Burke Hedges Speaks

Welcome back to another edition of the Monday Minute!

For many of us, this is a holiday week.  If you’re spending time
with family and friends I wish you very happy holidays & a wonderful
New Year!

I don’t know about you, but many people (including myself) use this
last week of the year to make their New Year Resolutions.  We do
it every year…and I have a question for you:  

How did you do last year on the resolutions you set for yourself? 

Did you keep them?  Or has the desire to do something else, or
slide back into your old ways made your resolutions fall by the wayside? 

If you find yourself making a list of resolutions each year and
then forgetting them by February 1st, I’ve got a tip for you. 

Instead of making resolutions, make “Intentions”.

What is an “Intention”?  An Intention is a purpose held in your mind. 
It’s a desired goal you want to experience.  

According to the dictionary, and intention is:

“An act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result. 
The end or object intended.  The purpose, or attitude towards the
effect of one’s actions or conduct.”
 
Intentions are more than a hope or a wish.  They’re a steadfast and
fixed idea. When you think about your intentions, you think about
having, being or doing something and it gives you pleasure.

There is power in your intention.  Your compelling reason for working
your business drives you to intention.  It’s your “why”.  You
probably have it written down somewhere.  Take a few moments this
week to go back and look over those compelling reasons that caused
you to seek out and get started in your business.

What “Intentions” can we fix in our mind that will help drive us
closer to our desired goals we want to experience?

It’s not too late to dig deep and come up with a focused purpose,
a desired goal you want to experience this year.

To your success in 2010!

Welcome back to another edition of the Monday Minute! 

For the last 2 weeks we’ve been talking a lot about motivation
vs. inspiration.  If you missed last weeks newsletter, go to
my blog and check it out.  http://www.BurkeHedges.com/blog 

There are a lot of great tips there about how to tell if someone
on your team is truly motivated.  Those tips will really help you
focus on who to spend the bulk of your time with vs. who to let loose.

As many of you know, I wrote a book called The Parable of the Pipeline. 
In that book, I used the analogy of building a pipeline instead of
carrying buckets.  This week, I’d like to share another short analogy
with you that you may have heard before…about geese!

It’s a great story about working together as a team.  Keep reading
to find out more…

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Most of us know that geese fly in a formation of a ‘V’ with the
leader at the point.  Studies have shown that when geese fly in
this ‘V’ formation, they fly 70% faster than any single goose
could fly alone. 

In other words, they’re must faster & efficient flying together
than flying solo.

Each ‘row’ of geese is helped along by the breeze that the ones
in front of them create as they fly.  And as each goose flaps
its wings, it creates an ‘uplift’ for the birds that follows.
 
The geese work together while flying - they’re a team.  This
reminded me of something I have always felt about our industry
and that is being in the company of like-minded people elicits
a sense of strength, purpose, and community.

So, what are some of the lessons we learn from geese?  What can
we take away and apply to building a strong team in this business?

1.  The ‘V’ formation gives the entire flock strength.  They fly
    better together than they do alone. 

When people share a sense of community they can help each other
get where they are going more easily because they are travelling
on the trust of one another. 

2. When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag
   and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back to take
   advantage of the lifting power of the birds in front.

If we have as much sense as geese, we’ll stay in formation with
those headed where we want to go. We’ll be willing to accept their
help and give our help to others.  We’re not flying solo - we’re
helping each other. 

3. When the lead goose gets tired, it drops back into the formation
   and another goose flies to the point position.

It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks. We should respect and
protect each other’s unique arrangement of skills, capabilities,
talents and resources.

4. The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front
   to keep up with their speed.

Is your ‘honking’ encouraging or annoying?  In teams where there is
encouragement, results are much greater. But if your ‘honking’ is
heard as nagging, pushing and persuading, it will often have no
affect at all.

When you’re the leader you can do as geese do - share the position,
don’t get power hungry, and ask for input from others.  Offer help
to others and carry your own weight. Say thank you to the people
on your tem.  Cheer each other on when the going gets rough.

If someone on your team feels frustrated, overwhelmed and wants
to quit, the best thing you can do for them is quality HONK!

If you think of these principles, they will not only lift your
mood but help you to develop commitment to excellent performance
within yourself and within your teams.

I’ll see you next week!

It’s Monday and time for another edition of the Monday Minute. 
Thanks for joining me!

Last week we talked about what it is you really owe to your team. 
It’s so important to separate the act of helping someone grow
from dragging them across the finish line.

You can’t build this business for the people on your team.  You
can only continue to build your own business and be an example
of success for them to follow.

In the end, it’s their business and their success will be based
on the amount of personal effort they put into it - not on how
much you try to help them.  Give your teammates the resources
they need to succeed, encourage them to plug-in, cheer them on,
and then work like heck on your own business to set a great example. 
The rest of it you leave in their hands.

I get asked dozens of times every month by ambitious distributors
from all over the world, “How can I motivate others to become more
successful?”

You know, it sounds like a great skill to have - the ability to
motivate someone else.  But the truth is, you cannot successfully
motivate others.  It’s not possible.  You can INSPIRE them with
your words and actions, but true motivation for them must come
from within.

****************************************************************
If your team doesn’t have that internal motivation, that fire in
their belly, then any motivation you try to give them will be just
like putting spray paint on rust. Eventually, when the motivation
from an event or pep talk wears off, it’s a person’s commitment
that is left over.
****************************************************************

You cannot motivate others to want to succeed any more than you
can push a rope uphill.

The truth is, a person must first want it for themselves before they
will ever become successful, right?  You probably know this from
experience.  You go to a meeting and leave all “fired up” only to
fizzle out 2 weeks later.

Being inspired is great and we should all strive to listen to, watch
or read things that inspire us and give up that jump start we need
to pursue our goals.  But motivation comes from deep within.  It’s
lasting…it ’sticks’.  It’s about something bigger than just walking
across that stage or getting a big commission check.  It’s about
changing your life and your family’s life forever.

Wanting success for someone else more than they want it for themselves
can become toxic for both parties.  The key to having motivated people
on your team is to be motivated yourself.  Not just inspired - but
deeply motivated and driven to success.

>> Being motivated means that you don’t need someone else to remind
   you of the opportunity you have in front of you.

>> Being motivated means that you wake up each morning ready to take
   on the day, create new relationships, market your business and show
   people how to get started.

>> Being motivated means that you attend the events and trainings without
   having to be reminded that the events are taking place.

>> Being motivated means that you invest in your education by reading
   books, listening to audios and modeling successful people.

>> Being motivated means that you take massive action, regardless of
   who believes in you, supports you or joins you.

>> Being motivated means that you learn the system, how to do business
   and produce results.  It’s important to you.

This, in my opinion, is what true motivation looks like.  Can you spot
it in yourself?  Can you spot it in your teammates?

So, what do you do when you find yourself surrounded by prospects
who are unmotivated to get started or a team that’s unmotivated to
take action?  Do you try to find ways to motivate them?  No, you
FIRE THEM and find new people.

Find new people who are hungry for success, who will stop at nothing
to get it and are determined to develop themselves into a leader that
others are looking to follow.

They’re out there, believe me, there are plenty of people searching
for a system to plug into that can change their lives.  They’re out
there searching for the right business model, the right leader, the
right system and the right support to reach the top! 

Will you be the one to find them?  Or will you be too busy trying to
drag people across the finish line?  The decision is yours…now take
action!

Make it a great week!

Hello again & welcome back to the Monday Minute! 

I know many of you are knee deep in holiday preparations while
trying to finish out the year strong.  So, over these last few weeks
of the year, I’d like to give you some business building tips to
help you get a fast start on 2010!

Let me ask you a question:  What responsibility do you have to
your team? 

All those people you sponsor - what do you owe them?  How much
time should you be spending with them?  When do you know you’ve
given enough?

It’s a tough thing for many distributors to balance.  But I believe
that the object of sponsoring someone into your business is not for
you to build the business for them, but with them. As a responsible
sponsor, the only real responsibility that you owe to your team, is
that you lead them by being an example of success.

And that’s what we’re going to talk about today - How to be an example
of success for your team to follow…

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To me, a leader who is a great example of success is someone who does
whatever it takes to make the biggest difference in people’s lives
using their business as the vehicle and my actions as their model.

In other words, I never tell people what to do; I just tell them what
I’m doing. And I let them watch, listen and learn.

Being an example of success means:

- Attending trainings and conventions
- Never quitting, staying persistent and consistent and never walking away
- Doing the things that must be done in order to succeed, making sacrifices
  and giving up old habits
- Investing in yourself and your business by doing things that make you feel
  uncomfortable for only a short time, so that you can live comfortably for
  a long, long time
- Getting up earlier than you ever have before, staying up later than you
  have in the past, sacrificing some of the things you never expected to,
  treating people differently than you ever have in your life and learning
  new skills on a constant and continual basis

Being an example of success is the only thing you will ever owe your team. 

Always stand strong and let your team see you out there doing it!  That’s
the best motivator and teacher of all! 

Until next week - Be Your Best!