Stay Out Of The Monkey Business! Peter Guber

Stay Out Of The Monkey Business – Peter Guber
Published June 6th, 2011 | Edit
Posted by Bob and Anna in MLM Leadership Tips

Here’s a great story from “Tell To Win” that holds an MLM leadership tip for us.  When he was a very young studio head at Columbia Pictures, Peter Guber had a chance to vent to Jack Warner, the founder of Warner Brothers. Peter complained about being overwhelmed at the end of the day with the tidal wave of people coming into his office with one problem after another. Warner said,

Let me tell you a story. Don’t be confused. You’re only renting that office. You don’t own it. It’s a zoo. You’re the zookeeper, and every single person that comes in the office comes with a monkey.  That monkey is their problem.  They’re trying to leave it with you.  Your job is to discover where the monkey is.  They’ll hide it, or dress it up, but remember you’re the zookeeper.  You’ve got to keep the place clean.  So make sure when you walk them to the door, they’ve got their monkey by the hand.  Don’t let them leave without it.  Don’t let them come back until it’s trained and they have a solution to their problem.  Otherwise, at the end of the day, you’ll have an office full of screaming, jumping animals and monkey shit all over the floor.

Guber kept that image in his mind, and the metaphor became a valuable managerial tool for him.

It reminds us of Tom ‘Big Al’ Schreiter’s advice on how to handle dependent distributors who bring him monkeys.  He asks,

What is it you want me to do for you that you are unwilling to do for yourself?

Ouch.  If that doesn’t get someone’s attention, nothing will!  If they get it and act on it, everyone will be a lot happier, and who knows, you may have helped to develop an MLM leader!

For more MLM leadership tips, you’ll want to listen to any of Big Al’s “25 Skills For The Network Marketer.” To read more from Peter Guber, start with “Tell to Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story.”

Bob and Anna Bassett
519-371-1028
Skype bobbassett
bobandanna@togethertothetop.com
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