When it comes to your brand, it is of utmost importance you scrutinize those who want to be part of your team. Teammates come in many forms. They may be people who want to contract or partner with you, be referred by you or refer others to you.
Whoever the teammate may be who you consider, it’s critical they are in alignment with your brand. What I’m referring to is consistency between words, actions, and deeds. You must put into action what you say, in other words, practice what you preach. It’s amazing to me how many people including known leaders who are out of alignment with themselves.
Likewise when you recommend someone, you have a personal responsibility to follow up on the recommendation to make certain the person you hold in high esteem followed through properly. If for some reason this does not occur, then you run the risk of hurting your reputation should you choose to ignore poor delivery.
Brand alignment
In the past month, I attended a workshop with someone held in high esteem by a number of my friends. Only I was stunned to find this person did not honor his commitment to the small audience that took the time to be with him. Instead, he berated the people in attendance because it was a small group, told them they weren’t worthy of his time and cut the promised time spent by 2/3. In my own case, I took a 6:00 a.m. flight to make the workshop on time. Ignoring all of the factors, he simply walked out.
The sad part is he got angry with the wrong crowd. He should have adored the people that did show up and worked twice as hard with them than normal to show his appreciation.
I am relaying this scenario because a virtual assistant said she was going to connect me with him on social media. My immediate response was, “Please don’t.” Should word spread on what this person is truly like, I do not wish to be associated.
Sampling character and competence
On a brighter note, this past year, I became very involved with an international online community. We learned from one another, promoted one another and we became close friends collectively and individually. It is to the point now that we are collaborating to produce further products among us as well as new services that will have wide appeal. Our own services complement that of each other. The beauty of having worked together this past year before formally partnering is that it gave us each an opportunity to determine if we each hold the same degree of integrity. Having witnessed that we do, we are now looking forward to a phenomenal new year once our plans are formulated and in writing.
Our collaboration will help us to attract much wider audiences and build business exponentially and we will have a more robust model to offer our clientele. The best part is, I know in my heart that when word of mouth news spreads about us – it will be positive!
When you take the time to consider all aspects of your behavioral ideals personally and working with others, business development is far easier which leads to the proverbial Smooth Sale!
