| Build Your Team with
a Book Club
- Looking for a new way to improve your team’s
skills? Start a business book club.
- Want a deeper understanding of, and deeper relationships
with, other women in your company? Start a business
book club.
- Want to improve your business skills or your
attitudes about success and money? Start a business
book club.
I’ve organized and facilitated two book clubs
using the same format – pick a great book, read
one chapter at a time, do the exercises, and discuss
that chapter in a weekly (or every other week) regularly
scheduled teleconference.
The benefits have been many. I’ve
learned the material more thoroughly, because we went
over it slowly and in depth. Through conversations
with the other book club members, I got a completely
different perspective on the material. I also learned
so much about how the other members think and work.
Benefits to You and Your Team
 Great
training. Pick the right book, and everyone
will learn new ways to grow their business.
Deeper understanding of its contents.
You’ve read it more carefully (in your preparation)
and you’ve discussed with others. You improve
your understanding by “teaching” it to
others and by learning a different perspective back
from them. You’ve internalized it!
Learn more about each other. The
conversations you have will help you understand your
colleagues in more depth: their concerns, their interests,
their commitment.
Reward team members. They’re
getting more quality “face time” with
you (in a virtual sense) which is a reward to them.
For people who love learning and self-development,
they perceive the book club as a great benefit.
Accountability. Book club members
can choose to set a goal during the teleconference.
Having accountability to the group helps them move
forward.
How to Make It Happen
Choose who to invite. Take a moment
to think strategically about this. You’ll be
spending time regularly with your fellow members,
so make sure that time is well spent. The choices
depend on your situation and your goals.
If you’re a team leader who wants to improve
your team’s skills, how about inviting a mix
of highly motivated consultants and consultants who
haven’t quite lived up to their potential? Being
around high-performers often helps everyone raise
the level of their game.
If you want to network with other women in your company,
run through the list of women you’ve met whom
you’d like to know better. They may be other
team leaders or in your upline.
If you want to learn from experiences beyond direct
sales, you can also start a book club with women from
a variety of backgrounds. In my second book club,
I followed this route. I announced the formation of
the club at a networking event and anyone who was
interested could join.
Select a book. I find the books
with practical application and exercises are the easiest
to discuss. Some suggestions to get you started are:
- To build direct selling skills: Build It Big
or More Build It Big. There’s also
a fantastic in-depth workbook with exercises for
Build It Big – see http://www.dswa.org/bib.asp
- To build better habits: The Success Principles:
How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want
to Be by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer
- To develop better attitudes about money: Secrets
of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
Pick a facilitator and an organizer.
These are the two main roles – both are simple.
The most important is the facilitator, who leads off
the discussion and helps keep it on track. It’s
critical to start and end each meeting on time and
the facilitator makes this happen. The facilitation
also ensures that everyone has an opportunity to speak.
The second important role is the organizer, who schedules
meetings, reminds people of the meetings, and keeps
track of the group’s membership.
Software makes it easier to organize.
The organizer can automate reminders with tools like
Yahoo or Google Groups, or Google calendar, or even
schedule messages in advance through your email software.
One chapter at a time is critical to success.
If you read and then discuss an entire book at one
sitting, you’ll end up with a more superficial
reading and a more superficial conversation about
it.
Schedule a regular call at the same day and
time to discuss. Once a week is great. Once
every other week can also work well. Any longer than
that and people won’t stay on track with the
reading and they’ll tend to forget what they
read.
Once you’ve determined your initial
invitees, send out an invitation email, describing
WHAT this is, WHY you’re doing it, HOW they’ll
benefit, and WHEN it happens.
In that initial email, you’ll also want to
provide guidelines about the conversations. One important
guideline is the expectation of confidentiality. Some
conversations will bring up sensitive information,
particularly around money, and people need to be certain
that none of their personal information will be shared
outside the book club.
See an example of the initial invitation and the
guidelines I use at http://www.marcystahl.com/bookclubguidelines.html.
If you’re looking to promote team cohesion,
increase skills, and help YOURSELF to deeply understand
the great material in a book, try a business club.
It’s a fun, easy and rewarding way to build
your business!
CALL TO ACTION
Have you set your 2012 goals and done some budget
projections?
If you’re a direct seller, have you laid out
your recruiting and team-building plans?
If you’re a solopreneur, have you created your
marketing plan?
If your answers are “No”, then let’s
have a complimentary 30-minute Success Session. On
this private call, we’ll get clear on your 2012
goals, what has been getting in the way of you achieving
them, and discuss some next steps to help you create
an AMAZING year! Just email me at success@marcystahl.com
and we’ll find a convenient time to get this
started.
Your 2012 is completely under your control. Are you
satisfied with your 2011 results, or do you want more?
Here’s
how it helped a recent participant
"Marcy was extremely helpful in giving
me objective outside opinions. I was
able to see how my past experiences were holding
me back from achieving my goals. Some
of the messages that I received stated that
I was not worthy to excel. Marcy showed me how
very unique I am and there is no one like me!!
With her help, I'm beginning to maintain change
in my communication skills and having better
interpersonal relationships!"
~ Barbara Eversman, Arbonne |
© 2012 Marcy Stahl
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this complete description
with it:
Marcy Stahl motivates women entrepreneurs to
move from having only a trickle of clients to an abundant
full flow of more clients, more money, and more decision-making
power. If you're ready to empower yourself AND boost
your business, if you want to share YOUR passion with
more people, schedule your free 45-minute Marcy Stahl
Success Solutions Session by clicking here: http://www.marcystahl.com/contact-marcy.html
|
2012
is going to be a big year for me. I’ve set my
intention and theme; I’m developing my income
goals and budget projections; and I’m in the
process of hiring yet another support team member!
Ever
considered creating a vision board but weren’t
quite sure how to make it or how to use it? Join Catherine
Rose Stevens for a free teleclass where you will:
