We’ve all heard the saying: when in Rome do what the Romans do.
What would this statement look like for you and the future of your business if you took the time to consider it as a serious part of your evaluation process before joining a company?
This statement has the weight to cost you your business or cast you into success.
I say this because I have made this mistake before so I want to save you from it.
My wife and I were in a company where we became very successful, but only after getting into the inner leadership circles we found out about some skeletons in the closet.
We found out that the leadership at corporate and the two leaders above us had a history of moving legs around and switching sponsors and placements to prop up certain people who were their friends but weren’t able to produce enough to be full time.
We dismissed it as something of the past and as something that would never happen to us.
But things only got worse over time, as we rose up the ranks and as time went by, these very same leaders started encouraging people to purchase and fake their rank advancements.
Literally we could have bought ourselves a promotion rank advancement. But there is no integrity in that, is there?
Some of our downlines wanted to take advantage of this, and when we disapproved of those unethical actions, we were deemed an enemy in the eyes of the 2 leaders above us.
These same leaders went so far as to frame and kick out leaders who didn’t get on board with this new culture, so they could steal and move around those teams wherever it benefited them.
So we found ourselves in a company where the leaders at the top had gone rogue creating a corrupt culture of fake rank advancements and propped up leaders with teams they never built.
We hit a big wall in our business. And it wasn’t a financial one. We had built a massively productive organization with tight culture based on integrity. We had 5 figure residual checks coming in weekly, to the point where we both had semi-retired.
The wall we hit was an ethical one. Seeing all the corruption unfold right before our eyes, we were faced with the difficult question:
Do we do what the Romans (the leaders) are doing here in Rome (in this company) or do we leave and find an ethical Rome?
The harsh reality was this: For us to keep and grow our business, we had to adopt the new norm, lower our standards of integrity, look the other way, and to some degree even participate in it or it would be impossible to advance.
Leaving behind the business we worked so hard to build and a HUGE team completely poisoned by the company’s culture was one of the hardest decisions we had to make.
The right answer sometimes is the most difficult one to carry out, isn’t it?
So when you’re evaluating a company take time to evaluate the leaders above you.
If a company has a wide range and variety of diversity in their upper ranks that’s a good sign.
I’m not just talking about race, or ethnicity, although that is a factor as well. Age, affluence, influence, salesmanship, and integrity are all things to evaluate in the people who are being attracted to the company you’re looking at.
If it seem that those being successful in the company are young and they all use the same high pressure sales tactics, then those are the types of people they will attract and those are the types of people that will win.
If it seems that those being successful in the company have reputations for being honest, hard working, family oriented, and God fearing, blue color types of people, then they will attract more of that type of person and that is the type of person who is more likely to win in this company.
Like attracts like. People feel comfortable around people who are like them. The leadership at the top will attract those types of people that resonate with their way of doing things.
You can get skilled at attracting a wide variety of different people into your business who come from different backgrounds, ethnicities, political views, religious or sexual orientations. You can learn to become relatable to a wider audience base and connect with the people in different ways and on different levels.
But the company’s leadership DNA will get imprinted and duplicated into the messaging and culture of the team you plan to build. There is no escape from it, so you want to choose carefully to make sure the leadership’s values and integrality are aligned with yours.
A good company attracts a wide variety of people and provides an environment where lots of different types of people can win. The advantage you now have is to look for the commonalities in the leaders.
You want to look for the things that everyone who is winning have in common. You want to notice not just who the types of people are who are winning and where they come from and their backgrounds but also their building practices, philosophies and methods.
You may want to win in a company but in all reality you may need to become a totally different person in order to do so.
You may not like the person you have to become in order to win in certain companies.
So the key is to be in a company where you look forward to becoming the person you will need to become in the pursuit of your goals.
You want to be in a company where your reputation is getting stronger over time because of your building strategy and associations not diminishing because of it.
If you can be in a company that calls you to a higher level and encourages you to grow and improve, you will attract people of like mind.
If you join a company that calls you to become a better, more authentic, harder working person of unshakable integrity and character, that’s a company that will attract people who are also attracted to that calling.
It’s best to join a company where you want to be like the people who are winning, and then work on becoming that person as fast as possible while you go about the tasks of building your business.
You want to be in a company where you’re excited to work hard on your business and work twice as hard on yourself.
A company with leaders who’s reputations you admire is a company where you can aspire to be not only successful but be GREAT.
The right question:
#31. What is the reputation of the people winning at the top? i.e. are those leaders the type of leaders you want to model and emulate and do they set an ideal standard of the type of person you want to grow into and become?
Till next time,
Charles
Co-authored with Dr Maral “YESS” Yessayan, PhD.
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