17 Keys To Good Leadership In Network Marketing

Leadership in network marketing is an absolutely necessary skill to learn if you are going to build a long term sustainable business in this profession.

It is often said that leadership is a quality you’re born with and that it can’t be taught…

Bullshit.

Everyone can learn how to lead. It is a skill that is developed and if you are committed to learning it, then you will.

I believe that everyone is a leader in some capacity. And that includes you, right now. Whether you realize it or not, there is at least one person (and probably more than one) who is influenced by you.

You never truly realize how much influence you actually have on the people around you, but you do. Human interactions are complex and we are all influenced by each other to some degree.

The question is, are you influencing people in a positive way?

You’re influencing people whether you like it or not, so you may as well make a conscious effort to be a positive influence.

So today we are going to discuss 17 things to work on in order to develop effective leadership in network marketing.

1. Be Professional

When you are conducting business, you should be aware of your behaviour.

This network marketing thing is a serious enterprise. It’s not some cute little side gig. And if you treat it seriously, you can build it into a massive enterprise that can take care of you and your family for the rest of your life.

If you want to be taken seriously and viewed as a professional, then you need to act like it.

Of course it’s OK to let loose and be yourself when, for example, you’re on a camping trip with your friends and having a few cold ones around the fire.

But when you’re talking business, be professional.

This especially applies to your public persona.

Don’t fill your social media profiles with pictures and videos of you getting sloppy drunk. Don’t fill it with divisive religious or political rhetoric.

There’s a place for that stuff, but it’s not social media. Especially if you intend to build a public persona with the intention of using it for business purposes.

Be aware of how you will be perceived by people that you would like to work with.

You may interested in reading this guide to building on social media.

2. Be Tenacious

Leadership in network marketing is dependent on what you can personally achieve. 

This business can be difficult at times. But true leaders persevere despite any challenges that they face.

Leaders understand that challenges will come and they decide beforehand that they will continue to face those challenges head-on.

They don’t seek to avoid or go around obstacles… 

Instead, they smash through them.

This is what it will take to develop the skills necessary to accel in network marketing. 

Odds are, you don’t have all the necessary skills when you first get started. But if you have tenacity, you can develop the skills through hard work.

3. Be Coachable

Paradoxically, one of the most important aspects to leadership in network marketing is coachability.

You have to be humble enough to understand that you don’t know everything. No matter your success level, there is always something new for you to learn.

And you must be open minded and humble enough to accept that. 

Be willing to listen to other people. Because they just might know something that you don’t.

4. Commit To Personal Growth

You will never be perfect. 

No matter how successful you become, how much money you make, or how big your organization gets, you can always get better. You can always improve yourself. And you can always learn something new.

Leadership in network marketing is about constant, forever improvement.

Make a commitment, right now, to constantly seek out more education and improve yourself on a personal level.

5. Be Task Oriented

One of the best ways to achieve lasting leadership in network marketing is to be task oriented.

Don’t operate your business by “feeling” or intuition…

Because that can’t be taught.

And the whole point of network marketing is to be able to pass your processes and systems on down to your team.

And your business will be much easier to manage if everything is mapped out into digestible tasks. 

If you ever have an off day and you’re just not “feeling” like working, you can just refer to your task oriented system and force yourself, through personal discipline, to do the tasks that you know you must do.

You need an MLM plan, and you need to follow that plan.

No excuses.

6. Be Optimistic

Optimism is a very important quality for leadership in network marketing or indeed, leadership in general.

The folks that you are leading will not be interested in following or listening to anything you say if you’re constantly exuding negativity.

People tend to follow leaders that project optimism and positivity. Because everyone wants to experience positivity in their own life, right?

And by definition, people aspire to be more like the leaders they follow.

If you’re optimistic about the present and future, people will want to follow you, take your advice, and emulate your actions.

You will become a source of strength for them.

7. Have A Long Term View

Network marketing, like most other careers, requires a long term view.

There’s no point in getting upset about any one setback that you may experience on a given day. Because one day is but a snapshot of a lifelong journey.

If you keep in mind the future that you’re working for, not what you’re experiencing in the moment, you’ll be able to muster the strength and discipline that you’ll need to persevere when things get tough.

Your team will notice this…

And they will strive to do the same.

This is crucial for effective leadership in network marketing.

8. Have Big Goals

If you want to achieve anything in life, you have to be aiming at something.

Obviously.

If you’re not aiming at anything, then the likelihood of you hitting something worthwhile is infinitesimally small.

And this certainly applies to MLM. Leadership in network marketing or any profession requires you to act intentionally. Every action you take should be deliberate with a specific outcome in mind.

Don’t be afraid to aim big.

Because if you aim for big things, you’ll be more likely to achieve big things. This will be good for you and your family. And it will be an inspiration to the team you’re leading.

9. Be Hard Working

A good leader will never ask their team to do something that they would not be willing to do themselves.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t challenge your team to do hard work that truly challenges them…

On the contrary.

But you, as the leader, should always be willing to get your hands dirty and do some heavy lifting yourself. Be willing to get uncomfortable and take on tasks that you may not really want to do.

Keep in mind, your team is watching you.

Very closely.

So when you ask them to do something that pushes them out of their comfort zone, they’ll be more willing to take your advice because they’ve seen you do it yourself.

If you challenge your team to do important yet unpleasant work that you would never do yourself, do not expect them to take on your challenge.

Never ask somebody to do something that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself.

10. Lead By Example

Duplication, as you know by now, is the real key to long term success in network marketing. It’s what will allow you to build a team that will grow itself over time, growing your passive income stream larger and larger.

So as you’re training your team to build their businesses, do not expect them to do as you say.

Because they won’t.

They will do as you do.

This is crucial for you to understand if you want to master leadership in network marketing.

Whether you like it or not, your team is watching you closely. They view you as a leader and they are looking to you for guidance.

They will watch how you’re building your business (if you’re successful) and they will attempt to emulate what you’re doing.

It’s important for you to be aware of this so that you can act intentionally and build your business in a way that is easily duplicated.

11. Be Ethical

Unfortunately, there are countless examples of unethical behaviour in network marketing.

From pyramid schemes masquerading as legitimate MLM companies to individual distributors misrepresenting how easy the business is, it’s undeniable that a lot of damage has been done to the reputation of network marketing due to a few bad actors.

Think about it…

You’re not just involved in network marketing to make a bunch of money (although that may be a part of it, and that’s OK).

No, you’re primarily here to build something rewarding. Something that you can be proud of.

And if you build your business in an ethical way, you’ll be able to sleep well at night knowing that what you do for a living is contributing to a better world.

Not only that, but it’s also going to make you a better leader.

As your business grows bigger and you continue to operate in an ethical way, you’ll start to be widely known as somebody who can be trusted.

And this will have the effect of people seeking you out to work with you personally.

Leadership in network marketing is not about recruiting people at all costs…

It’s about accurately representing what you can offer.

Be realistic about the benefits of network marketing as well as the pitfalls and challenges.

Be honest about the challenges people will face instead of trying to make it appear as though it’s always sunshine and roses…

Because it’s just not.

12. Don’t Compare Yourself To Others

This is a concept I learned from Dr Jordan Peterson. Here’s a quote out of his book 12 Rules For Life:

Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.

It is very tempting for us as humans to focus on how everyone else is doing in comparison to ourselves.

But if you want to move forward and improve in your own life and business, it’s just not useful for you to think about that too much.

If you compare your own income to someone who’s making millions of dollars and has been in the business for decades, you might allow yourself to get discouraged, thinking that you’ll never achieve that level of success.

This is wrong.

Because you don’t necessarily know how much time and hard work this top leader has put into their own business over the years.

Instead, focus on who you were yesterday. And improve upon that.

Because ultimately, success in life is not about surpassing others. Rather, it comes down to you getting better each and every day.

13. Understand Your Time Is Valuable

A big part of effective leadership in network marketing is about managing your time. Your time is extremely valuable. After all, one of the reasons you got into this business is to achieve more time freedom, right?

And the truth is, some people on your team will try to steal your valuable time.

They won’t do it intentionally, but unfortunately many people in our society have been conditioned to follow orders.

You will find that a certain number of people will expect you to hold their hands through the entire process of building their business.

This is something that you must guard against.

Because it will hold you back.

The system that you will be plugging your people into should have all the tools, training, and resources necessary to help them learn and accel in this business.

You should of course help them in the beginning and show them how to navigate the system.

But if they are continually bugging you with basic questions that have been repeatedly answered, you will need to put your foot down eventually and encourage them to become more independent.

After all, every single member of your team will need to develop their leadership skills in network marketing.

That’s what it’s going to take to make it in this business.

If somebody is going to waste your time, you need to be aware of it, understand it, and put a stop to it.

14. Be Empathetic

You also need to be empathetic. 

While the network marketing business model is quite simple, it is not easy. So if one of your team members is struggling and becoming frustrated, you need to show empathy.

Think back to when you were brand new to this business. Remember how you felt and try to put yourself in the shoes of your team member.

Help them to see that you understand. Remind them that some struggle is normal, even necessary, to make it in this business.

And assure them that you went through it too.

But you persevered because your hunger to make this work outweighed the challenge of becoming successful.

15. Be Confident

Everyone wants a confident leader.

Be confident in yourself. Confident in your products. And confident in your business model.

If you’re timid about the quality of your products or services, you’re not going to effectively sell them. And if you’re wishy-washy on the merits of your business model, you will never recruit anybody into your team.

And if your team senses that you may not really believe in this business model, then their confidence will waver, too.

Leadership in network marketing = confidence in what you do.

16. Have A Vision

As we’ve mentioned already, network marketing is not always easy.

In fact, it can be very difficult at times. 

And having a strong vision of what network marketing success means to you will help to push you through those challenging times when they inevitably come.

A strong desire will take you where you want to go. And out of that strong desire, you need to develop a clear and precise vision of what you want your life to look like when you succeed with this business.

In the beginning, you will likely be desperate. Perhaps you really want to quit your job and go full time into network marketing. Maybe you lost your job and this business is the only option you have…

Instead of allowing that pain to beat you down, turn that pain into the driving force that will push you to work through the challenges.

As top earner Ray Higdon says:

Let your pain push you until your vision pulls you.

17. Have A Good Attitude

Nobody wants to work with a leader who has a bad attitude and is constantly focused on the negatives.

People want to be led by somebody who is inspiring. Somebody whose primary focus is on prosperity and making the best out of every situation.

And people want to be loved.

Love is the most powerful emotion we as the human race possess. We all desire to be loved and respected and we gravitate towards leaders who exhibit those qualities.

If you build deep, meaningful relationships with your team members, they will be much more likely to stick around for a long time. 

Additionally, you will not need discipline in order to provide your team members with what they need to succeed… you will want to do it.

Learn to love your business, love your life, and love the people you surround yourself with.

Leadership In Network Marketing Summarized

Good leadership in network marketing can be summed up in one phrase:

Be the leader you wish you had when you most needed one.

Think about what qualities you were looking for in a leader when you needed one. 

You were probably looking for a leader who you could aspire to. Someone that lived a life that you admired and wanted to emulate.

Someone who could empathize and understand your challenges, but pushed you to take responsibility for your life despite hardships.

You were not looking for somebody to hold your hand…

You were looking for someone who could demonstrate how to live a life that would never, ever require hand-holding again.

And you can become this type of leader.

It just comes down to becoming the type of person that you would look up to. Someone who is:

• Ethical
• Loving
• Hard working

These are things that you can absolutely improve over time. You just have to be a little bit better today than you were yesterday. And those improvements will compound over time.

And if you want to lead other people effectively, you need to believe in them. 

Understand that they too can become incrementally better day after day. And you holding their hand every step of the way will only hold them back.

Not everyone is born a leader, but anyone can become one.

Leadership is developed. It is not a birthright.