Is Your Sponsor Your the Best Mentor?
Would it not be nice if life were perfect? However, as all of us know that is not the case, and life must go on with all its challenges. When we think of Network Marketing, and starting your business venture, an ideal partnership between a new distributor, and his or her sponsor would be to have the ability to understand one another, to have a high level of trust, and competence, and have the same goals in mind, the ability to train, mentor, and to be successful.
In the real world of Network Marketing, however, many sponsors do not have the ability to be the best mentor, and trainer. Often sponsors are not usually objective. They have a great deal at stake in your being successful; some people feel this brings a motive to the discussion that feels like pressure. Others say that the unspoken agreement to always receive instruction from your sponsor would come in the way of their honesty. Online prospecting often puts two people together without much regard for who may be the best person to be put in that position. It’s easier to build a website than to build your team! The person sponsoring may not be available, due to where he lives, the state or country that he/she lives in, and just even the distance from where you reside, or they may have little or no Network Marketing experience to do mentoring. To have a sponsor who can also serve as a mentor, and trainer is perfect, but for many networkers it just is not the case.
To think about:
First, we need to acknowledge that there are many successful networkers, and many didn’t have perfect sponsors. Nonetheless, they achieved success in their business opportunity despite the odds against them.
Consider this:
There is a way to get the best of both worlds even if your sponsor is not the ideal teacher. How? Go out and hire a teacher that can guide you to be successful in your business opportunity. You have the right to expect honesty, commitment, objectivity, and expertise from your trainer with regard to grounding a business plan, and holding you accountable. The person you hire will expect honesty, commitment, and action from you.
If you’d like to create a mentoring relationship with your sponsor, but there appears to be obstacles, a good trainer will look for the opportunity to negotiate break-through conversations regarding difficult issues with your sponsor. This might look like making a request to your sponsor to be treated like a serious player, or asking for training, and three-way calls. If the client is in a relationship in which he feels there are irreconcilable differences, honesty may be the missing link. All too often, issues can be treated as “no big deal” when, in fact, it is a big deal. Making requests, and telling the truth can often turn otherwise dysfunctional relationships into productive ones.
Try this:
Sponsors: Be willing to listen to the requests of your team, and how best to work with them.
Team Members: Take responsibility for handling upsets as they surface.
Be humble enough to admit mistakes, and be proactive, and remember that vulnerability is the flip side of power.
Sponsors and Team Members: Whether you decide to establish a coaching relationship between you or stick with the basic team interactions, remember that in marriage “You don’t have to agree with everything your spouse says or believes, but you have to be honestly open to considering his or her position,” writes marriage counselor John M. Gottman. “If you find yourself sitting with your arms folded and shaking your head no (or just thinking it) when your spouse is trying to talk out a problem with you, your discussion will never get anywhere.”
Compromise requires self-sacrifice. No one enjoys living with a spouse who believes “it’s either my way or the highway.” It is far better when both partners have a self-sacrificing disposition. The same is true in running your Network Marketing business. Compromise requires self-sacrifice.
REPLACE FEAR WITH CURIOSITY Courage Changes Everything.
