How to be a Servant Leader
If you’re a leader, you need to be a servant leader. You need to put others needs in front of yours or you can’t lead them.
The leaders I respect the most are servant leaders, and I’ve inspected what qualities they have and thought I’d share the most important ones with you.
- Serve others’ needs first - Whether you are standing in line for the coffee, in the parking lot, or at the grocery store, offer others the chance to go first. This doesn’t mean you put everyone in front of you in line, and you wait 2 hours for a cup of coffee. Just pour someone else’s cup full of coffee first, then fill your own cup. Next time you’re out shopping with your family, park a little further away from the entrance at the local mall. If you’re in line at the grocery store and the person behind you has just a few items, let them step in front of you. Any of these small things make people feel GREAT and will help you stand out as a servant leader!
- Believe in people more - Being a leader means instead of treating people as they are, you treat them as they could be. This means EVERYONE has something to share, and is someone you can learn from. Treat each person as though they are the superstars they’re capable of becoming, and they will shine brighter than a new dime.
- Pay it forward - Instead of waiting for someone to do you a favor, do someone else a favor. In the parking lot I frequent for work, I occasionally will buy 2 parking tickets instead of 1, and give it to the next person walking up so they don’t have to buy a ticket. It’s only $2.50, but you should see the smile on people’s faces. Offer what you’re good at to your friends, neighbors or your church family and follow through by actually helping them. I love going to breakfast with folks and helping them set goals, or learn a bit about blogs.
None of these require you having a TITLE, but are all things you can do, no matter your position, no matter your role, to demonstrate your leadership.
What do you think? How can YOU be a servant leader?
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POSTED IN: Phil Gerbyshak, leadership
10 opinions for How to be a Servant Leader
CK
Oct 1, 2008 at 5:17 am
Reading Blanchard books are we? His books make sense to me. As to serving coffee, why not turn around as you’re handing them their coffee and ask how the person is doing, kids, etc. Make sure that you are interested in the person and not just the employee! Employees can sense fakery a mile away so be genuinely interested and LISTEN!
In todays employment environment and layoffs, why not help the person that is being (unfortunately) cut by placing an ad in the local paper that he/she is one of the greatest employees in your firm and that the company will surely miss him/her.
This may give the employee a warm fuzzy as well as a possible lead to an interested employer. This also places a good light on the employer that they would say such kind words regarding an employee that they had the fortune to know but unfortunately had to let go.
I consider this going beyond just being a Servant Leader. When things turn around and back on-line for hiring, how many people do you think will line-up for a position and opportunity to work there?
Mike Myatt
Oct 1, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Hi Phil:
There is a difference between those individuals who possess some element of leadership ability and truly great leaders. In fact, I would go so far as to say that all truly great leaders put service above self. You might be interested in reading a post I authored on this topic which can be viewed here: http://www.n2growth.com/blog/service-above-self
Thanks Phil…
Wally Bock
Oct 1, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Congratulations! This post was selected as one of the five best business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.
http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2008/10/01/10108-a-midweek-look-at-the-business-blogs.aspx
Wally Bock
Bob
Oct 1, 2008 at 4:21 pm
As always Phil,
Great food for thought. The days of “When I say jump you say how high” are over. I will be reading this short but sweet blog entry over and over. While I can’t control the reaction that I get it is definitely the right way to interact with everyone in life.
Being genuinely interested in how your employees are doing in no way shows weakness.
Keep up the good work my friend!
Bob
Heather Blume
Oct 1, 2008 at 5:10 pm
It’s always about treating your employees like they are your customers.
Being willing to give freely of yourself with no expectation for repayment is one of the best traits of any leader. That’s what inspires people. People crave inspiration in their everyday life. They want someone to lead them without leading them with a bridle and bit.
Very nice post, indeed!
CK
Oct 2, 2008 at 1:55 am
@Heather - I read the same thing one before regarding interviewees. If they treat the employees like cr@p then how is it that they treat the customers?
Ben Simonton
Oct 2, 2008 at 5:17 am
Well said, Phil.
Servant leadership is the only way to effectively implement “loving your neighbor” and “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you”. These two requirements are what led me to truly understand how to treat my employees as well as everyone else.
Of course, the responsibility of being a boss is to properly support your subordinates with tools, planning, training, discipline, parts, material, advice, direction, information, peace of mind, and others. These responsibilities make every boss a supplier of support to employees who thus are the boss’ customers, thus are serving these customers with great service so that they can do the very best work.
Unfortunately, most bosses view employees as supporting the boss and thus they fail to properly support employees. It is the old questioin of whether the boss is at the top of a pyramid or is the pyramid inverted with the boss at the bottom holding the whole pyramid up?
Servant leadership provides the correct way to view our responsibilities as bosses and as neighbors. The boss who does this correctly by providing what employees say they need to do a better job benefits from huge increases in per person productivity and the unleashing of each employee’s full potential of creativity, innovation, productivity, motivation, and commitment on their work. I had the pleasure of experiencing both the bad results and the very best ones in my 30+ years of managing people.
If interested, I invite you to read the articles at http://www.bensimonton.com/articles.html
Best regards, Ben
Isaac
Oct 3, 2008 at 9:40 am
Great way to make servant leadership applicable to real life situations. The next step I’m working on is to work with those I lead is to understand their vision. I am working to find ways that I can support those dreams. Guess what happens when your people get inspired? They come alive and put even more heart into there service to my organization. We are in desperate need of real servant leaders! Just look at Washington.
CK
Oct 3, 2008 at 10:49 am
@Isaac - that is a scream!
Isaac
Oct 3, 2008 at 11:14 am
or cry! Maybe both.
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