“If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, no matter how much or how little natural leadership talent you possess, you need to become a serving leader.”
John C. Maxwell
How easy it can be to forget this when working to accomplish some task. The results take priority over people and the focus is on what is getting done, not who you are serving and how it gets done.
Servant leadership requires more than lip service. It means more than results from some project or initiative. It means to serve others. Period. It doesn’t mean easy, or soft leadership. It means that you have to genuinely care about those that you serve and make sure that they are empowered for success. Sometimes this means that they are not in the right role, or even the right organization. That is okay. Because if you truly care, and serve them, you want them to be the most successful that they can be. Which requires genuine care, consistent support, candor, and feedback.
You have to care about your team more than you care about yourself and they will know this based on how you serve them.
This is a great one. I find it very interesting to listen when decisions are being made and if they impact employees, who speaks up for the employee. I’ve been very lucky in my career to have great employees and not great employees. I’ve learned as much from both. But both should be treated better than I.
The things that keep me grounded, I was a temp call center rep, I was a prep guy at a dealer lot, I was a roofer, I was a gopher getting parts, i had no job….these experiences I hold onto more than the last exec meeting. I started at the lowest rung, and promised myself 20 plus yrs ago, if I moved up, I would always look at myself through my eyes back then. It causes a little rub when others who don’t or can’t have that insight get together to make decisions on a path forward, but it’s worth it when my team would run through a wall for me, and I for them.
Amen!