How To Be A Servant Leader.

How To Be A Servant Leader.

Servant Leader – What is a Servant Leader?

One of the biggest lessons to learn about leadership is how to lead with a servant heart.
I have learned a great deal this year alone from training and events I have attended, plus past experience when being a leader in my previous offline business.

Earlier this year  Curtis Broome and Lisa Grossman talked about being a servant leader at a training event I attended hosted by Ray Higdon

Yesterday  Richard Branson was being interviewed by Eric Worre and he talked about servant leadership.

Everything began to make sense.

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.” -Robert K. Greenleaf Click To Tweet

My Experience As A Leader

Before moving into the world of home business I was a Director, Board Member and Shareholder of one of the largest Fostering Agencies in the UK.

It was “baptism by fire” as we were a company that grew very quickly.

Beginning on my kitchen table as a Social Worker,  I went on to managing hundreds of staff across the North of England, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Learning the art of leadership and management was done along the way.  I made mistakes, learned from them and gained a lot of experience in what to do.

When you are in a company thats growing fast, then adapting to change, helping your team to do the same is vital.

I had to learn to delegate and let go of tasks I had always done.  Managing the emotions of your team is another important factor.  Not everyone copes well with change.

I read a great many books on leadership.   I did not want to be an autocratic leader that ruled the team with a rod of iron.

My biggest wish was to be more inclusive, taking my team along with me.

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Lynda is an exceptionally hardworking, genuine and trustworthy leader. Her down to earth, honest and enthusiastic approach to any project she pursues makes it easy and an absolute pleasure to work with her. I have known Lynda for over ten years, I trust her judgement, advice and her “no frills approach” to explaining complex situations in an understandable manner. Sharing Lynda’s brilliant sense of fun and humour is an added bonus. –Sara Chambers Ross , Regional Director Midlands at CAPSTONE FOSTER CARE LIMITED

Servant Leader – How To Become One

To become a servant leader you have to come from the stance of caring about people.  This is in addition to acquiring skills.

You have to help your team to see what you can see in them.

One question to constantly ask yourself is “How can I serve them?”

When you are providing value by doing videos, blogs and educational posts you are serving people.  You are giving them what they need.

It is always about ‘THEM”  not you.

To be a servant leader being self aware of how your behaviour affects other people is important.  You might like a previous post I wrote on Self Awareness In Marketing – Why does it Matter?

You need to become a good listener.  We have two ears and one mouth and should use them in that proportion.

A Great Facebook Post From My Mentor Ray Higdon (perfectly covers what I am saying in this blog post)

1. Stop the hype. Unmet expectations caused by ridiculous promises or guarantees on ease of success is a big factor.

2. Celebrate “slow wins” not just the fast ones. Every time we celebrate and highlight someone who “recruited 10 their first day/week” we dampen the spirits of the frustrated majority that have yet to have success. I’m not saying to ignore the fast success stories but look for those stories that highlight people who’ve been in a long time that got their first recruit as well.

3. Teach leaders about result differentiation. Many of the top earners are high producing alpha’s that believe everyone has the same goals (used to be me). There are people that are happy as can be just being in the community and being apart of the mission that don’t have big income as a goal. If you alienate them or make them feel inferior by pushing your big revenue agenda, they will slink away and quit out of not wanting to disappoint the leadership.

4. I believe the number one reason people leave a church (much more relevant analogy than a job) is a shift in the culture. Eliminating cancerous culture factors like gossiping, arrogance, etc and that will make an immediate impact.

5. Understand it’s a volunteer army. I wanted to stick with my very first mlm but left because my upline acted like my boss and felt the need to publicly bash me. This also goes for the company. If a company wants a leader to leave, just start bossing them around and taking away their credit for what they built. This also applies in a sense with personal branding. I’ve seen leaders and up and comers leave companies due to the leaders or company aggressively being negative on personal branding. (Could probably write a book on this)

6. Be real. People love authenticity and too often we find out leaders or company owners aren’t practicing what they preach. Live as an example. Admit faults. Authenticity combined with vulnerability is perhaps the most powerful combo of traits a leader can possess. – written by Ray Higdon

I hope todays post gave you some value and some tips for becoming a servant leader.  I want to wish you every success.

Home Business Entrepreneur

Empowering Home Business Entrepreneurs To Make Success Become A Reality

Email me at Lynda@lyndakennyonline.com

Phone or text me on 00447515940004

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