Recently I went to a marriage seminar called Weekend to Remember and it was interesting to draw comparisons from marriage success principles to the business world. Here are a few I thought might be helpful.

Die to Yourself Daily

As survival driven human beings, we tend to put our needs first. In my marriage, this took me probably 8 or 9 years to figure out that keeping score between you and your spouse doesn’t work. You have to be all in all the time with your marriage. In business, this shows up with new hires. If you hire an agent, and you’re not pouring your entire self into training them, chances are that relationship will not succeed. You need to be able to give 100%, 100% of the time. Of course this becomes much easier if you systemize your hiring process. 

Leave Pride Behind

How are you showing up in your relationships? If you’re a team leader you have relationships with your staff and your clients. While I was recruiting and building systems in my business, I felt a sense of pride welling up inside me. Like I could do anything - and that was the standard I held myself and my team to. It develops inside of you and steals your humility. Pride does not serve your team - it just comes off like you don’t need or respect them.

L. E. A. before you P. 

This acronym stems from a Marriage counseling tool, but its use in business relationships is really great as well. L - Listen; E - Empathize; A - Affirm; P - Perspective

I tend to give perspective before I listen, empathize, and affirm. Especially with team leaders, given our prideful nature, we tend to know the answer to everything and take pride in that knowledge. But by doing that, we take away someone’s ability to discover for themselves how to move forward. This is where we have to be careful - and be sure to step back and check ourselves.

A business is like a marriage - it’s a commitment. We have to work at both, constantly, to get the rewards they offer. That doesn’t mean it has to be time-consuming, draining work - if you do it the right way, it will uplift and empower you!