One of the most important things to develop as a leader is a heartset to serve… your network, your team, and even your community. The greatest leaders serve with heart. They not only love their businesses, they also love their teams and they love helping people in their networks. 

In the past, we’ve talked about what a leader is and isn’t. Leaders aren’t selfish or self-serving. You can lead with heart if you’re only focused on yourself. We’ve all worked with or for people who are only out for themselves. They’re not inspiring to be around and they always feel like they have an agenda. Often they’re driven by power. They only care about those around them if those people will help them get what they want. These bad leaders may demean others to gain more power or make themselves look better in the eyes of someone more powerful. While they demand respect from others, they have no respect FOR others.

Whether this description has brought someone to mind immediately or it reminds you of a nightmare or scary movie, one thing is clear – you can choose to be a different kind of leader, one who leads with love and heart. How do you do that? How can you develop the skills to become a leader who leads with heart?

What makes a good leader – a strong heartset

Good leaders are inspiring. They focus on service and helping others succeed; inspire through their words, thoughts, actions, and examples. Additionally, they don’t bring people down or use them for their own motives; they look for ways to lift people up. Good leaders focus on service and offering the support and encouragement their team needs. They do this by cultivating the heart to serve others.

3 Essential traits of serving with heart

1. Develop a heartset for service. A heart for service means putting the needs of others before your own. Focus on the needs of your team and your network. Find out what they need, what challenges they face, and find out how you can help. Remember, when the people on your team have everything that they need, they can work more effectively and efficiently toward their goals. Help them reach those goals by funding ways to help them. 

2. Develop a heart to help. Sometimes people just naturally want to help those around them. It’s almost an instinct. Even if you don’t have this instinct, it’s possible to develop it. It comes down to focusing on making things better for others and improving their lives. 

Many leaders do this in all parts of their lives, not just their businesses. They’re leaders at home, at work, in the community. Maybe you volunteer to coach or officiate your children’s sports teams and games. Or, perhaps you volunteer at church or for a community organization. True leadership, and the heart to help, isn’t something you can just switch off; it’s there all the time. 

3. Share the love generously. As a network marketer who is in the relationship business, everything you do, whether you realize it or not, is an act of love. Each time you reach out and make someone’s day, you’re sharing love. When you listen for a need and help someone in your network or team, it’s an act of love. Following up is an act of love. It’s all about love. 

Love is more than thoughts or feelings; it’s in what you do. It’s your actions. The best leaders serve with love. They share love because it’s part of them, not out of obligation or because it’ll make them look good. Most importantly, they’re not looking to gain power or get attention. They help others out of a sense of love. They want to inspire others to reach their full potential and live their best lives. 

Cultivate your heartset

Looking to cultivate your heartset and improve your leadership skills? Here’s how:

Focus on others. If you want to develop your heartset, it’s important to focus on others first. Often, many of us focus on ourselves and our needs before thinking of others. True leaders think of others first. When reaching out to your network, think of how you can help them instead of what they can do for you. 

Listen for a need. People may reveal how you can help when you connect with them. Sometimes they’ll tell you outright. Other times you have to look for other clues, such as their tone of voice, body language, etc. Tune into the other person and try to find a way you can help. Although it may be with a product or service you sell, sometimes it’s not. Another way is to connect them with someone who can help. For example, if they mention they’re stressed out because their in-laws are coming to town, suggest a cleaning service you trust. Or, if they mention they want to get in better shape to run a 5K by summer, connect them with a health coach you know, if you’re not in that industry. 

Look for ways to connect with others. You never know who you can help, whether they’re in your network or not. Find ways to connect with other people and look for a way to help them. If they’re not in your network, make sure to get their contact information so you can keep in touch. 

Tips to inspire your team to develop their heartset

Model the behavior. The best way to inspire your team to develop their heartset is to model the behavior you wish to see. If you want them to reach out to their networks and find a need, reach out to them the same way. This gives them a glimpse into how it needs to be done. If you want them to connect other people in their networks, do the same to them and connect them with others in yours. The more they see it, the more likely they’ll practice it. 

Encourage them to embrace professional development. The sharper their skills, the more confident they’ll be to reach out to their networks and look for a need. Encourage them to take traning courses that help them improve their selling and business skills. 

Set goals with them. While you’re helping them set goals for their businesses, help them set goals to reach out to the people in their networks and find ways to help. This is useful if they’re not used to reaching out or if they’re new to network marketing. 

Teamzy can help you become a better leader

Teamzy is more than a CRM, it has the tools you need to build the foundation for a strong network marketing business, including online personal development training programs designed to help you improve your skills. Want to learn more? Click here for more information.