles Eagles are the most driven of all personalities. They live to win. Eagles are confident, ambitious and assertive. They won’t stop until they get what they want.
Owls Owls are the most observant of all the personalities. They are fascinated by facts, figures, and detail. They are sincere and reliable and sometimes a little pedantic.
Oh no! I’m a Peacock
The first time I took this quiz, I was identified as a “Peacock” and I was not happy about it. I had considered myself a more nurturing “Dove” type and now I was a flashy Peacock.
But when I was honest with myself, I realized I really did love attention, recognition and loved seeing my name in print and being recognized on stage at company events. I was indeed a Peacock and ready to own it!
The next thought that went through my mind was about my team, I really wanted to know their personality types as well so I would know how to bring out the best in them. I asked them to complete the quiz as well and many did.
That the quiz uses birds to explain the various personality types was helpful to me. The associations are logical and very easy to remember so that was a big plus when it came to working with my team.
How I Applied the Personalities in My Direct Sales Biz
Understanding these different personality types made a massive difference to my business. It was the first time I really stopped to think about the fact that not everybody likes to do things the way that I do.
I knew that superficially, of course, but I hadn’t taken that knowledge to the next level and applied it consciously to managing myself or my team.
From then on I started offering different forms of recognition, taking into account that Owls and Doves often prefer a phone call or personal card in the mail over public recognition.
I also started delegating detailed tasks to Owls in my team, which draws upon their strengths and helped them to feel valued and.
I worked closely with Eagles to help them soar high but also develop patience with other personality types. I made an extra effort to shine the spotlight on the Peacocks, remembering that it wasn’t all about me.
I evolved into an Eagle
A few years later I took the quiz again and this time I had a new result. I had “evolved” into an Eagle. I was focused, goal oriented and a very high achiever. I had learned that consistency is the fastest way to success even though I’m still impatient.
Of course we all have aspects of each of the personality types within us. People are complex and beautiful beings, nobody is a one dimensional bird.
When I first took the quiz I realized I had very little “Owl” in me. I wasn’t very detail oriented and I wasn’t very organized. But, as they say, the first step in changing things is being aware of what you want to change. So I worked hard at increasing those skills over the years, to the point that I’m now extremely detail oriented and organized…although there is some room for improvement. I have to admit my office is usually messy and not very “owl-like”.
It is due to this quiz and – most importantly – the understanding of the different personality types for myself and my team that I was able to build a multi-million dollar business. It made me a better business woman and a better leader.
So, take a few minutes to take this quiz now. And then share it with your team! It’s a gift of knowledge that you can give yourself and others. It has the potential to change your life, just as it did mine.