How To Promote A Positive Culture On Your Team — Part 1

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

Have you ever walked into a meeting room or an event and immediately felt like something was off?

Maybe it felt like there was just this black cloud in the room that was looming over everyone’s heads.

Nowadays, especially with the pandemic going on in the world, this is more and more common.

And, it’s not just the corporate world either.

This is happening all over the entrepreneur space as well.

People’s businesses are being impacted negatively and it’s causing this darkness that’s extremely hard to get rid of.

With all of the closures all over the world, some businesses had to completely close their doors.

People are losing jobs and it’s becoming harder and harder to keep people who are finding more opportunities to work at home.

This causes added stress and frustration among business owners, as well as those that are in the home business space as well.

So, what can we do about it?

IS there anything we can do about it?

There sure is, and that’s what I’m going to talk about below. I’ll go through a series of points (13 to be exact) that will go over ways we all can promote a positive culture on our teams.

Keep in mind that these points are not specific to one industry and could potentially be used anywhere. But, for my sake and experience, I’m going to talk about this in the sense of the home business world, and with the premise of direct sales and digital marketing opportunities.

Stop Surviving. Start Thriving.

One of the biggest problems that I’ve seen is that people who are trying to build a name for themselves in the entrepreneurial world are still feeling like they are just surviving through live. They put this burden on themselves that there is no more room for them to expand and they just trudge along like nothing is ever going to change. This is a mentality that is programmed into us through our schooling years and into our first jobs.

We’re taught that there’s nothing we can do about our pay, the times we’re scheduled, or the people we work with. So, we deal with the situation and make a false determination that we have no choices.

When becoming an entrepreneur, the greatest gift that we are given is that of choice.

We are given the choice of what we do, how we do it, where we do it, and who we do it with. Especially in the home business world, we have the ability to make these choices on our own. So, why is it that so many are still just surviving instead of thriving?

They haven’t made the choice to thrive.

I know, it sounds cliche, but the fact of the matter is that it’s a decision to want to thrive. Without making the decision first, it just won’t happen. That decision could be deciding on a goal, or a strategy, or even just a set of tasks to get something done.

Don’t Mess With Anyone’s Ego

Picture this for a moment…

You walk into a bar and you see a guy hitting on a great looking woman. She seems not so interested, but she’s appeasing him and letting him do is ‘macking’. She brushes him off from time to time, but she’s still sitting with him and seemingly playing hard to get. You absolutely believe that he has no chance with her, but you decide to leave it alone. However, someone else has had enough of whatever they think is going on so they go over to him, tell him that she is way out of his league and tells the woman that she could do better. She gets up and leaves and the guy is sitting there dumbfounded as to what just happened.

So, what do you think happened?

Do you feel for the woman because this guy seems like he has no chance?

Or, do you feel for the guy because his ego was just SMASHED into the ground?

If you said the guy, then that’s what this point is all about.

When someone comes to you with a great idea, or even a new opportunity that they want to promote, you have two choices:

1. Tell them that it’s a lost cause and they are out of their mind.
2. Encourage them and tell them that they can do whatever they put their mind to?

If you said number one, then you’re messing with that person’s ego and that can do a lot of damage to their success.

Don’t tell someone they don’t have a chance. Instead, encourage them to move forward and give it their all.

If it doesn’t work out, don’t tell them “I told you so.” Instead, ask them if they are proud of the work they did and if yes, then encourage them to try again with a different strategy. If no, then tell them that you are proud of them for being honest and maybe encourage them to move on to something different.

Don’t Degrade Or Belittle

This is a big problem all around. People feel like when they are talking to someone who is a big-wig in that industry, they are being talked down to. However, what I’ve noticed is exactly the opposite.

You see, in the corporate world, this happens a lot and I’ve found (from talking with co-workers and previous leadership) that a lot of the talking down and belittling is to “keep people in their place”. From what I gathered, it’s a form of suppression to keep people from rising up and taking someone else’s job.

Now before you start yelling “YOU’RE WRONG” at your screen, that’s obviously not the case everywhere. Even different teams in the same company can have different behaviors. But the point I’m making here is that it’s a common practice from my research and it’s hard to get through to people like that.

What we should be doing is encouraging and uplifting people. Make them feel like they can conquer the world and climb the tallest mountain. If you don’t believe they’ll make it, that’s okay, just keep it to yourself and say something like “That’s great! I wish you the best of luck!” That’s better than stating “Oh, I don’t know about that. I’m not sure that you’re up for that task” or “Are you sure you’ve been around long enough to know how to do that?”

Have Standards and Values

With my time in multiple direct sales companies, I’ve found that a lot of the reason that people succeed is not because they are good at sales or they have a lot of people ready to go. It’s because they hold themselves to a higher standard than other, and they build their business based on values.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make, and what causes a negative connotation on many different teams, is that direct sales, digital marketing, affiliate marketing, even consulting is for the “Every Man”. Well, I’m going to tell you that it’s a load of crap and you should not listen to that person. This industry requires a strong set of standards and values, and some people just don’t have that.

Can they learn it? Absolutely! But they have to be willing. And, the willingness to hold one’s self to a higher standard is very rare these days. Doing so automatically puts you above a large amount of marketers out there and you’ll have people flocking to you non-stop!

Don’t Mess With Someone’s Spouse

I don’t think I have to go deep into this one as the title itself is pretty self explanatory.

Don’t.

Mess.

With.

Someone’s.

Spouse.

I don’t care how “platonic” your relationship is, there’s a reason why most affairs start in the workplace. (Bloom Law Office)

Don’t do things with someone’s spouse without the spouse there, unless there’s explicit consent from the spouse and there’s at least other people in the vicinity. I know, it sounds like the “If there’s someone of the opposite gender in your room, keep the door open” rule that we had as kids, but it absolutely applies as adults. If you can’t follow the rules, don’t do it.

Don’t Mess With Someone’s Money.

This is another one that should be pretty self explanatory, but don’t give someone a reason to be upset with you because you costed them money that they wouldn’t have lost if you weren’t involved. You do not want to be the reason why someone lost a sale.

On the flipside of that, you also do not want to be the person that takes a prospect from someone else without explicit consent. If you don’t know, that’s fine, but it’s always good to ask. A rule of thumb that I use is asking someone if they’ve heard of the program, product, company, or all of the above before. If they say no, then it’s fair game. However, if they say “oh yeah! This guy I talked to the other day was telling me about this!”

If you know the person, then talk to them before proceeding.

If you do not know the person, then let the prospect tell you whether or not they’d like to go back to talking to them, or continue talking to you.

Yes, we all know that the prospects can make their own decision, but that decision could be taking food off of someone’s table.

Don’t Do Anything For The First Time Without Checking With A Mentor or Coach

This is one of those things that really comes with some interesting territory. The reason is because not everyone has a mentor or coach. So, if you do not have a mentor or a coach to talk to, then you could bring this up with your spouse, your business partner, or a friend. However, that comes with a very big disclaimers.

The big disclaimer is that you want to talk to someone who’s not likely to be biased about the situation. You see, the reason I mention a mentor or a coach is because they are less likely to give you an emotional response. They are more likely to be financially invested in your success in some way, and that comes with a different perspective. So, when you are going to do something for the first time (or maybe even make a big purchase), it’s a good idea to discuss with someone who is going to give you an unbiased opinion.

If you are talking to someone who is more emotionally invested in you, then they likely are going to ask you how you feel about the decision and probably either agree with you, or have you expand to see if they feel like it’s a good fit for you. It’s going to be less about business sense, and more about how it makes you and them feel.

A good example of this is when I was wanting to pay for a marketing program. I was getting into online marketing pretty heavily and wanting to build my direct sales business online as well. I found a program that looked great! It had all the bells and whistles that a marketing training program should have.

• There was a roadmap of things to follow to move through the program.
• They had tools that they would give away as part of the membership.
• They had a coaching team to call on for questions.
• And, they would have big mastermind weekends where they would go through all the latest and greatest in the digital marketing world.

When I brought it up to anyone I talked to, they all would gawk at the price of the program ($3,000) and then would tell me that I should pay off bills, go on a nice date night, or get the kids something nice. The hard part is that I knew they were right, I could do those things.

However, when I brought it up to my mentor, he had more constructive questions.

• What’s their track record?
• How will this help you move forward?
• Is there anything after the program is finished?
• What happens if you don’t do this?
• If you find that the program is not worth your investment, what protections are there for you?

So, as you see, there was more thoughtful questions about how good the program was and it was to help me think about what I’m getting, if I’m getting a good deal with this, and whether or not there’s a way I can protect myself from a bad deal. With that conversation between my mentor and I, it was agreed that it sounded like a solid plan and I went for it. It was a great experience, I learned a lot, and it’s really where I started to get a bit of a stride in my marketing.

So, when it comes to promoting a positive culture within your team, it’s about being a damn good human being!

But, we’re not done here. This was just part ONE of how to promote a positive culture. Part TWO will be coming next week and I’ll be going into some more dicey topics that will have you doing a little soul searching yourself!

As always, don’t be afraid to reach out if you have questions, or just want to chat. We’re open for feedback and love being able to meet our fans and help them on their journey!