Leadership: "S" is for Serve

In the book “Servant Leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness”, Robert K. Greenleaf speaks of the importance of servant leadership. There is some element of service in all leadership roles. If we refuse to truly serve those we are leading, chances are we are not leading them at all. Instead we are using them to accomplish our own selfish goals. That is not serving nor is it leading.

What does it really mean to "serve" those we lead? In order for anyone to lead, there must be a level of trust involved. If we intend to lead anyone anywhere in anything, they must first willingly trust us, even if they have their reservations about our trustworthiness. So, there is substantial risk involved in this servant leader relationship, on both the servant and the one being served.

When we serve others by investing time in their lives we place real value on them and thus increase the trust they have in us as "their" leader. For example, if we say that we value others we must invest our life into their life. This leads to a type of sharing of life together that is hard to attain and even harder to maintain. The good news is that it can be done and it is worth the hard work!

The key element is that the servant leader/follower relationship must be viewed as a reciprocal one...which leads us to the next post in this series: "H" is for Help! We, as leaders need the help of others...next post coming soon!!