When you are just starting out growing our Beachbody business and working to recruit new Coaches, it is common to cling to the people you recruit. This happens because, for starters, you just don’t have a lot of people to work with in the beginning, and because you are excited and amped up and really believe that these people are going to be the people. The people who are committed and on fire and are going to be with you for the long haul.
Unfortunately, that’s probably not the case. Truth is that in the beginning you may be working with people who really don’t deserve your time. But since you don’t have too many other Coaches to work with, you have no choice. As time goes on, you will start to bring in other people and they will bring in people and so on. At that point, you can begin to look at the natural leaders on your team and invest in them specifically.
Courage to Confront: A Good Leader Trait
If you are currently working with people on your team who aren’t really invested and may even be a drag to talk to, I want you to ask yourself why you are working with them. Is it because you have no one else to lead now or is it a bigger issue of confrontation? I’m willing to bet it’s the latter of the two. Confrontation can be hard and uncomfortable, but any good leader knows that it is necessary.
If you are currently beating around the bush and not confronting someone on your team who isn’t showing up to do the work, I challenge you to step into your power and have the conversation. If you aren’t in your own power, you cannot be a true leader. The power I’m talking about is a deeper connected power; a calm confidence in what you are doing and how you are moving forward. You might circle around confronting someone if you aren’t in your power because you are afraid of losing them or pushing them away.
Let me assure you that not confronting someone is a failure as a leader. There are two reasons below that you need to have the courage to confront to lead a successful business and team.
- You would want someone to confront you. Everyone needs a kick in the butt from time to time. If you weren’t reaching your full potential, wouldn’t you want to someone to call you on it?
- They will drag your business down. The organization and energy of any team is going to be brought down by people who aren’t showing up to work or have bad attitudes about their work.
We’ve talked about why you need to confront enough, so let’s move on to how you should confront. Below are my 4 tips on positive confrontations.
- This is how I feel. Whenever I’m confronting someone, I make sure to use the phrase, “This is how I feel.” No one can argue with how you feel. “How I feel” isn’t accusatory; you’re just expressing how you’re feeling. If someone is chronically late to a scheduled call and you tell them it makes you feel like they don’t respect your time together, they can’t argue with how you are feeling.
- Benefit of the doubt. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Don’t go into situations accusing and pointing fingers. Ask questions about what is going on in their lives and situations, you may find out something about them or their life that is impacting their performance.
- Separate the person from the action. You need to identify the difference between someone is bad and they did something bad. They’re not a bad person; they’re doing wrong actions. As leaders, we must continue to find the good in others.
- This is a lifelong practice. This is not something that you do once and feel good and expect everything to work seamlessly. It’s a practice and if you approach someone from the heart in a loving and caring way, it will disarm them. You’re no longer criticizing them, you’re having a conversation.
Starting today, I want you to look at your team and do the two things listed below.
- Identify the people you want to spend time with Decide how you want to work with those people.
- Identify the people you don’t want to spend time with Determine what it is about them that makes you not want to work with them and confront them if necessary.