Leader vs Driver
Last night I was on my way home with two of my business associates and we had a healthy debate over what it takes to build a team of people. We are in not only Real Estate, but Direct Sales for teaching Real Estate Investing, consequently we changed how we build teams recently.
There are certain characteristics of people that can make it in direct marketing or in network marketing, which is if you have studying any marketing at all, it is all network marketing. Ever heard the phrase it's not what you know, but who you know? They are referring to network marketing, who do you know that can help you get what you need.
Before I get side tracked any further and you stop reading, I want to give you the two words, their meanings and hopefully explain them so you (the reader) can also benefit about what I learned or rather got clarified. Leader VS Driver.
Let's look at dictionary.com definition for Leader as it pertains to the subject:
–noun
1. a person or thing that leads
2. a guiding or directing head, as of an army, movement, or political group.
I wanted to give the definition for driver, but it is technically akin or a synonym to the word Ambitious, so I will us this:
–adjective
1. having ambition; eagerly desirous of achieving or obtaining success, power, wealth, a specific goal, etc.: ambitious students.
2. showing or caused by ambition: an ambitious attempt to break the record.
3. strongly desirous; eager: ambitious of love and approval.
4. requiring exceptional effort, ability, etc.: an ambitious program for eliminating all slums.
So there are two types of people in marketing, those that are ambitious or what some network marketing people refer to as "ignorance on fire" and leaders, those who have knowledge and seek out ambitious people for leverage.
Before you get upset at my view point of marketing or the use of leverage, look at your life, are you being leveraged? or are you leveraging others? The fact is we all use leverage, we just don't think about it. If you are employed, your manager, boss, or company is leveraging your skills, knowledge or time to get its general purposes accomplished. AND IF you are an owner of a business you are the one that leverages your employees. You Don't have a job....okay are you a parent? Don't you have your kids do chores? You should, if you do you are leveraging them.
Leverage is not a bad word, but it is a fact of life and our society. It is how a society gets built.
So back to the Leader, some say leaders are born and I agree with that, but I also agree that leaders can be made. HOWEVER not all leaders are DRIVEN or AMBITIOUS. Being driven comes from within, it is something you are passionate about doing or wanting to do and it is a make up of some peoples personalities. Have you ever seen a person that is just so GUNG HO you want to puke? or wonder what drug they are on?
Leaders look for these people, they find what drives them and then leverage their skills, time or what they have to help further their goals as a leader. Now a GOOD LEADER will find out what an ambitious person needs or wants and will show them how to use their skills or develop the skills to acquire their desire.
However that boarders on another word, Mentor. Setting that aside for a moment once an ambitious persons "learns to fish" from their leader, they in turn work or give their time back to the leader as payment, that is if they are a humble, honest, respectful and grateful for what they have been taught or learned under a good leader. AND not necessarily devoted, that would be more towards a cult status.
So a Good Leader will look for these qualities in an ambitious person, so that they can work with them for a mutual benefit....a sort of lost thought or make up of honest people in today's entitlement society (another subject for a later date).
I hope this helped you as it did me when my friends and business associates Claude and Sherman discussed this last night. Sherman brought up the words Driver and Leader and we hashed them out, I think until we all understood how building a team you need a ratio. The ratio is different for every team, some leaders can have 20 ambitious people, me I can work with three, Sherman and Claude may also have different criteria for how many that they can work with. The point is to make that positive connection, build trust and honesty and then teach others (maybe ambitious people) how to be leaders, then duplicate the process. When you get good at this, you will know how to construct a team of individuals of common thoughts, desires and be able to focus so that all wants and needs expected and spoken by the group are met.
In conclusion I made all my children this morning in my car promise me that they would look up and at least read the definitions of the words Driver and Leader. I did this in the hopes to teach my kids how to be leaders, they have the ambition of being kids, but why not teach them the morals to stand out and stand up to be proud and confident?
Comments
From Sherman
nice article William...
There is so much I haven't said that its sometimes hard to communicate in our short conversations.
There is a whole dynamics of what it takes to build a successful team.
A true leader knows the need of whom he leads and understands that his success is directly dependent on the success of those he/she leads. That being the case it's his job to determine how to get the most out of those whom he/she intends to leverage.
To do this the human dynamic and relationships come into play. To get people to produce you must know what they need and provide it and they will supply you with what you need.
Being a leader of a team is a symbiotic relationship you server your reports and in return they server you. In today's fast pace selfish world people forget that.
This roll is a challenging one however, because there is much the leader needs to be aware of when working with others. You must be wise enough to learn how to push them beyond their beliefs but not too much that you break their spirit. There is a time to be nice and a time to be tough and finding that balance is ongoing learning process because people are always changing.
I know my conversation may see to be all over the map but maybe I can summarize it in the next few sentences...
Marketing in NR is cool and the potential to make a lot of money is there which is nice. Here is what I came to realize. From the presentation NR build business owners and Real Estate investors. When it comes to RE there is no issue we are the best. My struggle is building the business. If marketing is the business then it must be a repeatable system that consistently generates X amount of dollars every month, and if it is truly a system then putting people in the seat is not where it stops therefore you need to complete it from end to end. That means from sign up to the point where they function as independent business owners with out your support.
I guess what I realize is I don't have the time or the drive to setup the end to end system. In know what I need to do, I have figured it all out and doing real estate is a lot easier.
You maybe right when you say I need to work with a driver, as I know I have my weaknesses too. I like having a team because then I can leverage my weakness but without a team it takes me a lot longer to develop the skills but it will come
.... talk to you later
Thanks for your kind words,
Thanks for your kind words, Sherman.
We have all learned that more knowledge can cause stiffing, but going back to our roots of what motivates us, what dives us, what passions do we have to take our natural born leadership to the next level, the level of a driver or an ambitious leader. That I believe is the next break through for marketers, for us.
You are right Nouveau Riche has a great program, one that inspires both drivers and leaders, however it is also flexible enough to allow for your own interpretations and alterations so that you can set yourself apart from the other marketers to increase your business. And when I say increase your business, I know you like I are here and doing this not only for Time, Money and Flexibility of schedule, we do it for the passion of helping others have the same Freedoms we are still striving for. Not to mention our Real Estate clients whom we go the extra mile for and listen to their plight and search for a Win-Win-Win solution.
Yes my friend we are changing for the better, but I think we have a responsibility as natural leaders to not control the ambitious young people coming in to marketing, but to help them understand what real relationships, commitments, trust and honesty is all about. In other words, integrity.
With the people born over the last 10-15 years, they grew up in a very different society than we did, it was very full of entitlement mentality and less on self reliance. So our challenge is to develop the patience to see the Red Apples, those that are ambitious, those that strive for more and help them to see what being true humanitarians and philanthropists have to give back to those under privileged that are looking to help themselves be better members of society.
Here is to our faith in making a better world and society one day, one person, one home at a time.
Reply to ...
I see your points William and I guess this is where the point of practicality and decisions come into play. Much of what I have described is my understanding of the playing field and the challenges there in. Your eloquently response describes the reactions I probably should have viewing the situation.
When I pull back and take a grand view of things and look at what my ultimate objectives are, I find the need to change focus. If my decision is that Marketing will be my source of base finances then you are a hundred percent right, however, I have decide it is easier to generate my base income by utilizing someone else system even though I am trading time for dollars as a means to achieve my Goal.
While developing a stable baseline I will also pursue the creation of an additional business system to generate extra income.
To be successful as I see it i need to take care of basic needs that keeps me out of the desperation mode which most live in from day to day. Then work on the wealth creation. I am learning most of the problems we face lies within the decisions we are making in other areas of our lives and rather than address them we look for some other financial mean to just gloss over then and not deal with it.
The truth is most of us seeking wealth are louse at managing money and not discipline enough to do what we know we need to do so we seek more and never fix the financial discipline problem. When we get more its great for a while and then we are back where we started.
I don't have time or the interest in continuing to repeat my errors so I intend to fix them.
There is a verse in the bible that teaches that those who are faithful with with little will be faithful with much. For me the new task is learning to manage current situation before I worry about grow it. If not I will continue to perpetuation my weaknesses. So now I pass the baton to you do what you know will motivate those you work with to encourage them to be successful.
I will be here but my goal now is to fix me before i can fix someone else.
Sherman