Should I Hold My Own Meetings As a Director?

[ChefBeckyD]

I love love love my director. She's more than my director, she's also my good friend. So I'm struggling with what to do about meetings.

We have great meetings. They are fun, informative, and well attended. Sort of. When I became a director, she just assumed that we would continue to do our meetings together, and I wanted that.

I have a team of 15, and of those 15, 5-6 consistently come to meetings. The rest don't, and almost to a person, they don't come, because there is no way for them to get there on time. I drive 45 minutes (South) to get to meetings - and several of my team members live North and West of me, and the drive time could be an hour longer than mine. When a meeting starts at 6 or 6:30, and you don't get out of work until 5:30 or 6, it makes it impossible for some of them to make the drive to come.

I'm thinking it's time that I start holding my own meetings. But I don't know how to approach my director about it. For those of you who have had to cut the apron strings (LOL!) I wonder how and when you did it? How long after you became a director did you start holding your own meetings?

 

[BethCooks4U]

My director moved to another state while I was still a FD so I started then.

I would just have a talk with her and tell her that you need to do this for your team but I would also continue going to her meetings and invite those on your team that can to attend them as well. I really miss having a meeting to go to and while you'll still be on the leadership team for that meeting you will (and I'm sure DO) get a lot from them as well.

My director had several directors on her team that traveled to our meetings. They helped with the meetings and then went back to their own groups and held their own, using some of the same ideas as they chose. It worked well for them and I'm sure you could make that work for you too.

 

[Sheila]

Take a poll!

E-mail the team & ask them if you started holding your own meetings locally, would they come? If you get a positive response, she will COMPLETELY understand! If you and your Director were both in the same town, I would say stick with the larger meetings. The more the merrier! But because of the distance and the fact that it's probably playing a part in the lower attendance of your team I don't think she would be offended if you started holding your own meetings if it meant that more of your team could attend.

Those who attend the meetings stay motivated & do better with their business. It's definitely beneficial to you and to her to allow them that opportunity.

 

[PCJenni]

I had to go through this as well about a year and a half ago. My upline and I (both ADs) now have 3 other directors under us. We have gotten to the point that there were simply too many people to have big meeting, both from a space/logistic and training perspective. We do 1 or 2 combined meetings a year (when NE visits and Back to Business). At the Back to Business we had almost 50 people in someone's house. Just too much for me. So I am probably going to back out of it next time unless we find a central location that is inexpensive. The problem is that between the 5 directors there is about an hour distance from the furtherest south to the furthest north. And of course the team is spread even further than that. I orginally rotated houses monthly with my 2 downline directors. Unfortuantely, my team would not make the 1 hour drive to one of my director's houses. So I did not get attendence from my personal team at those meetings. I had to say that I would be doing my meetings at my house each month and if my downline directors wanted to attend or invite their teams they were more than welcome. I need to support my personal team because that is where my income is coming from and then support my directors as well. I think there is a natural progression, sort of like a child growing up, where you want to do things your way. You can maintain your relationship with your upline and suport your team at the same time.

 

[JaimeQ]

From a Director that Promoted a Director , talk to her first about your concerns before the team says something that sounds bad..... I had the director on my team tell her team she was thinking about it and I didnt know. When one of her team members emailed me to find out why they were being kicked out of the nest and was there more going on that they should know about..... If you like the larger meeting and want to stay in the larger group, see if she may be able to start at 7 instead.

If you want to branch off, let her know you love her support and the energy in the team meetings you attend with her and you want to be able to recreate that with your personal team.

I will say that I changed my meeting day to accomodate more people and a later time (or so I thought) and I still have the same people as before, just on a different night a little later

When I left my directors meetings, I had been a director for a little while and felt that it was time. I sat down with my dir and told her I thought I was ready and wanted to know how she felt about me taking that big step in my business. She was so supportive! I then chatted with my team to see if they would miss the larger group and what their thoughts were too. It was nice

 

[envitegencese]

I had the same issue. I still go to my Director's meeting (because it's not far my from full time job location). I polled my team (that were quite a distance away and couldn't make my Director's meeting) and I scheduled 4 meetings. One person showed up each time. I was totally bummed. I am back to only attending my Director's meeting and not having my own meeting. I send out "notes" from the meeting to my team now. It was a lot of work to only have 1 person show up.