“These terms do not fit together-Servant & Leader … It’s just another way poor leaders attempt to elevate themselves above those they ‘serve’… an entirely unhealthy approach for a leader to take… Our need to be led well is far more important than our need to be served. The more correct notion is that of a ‘Serving Leader’ … (with) many ‘masters’ … when Richard Greenleaf coined this phrase … he was talking entirely about how leaders serve, not about leaders being servants.”
~Mark Stanley, from a Harvard Business School article
Sometimes it seems like we live in a world where so many people want to see themselves as Steve Jobs or Sir Richard Branson, strong individuals who chased their own unique vision. The challenge is that those individuals are few and far between. Few understand there is only one Steve Jobs and one Richard Branson. So we create a class of smart people who could otherwise make great leaders but instead allow them to become self-centered micro-managers.
Servant leadership is providing your people the right tools, giving them collaborative coaching and direction, and inspiring them. It’s not a leadership style or technique as such, rather it’s a way of behaving that you adopt over the long term.
Servant leadership is also about sharing, allowing them the opportunity to participate and giving credit when it’s due. Those who turn into Steve Jobs clones never understand the joy of helping others succeed, or understand that when your people succeed under your leadership, it reflects back on you.
Sorry to say that most managers will never understand servant leadership, and instead will live a lonely, tug-of-war life of attempting dominance. Don’t let it be you.
