" The most challenging, most difficult, biggest pain for me is to lead is John Maxwell."   John Maxwell, Leadership Expert, and author.

Anyone in network marketing is a leader that has dual leadership opportunities. The first leadership opportunity is the most significant one, You. John Maxwell is considered the #1 Leadership expert globally, having published nearly 100 books on the topic.

Dr. Maxwell often reports that a leader's most challenging person to lead is themselves.

John often says," the hardest, most difficult biggest pain for me is to lead is John Maxwell. "I can certainly say that is true for my leadership of John Hackett as a leadership writer, coach, and trainer. The second leadership opportunity in a network marketing organization is your team.

"The Speed of the leader is the speed of the  gang." Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

The members of your team are often volunteers. These are people who have joined your team. They are closely watching and modeling your behavior. This group is your second leadership opportunity and maybe somewhat more manageable because we want them to succeed.

Leading yourself well is crucial to your success and your team's success. Your self-leadership provides an example and a path for the team to follow. Your actions will provide a model for current members and serve as a magnet or a deterrent for those considering joining your team. Your current team and those prospects considering joining your team will closely monitor how you lead yourself.

Your team is not only looking at making sales often. They ask how I can have fun learning to relate to others and meet my needs. This is especially important in this period of "the great reshuffle" where, people have learned they may not like the work situation they were in pre-pandemic and are looking for something that may better meet their needs, such as work-life balance.

If they lead well, network marketing companies are a welcome alternative to many. In this environment, what does someone see in your network marketing model as an attractive and possible alternative to better meet their needs? The model they will look at is your self-leadership. "The Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, Mary Kay Ash, put it well "The Speed of the leader is the speed of the  gang."

The first step is to consider what I call the Southwest Airline Airbag Rule. Remember the last time you took a flight?

I often use Southwest for travel because I value their service model. The flight attendant always goes through safety procedures before take-off and says something like, "In the case of losing cabin air pressure, airbags will drop from the roof. "The responsible person should attach their airbag first before helping others like the children of your party, or as your husband, with theirs. So as the leader, attach your airbag and look at how you lead. Ask yourself a few questions:

• What is my purpose, my Why to be in this business?
• What are my sales and sharing goals for the year?
• How will you motivate yourself to meet your goals?
• How will I celebrate and reward myself and others for progress?
• How can I support others in attaining their sales and sharing goals?

First and foremost, what is your purpose, your WHY?

What energizes you to work your business. Define, refine and share your Why. Here is an example  from Mary Kay  found on every  package ." Enriching Women's lives" Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, says, "we are in the people business, serving coffee."

Ayelet Fishbach, a behavioral science and marketing professor at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, has written a book called Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation, offers a framework for setting and attaining goals, working through roadblocks, and keeping them is  really important to set goals that are not so abstract that you cannot come up with a plan,"

Dr. Fishback offers practical advice  on goals and  more importantly the process of completing goals she notes, "For many goals that have a clear beginning and end, we see that people are highly motivated when they just start on something." Having clear goals and plans that meet our why and goals and sharing them will motivate you and your team.

To continue to completion, she addresses a significant issue with goal completion, you and many of your team must cope with what she terms as "the middle problem. "The central problem is that difficult time in the middle of the goal achievement process where the end seems fuzzy, or maybe life has intervened. Long-distance runners, swimmers, and ironman triathletes myself included have experienced this time. They commonly refer to it as the "Suck." Coping with "The Middle Problem or "the Suck" will directly affect the completion of goals in sales, sharing the opportunity, or swimming. It happened in any long journey for anyone in any goal process.

Fishback's research offers many practical ways a network marketer can overcome the middle problem.

• Set annual goals and plans
• Break down goals by creating subgoals based on achievement or time, whichever is best for you. My Wife is a Mary Kay Sr Sales Director. She and her unit complete and recognize weekly monthly, quarterly, semiannual, and annual reports. This process makes lofty goals seem achievable by small steps. Remember you eat a pizza one bit eat a time.
• Celebrate and recognize progress at each of the periods. She holds quarterly sales and sharing court and semiannual and annual awards.
• Reflect, learn, and redirect if stalled. A fresh start approach to move forward with the leaders and the team's support removes judgment and energizes you and team members to finish.
• Celebration of progress as it applies to each team member to grow success.

The way you as a network marketer model this process and reward yourself will be a model for your team. Your team is looking for your model, and your sharing of your progress and struggles and how you coped with them will strengthen your connections and build relationships based on supporting each other to be as successful as they want to be.

Using the Southwest Airlines Airbag  Rule, with Dr. Fishback's advice on the goal attainment process, you can grow as a leader to support those you lead and serve. Here are two pieces of sage advice and guidance from Mary Kay Ash to guide you in how you lead yourself and your team as a network marketer"

1. Keep and act in your purpose and priorities. In Mary Kay, the priorities are "God, Family, Business." What are yours?
2. "Work when your customers work. Play when your customers play"

People want to be successfully fulfilled and feel good about what they want to do. Your model can show the way for them and you!