Want to be a better leader? Although many people have natural leadership abilities these skills can also be taught. If you want to become a better, more effective leader, we can help. Here are nine key leadership lessons to help you become a better leader in the year ahead.

Lesson 1: Develop the heart of a leader

If you want to be a leader, it’s important to develop the heart of one. Here are three traits to develop:

1. A heart of service. No one wants to follow a selfish and self-centered leader. To be a true leader, focus on the needs of others. When your team has everything it needs, it will run more efficiently and achieve its goals. 

2. A heart to help. Improve the lives of those around you and your team. Inspire your team to achieve their potential and help them get there. Lead in all areas of your life and you’ll improve the lives of those around you. When you develop leadership habits, it’s impossible to turn them off during your downtime. Leaders are leaders all the time, and they are always looking for ways to help those around them.

3. Make it part of you. Leadership skills become part of your personality. What separates leaders from everyone else is their heart for service and desire to help those around them. They use love to guide their decisions and actions.  Their desire to inspire comes from love. They serve with love. They love to help, not out of any obligation to do so, but out of their love for others. Once you’ve developed this love for service and desire to help, it becomes part of who you are.

Lesson 2: Inspire your team through servant leadership

Servant leaders lead by example. They inspire their teams to achieve their potential. If you want to lead a motivated team, practice the steps of servant leadership.

1. Listen. Listen to your team, answer their questions and address their concerns by actively listening. Turn your attention and full body toward them when they speak to you. Not only that, but put your phone down if you’re talking in person, and make eye contact. By giving somebody your full attention and truly listening to what they’re saying, you not only show that you respect the other person but you also make them feel heard and more comfortable. This helps to build trust and makes them more confident in your leadership.
2. Acknowledge. Show them you’re listening. Say, “What I’m hearing you say is…” for an opportunity to make sure that you understand what they’re saying. Remove the chance for error or miscommunication. Once you’re clear, take the time to empathize, sympathize, or further understand where they’re coming from. This shows the other person that you care about what they say and truly understand where they’re coming from.
3. Validate. For many, sharing is hard. When someone shares something with you, show appreciation for what they’ve shared. It’s not easy to speak up. 

When team members share, celebrate it and if they share ideas, always give them credit. But, do not validate negativity. Instead, encourage constructive conversation.

4. Offer encouragement. Encourage positive behaviors and attitudes that you want to see in your team and exhibit those positive behaviors and attitudes that you want to see.
5. Encourage community. Everyone thrives in a nurturing community led by a servant leader. When you practice servant leadership, your team will be inspired to become servant leaders themselves. 

Lesson 3: Have a vision to lead

A vision allows you to set personal and professional goals for yourself and your team, especially as it grows. To succeed, you have to know what you’re aiming for. What do you want your business to look like? Clear vision clears the path to success. It’s impossible to achieve something that you have not identified yet. Having a clear vision will allow you to focus on what is important, prioritize all aspects of your business, and ensure that you do not waste time in your pursuit of a thriving business. 

Lesson 4: Identify and recruit leaders on your team

Does anyone on your team have leadership skills and could develop into leaders on your team? Who has had success in the business already, who seems to hit their numbers every month and consistently grow their networks? Are there folks who seem to naturally get it? Or, are there people on your team who are just influential in general? These are the people to nurture. Since natural leaders tend to know other people who are natural leaders, ask them for introductions. Reach out to your network, including customers and prospects! 

Lesson 5: Boost productivity

Get more out of your day and show your team how to do the same by prioritizing your day. Start with a list to identify your top priorities each day.

1. Make a list of all of your current and desired daily activities, tasks, and responsibilities.
2. Remove any tasks or activities that are no longer relevant or are not giving you a strong return on investment.
3. Prioritize your list from the most important to the least important tasks

Next, plan your calendar. Set aside 20 minutes each week to plan out the week. First, you’ll want to include the most important priorities such as birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, appointments, etc. Then note your routine responsibilities, including taking the kids to school or camp and picking them up, going to work, etc. Finally, you’ll write in your family time, your power hour and conversation/follow-up time, and then your personal development and exercise time. 

Once you’ve planned your week, take time to plan your day.  Take 10 minutes each day to plan, focusing on the things of the day that you must complete. Circle the most important one or two activities that you must complete, no matter what. Then tackle the next most important activities of the day.

Lesson 6: Take ownership

We’re often quick to own our successes, but what about our failures? Leaders own it all. They take responsibility, avoiding the blame game or making excuses. They work hard, follow a system, do a daily Power Hour, and focus on building relationships with people in their network. With the foundation for a successful business, they’re better prepared to identify what they can control and take responsibility for all that happens. 

Lesson 7: Motivate your team by helping them find their Why

Motivate the people on your team who need it most by helping them find their Why. A Why is a person’s natural motivation to thrive. It helps them get and stay motivated when it gets hard. What drives them? Help them pinpoint the core of their motivation. 

If they’re having trouble finding theirs, share yours with them and share your process in finding it, if you feel comfortable doing so. 

Once they have a Why, use it to motivate them. Encourage them to not only save their Why to their Teamzy account, but also review it regularly so they can keep it top of mind.

Lesson 8: Improve performance

Improve the performance of your team by helping them take control of their time.

1. Manage your time. It’s impossible to manage time itself; we can only manage our priorities within the time we are given. We can’t add more hours to the day, but we can learn to get more out of them. To do so, you must prioritize and to do it well, you have to find where to invest it.
2. Invest time wisely. Like money, time is a resource to invest. Invest in your priorities. Invest in things that will get you closer to your goals.
3. Plan your day. Honor your priorities by planning your day around them.

Lesson 9: Get out of your own way

Forget your fears of success, failure, or whatever else is holding you back.

1. Be confident in yourself and your abilities. Confidence is contagious. If you feel confident in your leadership abilities and your ability to succeed, your team will also feel that confidence.
2. Fear less. Do not fuel your fears by giving them attention. Once you acknowledge them, take steps to discredit them. 
3. Eliminate overthinking from your list of daily activities. Don’t think more, do more.

Review your beliefs, choices, actions, and results. What you believe will impact the choices you make. The choices you make will impact the actions you take. And those actions that you take, will determine your results. 

Teamzy can help you become a more effective leader

Teamzy Lead Is a leadership training course developed to help you hone your leadership skills. Whether you are new to network marketing or have been leading for years our training has useful information to help you develop and improve your leadership skills. Click here to learn more about the 4-week Teamzy Lead training program.