|
On the first full day of the meeting, attendees gathered in the McArthur Ballroom and warmly welcomed the meeting’s first keynote speaker, Jason Jennings. Direct Selling News recently spoke to Jennings about what he shared with the crowd and lessons the entire direct selling industry can learn from the companies he’s studied.
DSN: For our readers who were unable to attend this year’s Annual Meeting, can you recap the four leadership secrets you’ve discovered during your research?
JJ: First, the fastest, most productive and best performing companies and people on the planet have a cause. They don’t have a mission statement. They don’t have a vision statement. They have a cause. The cause is the reason why they do what they do.
Point No. 2 is that all these great companies and people that we identified have mastered the art of letting go. One, you’ve got to let go of yesterday’s breadwinners. Two, you’ve got to let go of ego and you’ve got to let go of the same-old same-old. I think that applies to all of us.
Third, Charles Koch (of Koch Industries) told me the challenge to any business is to get everybody to think and act like an owner. And I think in the direct selling industry, those 16 million people who are out there for Pampered Chef or Amway or AtHome America are probably thinking and acting like owners. But if you want everyone in the organization to think and act like an owner, you have to teach them how what they do creates economic value for an organization.
Finally, truly great leaders see their role as stewards. They see themselves as stewards of people, stewards of customers, stewards of shareholders. They see their role as guiding, mentoring, nurturing, advancing the interests of everyone. Stewardship means making everything around you better.
DSN: How can the direct selling industry apply the leadership secrets you discovered in your research?
JJ: One of my guiding principles has always been that everyone has the obligation to maximize what they do to achieve their full potential in the interest of achieving economic freedom. And I guess that’s probably the reason I had such an affinity with this group, because the members of the Direct Selling Association actually provide the opportunity to achieve full economic potential to more than 16 million people just in America alone, which is pretty extraordinary.
DSN: Does the direct selling industry excel in any of the four discoveries you’ve discussed?
JJ:The direct selling industry comes very close on two of the points. I think that they probably come very close on having a cause. And second, I think the industry does a good job with the 16 million people who sell the different products in terms of getting them to think and act like owners, because each of those 16 million people is in business for themselves. They understand how what they do creates economic value, and they are paid accordingly.
|
