Am I right for the job?

The cooler temperatures, the bright blue skies, and the early-falling leaves this week tell me that Autumn is in the air. Another sure sign: I’m craving apple crisp. And not just any apple crisp, but “quick apple crisp” from my Pampered Chef cookbook. In fact it would be closer to the truth to admit that I don’t just crave Quick Apple Crisp in the Fall – I actually crave the whole Pampered Chef experience.

The Pampered Chef is a direct-sales company founded in 1980 by Doris Christopher, who at that time was a stay-at-home-mom and former home economics teacher. Doris sold the company for a bajillion dollars in 2000 to investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. She currently serves the company as Chairman. Pampered Chef products are sold by individual consultants via the in-home party method, and consultants earn money not only by selling products but also by recruiting, training and guiding new consultants to their own successes.

In the late 1990’s and again in the early 2000’s, I was a Pampered Chef consultant. I thoroughly enjoyed almost every aspect of working for this company. I loved the story behind the founding of the company. I loved the principles upon which the company was built. I loved setting up “kitchen shows” in my friends’ homes and showing them how easy it was to prepare simple and delicious recipes for their families. I loved using the products. I loved going to training meetings. I didn’t even mind doing the paperwork for each show once it all was computerized and I didn’t have to do manual math to tally my orders.

If I could have gotten over my one stumbling block, I would have loved to become a Director for this company, recruiting and training new consultants and coaching them in the marketing of their own businesses.

But there was one aspect of the job I didn’t like: I found it very difficult to convince people to be “kitchen show” hostesses. My first six shows – the six I needed to complete my “new consultant commitment” – were hosted by personal friends and family members. Each of them invited people from their own personal and professional networks to attend a show, and what should have happened was that a few of the people at each show should have volunteered to host a show in their home, with me as their consultant. The problem was that often, no one wanted to host a show. And I was extremely uncomfortable pressuring them into doing so.

As any Pampered Chef (or any other direct sales) consultant will tell you, a consultant without hostesses is pretty much dead in the water.

Let me be clear: I don’t blame The Pampered Chef for this shortfall. It was a classic case of not having the right personality for a key part of the job.

So here’s my challenge for you this week, coming as it does from personal experience: take a good look at the parts of your job or your business that you aren’t well suited for (c’mon, you know there’s one or two), and consider how you might ask for help in overcoming those weaknesses. And then, invest in yourself the time and money it will take to solve the problem. Or, consider whether it’s time to bring someone else into the business who can fill that role for you.