Dr. Puven from Australia has written to me as to what to do with people away at long distances and what are the strategies to train them. Good question. In fact in DXN business many of our business partners are far away from where we live. Still they have to perform. That only gives them income and for us as well. Therefore taking care of them is of paramount importance. To make them perform, what is required?
1. Tools
2. Usage of tools (training)
3. Coaching (doing this differently and better)
4. Knowledge
And so on….. Are you ready for a story?
Training
He loved to water them every day. He took care of them as much as he would himself. He also had three good looking, vibrant and energetic monkeys. As much as he loved his plants so did he love them. They reciprocated his love and never left their master. They were ready to do anything at his bidding. As they were always with him, he trained them to do certain of his jobs. One of the jobs was watering the plants. As he poured water to the plants the 3 monkeys also did the same. He took care to see that the monkeys poured water exactly the way he was doing. He never let a moment go without watching them water the plants so that nothing went wrong. That much was his love for the plants. 
A week later he returned and rushed to see the plants. To his horror he found all the plants had been rooted out. He lost his temper. Called the monkeys as to what had happened. The monkeys explained thus, “Master we watered plants as you told. But you warned us to pour more water to the ones with long roots and less to the ones with short roots. We did not know which of those plants had long roots and the ones with short roots. In order to know we simply removed them, but did not know how to put them back. You can do that now”. Innocently they told him. All the plants had been lost. It will take years to rebuild.
What is the moral of the story?
1. Confidence without clarity is a sure disaster. Many of us are very confident of achieving big things but we lack clarity when met with a situation. This will certainly result in the customer turning his back.
2. Clarity without confidence will take us nowhere. We may have all the knowledge on earth; but if we are not confident we can never convince a customer
3. Stay close to the team until they can take care of themselves
4. Staying close means not by distance but by continuous communication where ever they are in the world. Many a time we recruit and leave them after the first meeting, thinking that they will do the best. It doesn’t happen that way.
5. Follow up at regular intervals – weekly, monthly etc.
6. Update their knowledge through a system called CBE. This is known as CONTINUING BUSINESS EDUCATION. This system is followed in medical colleges as Continuing Medical Education. We need to do the same in business as well.
7. Improve your own knowledge. Take the help of any one in the network irrespective of team affiliations. There is nothing to feel shy about. We are all one DXN family team. Knowledge where ever available; grab it; share it with your people and pass on. That alone will bring success.
Hope I could clarify Dr.Puven’s query. During her visit to India. Dr. Puven endeared herself to many who came in contact with her. During my visit to Malaysia she organized an excellent meeting for me to address students of the UUM University. I thank her for the input which helped me write this blog
Friends,
MY BLOGS ARE DESIGNED AS C B E – CONTINUING BUSINESS EDUCATION
MY BLOGS ARE DESIGNED AS C B E – CONTINUING BUSINESS EDUCATION
Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
