By Barb Girson
A common buzz phrase in companies today is ‘employee engagement.’ In direct sales, this translates to team activity. We measure team engagement by tracking activity levels or percent of the team that are ‘active.’
Understanding the connection between engaged workers and an active team gives insights for recruiting and retaining your team as well as improving your percent of active team members.
According to Gallup (2016), only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged, and less than one third of employees report that they were actively engaged in their jobs over the last 15 years. The expenditures of this situation are confounding in terms of lost productivity, retention, and the cost of replacing team members. (Mann, Harter)
An inactive team is disappointing, draining, derailing, and certainly comes at a cost. It pays to strive for increased team engagement.
What exactly does ‘engaged’ mean in the first place?
Engagement is defined as, “a state of strong involvement, commitment, and enthusiasm.”
This definition would fit my idea of an engaged team member.
The interesting parallel is that many direct sales leaders often express frustration due to experiencing largely disengaged team members.
As a direct sales leader, you probably desire to have more team members who are involved, committed, and enthusiastic. Think of your team in terms of broad categories or what I call, ‘the new, few, and who:’
- NEW: If you have one-third of your team members who are newly recruited, they will infuse your team culture with new energy and enthusiasm.
- FEW: If one-third of your team has a commitment to move up and pursue a rank promotion, they will be your most strongly involved or engaged team members and set the pace.
- WHO: If you can accept that there may be about one-third who are disengaged and potentially ignoring you, you can focus your energy on those who are engaged and responding. This may be a temporary phase or the beginning of them quitting. If you have made an effort to understand their disengagement with no response these are the folks to bless and release from taking up space rent-free in your brain.
To improve your team results, focus on the aspects of team engagement that you can influence. Strive to monitor your percentage of active team members, and select strategies to increase your active team members. Provide a variety of ways for your team members to develop skill and competence.
Building competence increases confidence, and confident team members tend to be the most active. A correlation can be found between activity and team confidence.
Here are four categories to focus on to create change and lead to better team engagement:
- EXPECTATIONS: Clarify expectations (both yours and your team members’). Be clear on who is doing what by when.
- TRAINING: Provide a variety of ways for your team members to develop skill and competence.
- LEADERSHIP / SUPPORT: Help each team member identify the appropriate resources or support for what they need.
- RELATIONSHIPS: Foster a culture of positive team relationships, and a sisterhood.
Engaging and mobilizing your organization can feel like an overwhelming challenge. Leaders cite this as one of the top areas of opportunity. Here are some tips to help you with each of the four categories:
- EXPECTATIONS
A longstanding advertising principle is frequency counts. The same holds true when working with your team. Short, frequent coaching conversations about progress and expectations are effective – especially when they include teachable moments about different situations and details.
Here are ten smart questions you can ask your team members to help you both clarify expectations:
- What do you expect from me?
- What are you doing well?
- What are your strengths?
- What are you working on to improve?
- What is your development plan? When will you do this?
- What will help you stay on track?
- (If appropriate): What will happen if you improve (e.g., more flexibility, money, advancement, or incentives)? What will that mean to you?
- (If appropriate): What will happen if you don’t improve?
- What area of focus will give you the most opportunity to move closer to your goal?
- Who else can support you in the process?
Ask the questions that fit the conversation and continue to add new questions to your list. Give your team members the chance to self-diagnose and declare the areas they want to develop. Then you know what to expect from them, and since it was their decision, they are more likely to keep their commitments.
- TRAINING:
Provide a variety of ways for your team members to develop skill and competence. Encourage them to take advantage of your company training events and back office tools. Send them resource links as they need help in certain areas.
Another way to develop confidence is to provide direct feedback.
This eliminates the need for your team to read your mind or create stories in their head about how they are not cut out for the direct sales business. During my training events, keynote presentations, and workshops, direct sellers in the audience commonly remark how they think they are the only one with their doubts, struggles, and fears.
Imagine how your team feels. Many team members are frustrated because they feel they are the only one who is not doing well out of the gate. They measure themselves to the best on your team. They measure themselves to you as their leader.
They often don’t see their own progress and can’t figure out how to improve. Give caring and direct feedback and work with them to figure out how they learn best. Do they need to observe you or others, review the online training, or take a class?
- LEADERSHIP / SUPPORT
I often see team leaders challenged with their spans of control.
If you have a large number of Consultants in comparison to the number of leaders in your downline, the challenge becomes a span of control. This occurs when your first line is so wide that you can’t effectively pay attention to them. The remedy is to develop leaders who can offer more personal attention to their central team.
This situation is not completely your responsibility. Your team members must want to advance; however, you can create desire. Ask sponsors to step up and help their new team members. Have a closed Facebook group where the team helps each other with questions and generating ideas. Let your next Leaders emerge as they demonstrate skill in helping others succeed.
- RELATIONSHIPS
Foster relationships within your team so there is an abundance of support. Your team mantra might be, “We are stronger together,” or “A rising tide raises all ships.”
In your private Closed Facebook group, encourage your team to be just as happy for the accomplishments of others as they are for their own.
The solutions are simpler than you might imagine.
There are many simple strategies to engage and mobilize your team. They are relatively low cost to implement, can be put into place quickly, yet can have huge impact.
Follow these suggestions, focus on the four categories to drive activity, and watch your team engagement increase.
Reference: Mann, A. & Harter, J. (2016, January 7). The Worldwide Employee Engagement Crisis. Retrieved from www.Gallup.com
About the Author
Barb Girson, International Direct Sales Party Plan Expert, Trainer & Registered Corporate Coach™, is a highly interactive, creative speaker & author offering professional skill development programs for workshops, leader retreats, and annual conventions & webinar direct sales training programs. Custom programs / Coaching for individuals, small groups, and organizations available. Girson recently earned the distinction as one of 250 inaugural Coaches Certified in Conversational Intelligence®, (which combines neuro-chemistry with coaching) worldwide.
Barb Girson (ACC), president of MySalesTactics, helps companies, teams & entrepreneurs gain confidence, get into action, & most importantly… grow sales. Need a speaker for your next event? Contact Barb@MySalesTactics.com
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Barb Girson Original work
Need a speaker for your next event or a coach for your team? Contact Barb@MySalesTactics.com
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