Trust: The Number One Competency Of Leadership

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The Number One Competency of a Leader

The ability to establish, grow, and extend trust where needed restore trust with your stakeholders is the number one competency of a leader in today’s world.

~ Stephen MR Covey

In today’s challenging environment of constant change, pressure to produce, what’s in it for me type of culture there is one trait above all others that will do more to propel you to greater heights of success and personal satisfaction. This one supreme trait is that of TRUST. In his book  The Speed of Trust Stephen MR Covey writes that Trust is the number one competency for leadership because of four main factors. Let’s take a look at these factors and relate them to our particular business model of network marketing:

A. The nature of today’s world due to technological advances is that of a flat world:

Because of where we are at in history there has never been a time when someone could obtain so much information within such a short time period. What this means to us as network marketing professionals is that no longer are we confined to the old ways of building out our teams based on largely geographic regions but in fact the world is now our playground and intercontinental businesses are becoming the norm rather than the exception.

What this also means is that it is also easier to get lost in the crowd and becoming a “Me Too” marketer. There are quite literally thousands of leaders out in the marketplace right now building their empires so you have to pose this question to yourself “What is it about me that will attract or repel someone to my opportunity?”

A distinguishing factor may be that through all of your marketing you have kept and developed such a high level of trust that your potential business partners know without a shadow of a doubt that your interests do not lie in just adding another body to the organization rather they are in helping that person develop into the leader they want to become.

This particular area of trust is such a powerful one that I want to reemphasize it: When your potential business partner knows with no uncertainty that the advice, counsel, and leadership that you provide to them is based out of your desire to see them succeed then there can be no more powerful base to build your relationship on.

B. There is so much noise & clutter in the marketplace:

How many times have you been hit with the latest greatest super-juice can’t miss opportunity of a lifetime within the past four weeks? Or maybe it’s the you-can’t-miss-this next telecom super deal. If you have been in the network marketing arena for any length of time I would guess a minimum of at least twice or if you’re like me with more experience within the field then you have received several well meaning offers of business partnerships more than that.

This goes to the heart of building your business for long term success. There will always be the next super opportunity around the corner since this is the nature of our business and if you haven’t developed a strong enough bond with your teammates and business partners they are going to be persuaded to chase after the next opportunity because they are mistakenly under the impression that it will lead them to greater & quicker success.

The way you combat this and cancel out any attrition is by developing the trust factor to such a degree that your business partners know that they will receive the best mentorship, marketing training, and business development by staying aligned with you as their leader.

It’s true that the number one competency of a leader is the ability to generate trust but how do you generate this type of trust? This type of trust can only be created by you undertaking the necessary steps to develop your skill set within the networking marketing arena. You take the time to learn how to build out proper direct marketing campaigns. You take the time to learn how to use Article Marketing, PPC Advertising, or Social Media Strategies so that you can become an asset to those you serve.

This is how you create value within yourself as a leader and once created can never be taken away from you. It just so happens that these are the same steps to create a personal brand and are part of the whole Attraction Marketing sequence.

C. Trust is the one thing that changes everything:

Trust is the only thing that will keep your team together when things don’t work out with your company, service or product. This is a very important component to have due to the likelihood that you will not spend your entire network marketing career with the same company but do have a very strong opportunity to spend it with the same core group of leaders you have established.

I know many groups of leaders who have built with each other over the decades that even though there are less than 10 core leaders collectively they can marshal 10,000 person groups within a month because of their relationships which are based on trust.

D. We’re operating in an increasingly low trust world:

Let’s face the facts here. Day by day trust levels in our various societies are decreasing. This extends across the board from trust in our government to do right by us to trust in our clergy and even to mistrust in our justice system that it isn’t give everyone a fair shake.

Folks have grown to be very distrustful of “opportunities & slick saleman”. They have had good reason to become so indoctrinated since there are many people out there trying to take advantage of them. This is the key to your success and differentiation within the networking marketing industry.

Strive to be someone of integrity, trust, honor, and compassion. Make sure that no matter what the outside world is doing or how others in your company are behaving that YOU on a personal basis are above reproach, that everything you do you keep in mind the best interests of your business partners.

This may cost you short term money in some instances but the return over the long term is absolutely incredible. You benefit from having a stellar reputation within your field. You benefit from having the personal satisfaction in knowing that you are a person of incredible and unshakeable integrity and most of all you benefit by placing yourself in a position of trust where you can really and truly affect the lives of others in a positive manner.

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To Our Massive Success,

John