7 Qualities Servant-Leaders Expect From Others
Servant-leaders fail when they tolerate self-serving in others.
Don’t be the only servant in the room.
One-way service is naive, wasteful, and irresponsible.
The ultimate goal of servant-leadership isn’t serving for the sake of serving it’s growing servant-leaders.
Serve others so others will serve others.
It’s foolish to serve those who enjoy being served but hate serving others.
The best way to serve those who serve themselves is to challenge self-centeredness and develop servant-leaders.
Effective servant-leadership:
- Serve those who serve others.
- Challenge self-serving behaviors.
- Teach servant-leadership.
- Encorporate the terms serve, serving, and servant in conversations and presentations.
- Ask powerful questions:
- How can I serve?
- How can you serve?
- How can we serve each other?
In organizations where some believe in servant-leadership and others serve themselves, abuse is inevitable.
7 qualities servant-leaders expect from others:
- Commitment to serve the best interest of organizations and others.
- Intolerance of helplessness and over-protection.
- Commitment to bring up tough issues gracefully.
- Dedication to maximize the potential of others by providing opportunities for growth.
- Resolve to develop the strengths of others and help them find their sweet spot.
- Practice curiosity and listening. Don’t be the only one asking questions.
- Passion for community building.
The most important thing about us is the way we treat each other while we do the work.
Don’t be the only one in the room dedicated to servant-leadership. Expect teammates to display servant-leader qualities. If you’re the only one in your organization or team dedicated to servant leadership, you’re frustrated, frazzled, and ineffective.
3 ways to move others toward servant-leadership:
- Start conversations about servant-leadership in small groups and with people of influence.
- Model servant-leadership, including the tough parts.
- Attend the World Leaders Conference. I’d love to meet you there. It’s a conference dedicated to the principles of servant-leadership. 20% discount code: wlcadvocate
What do servant-leaders expect from others?
How can servant-leaders develop servant leaders?
Great post. I have found it challenging to shift the culture of our current team toward servant leadership and accountability. More than anything, I want to create and inspire a culture of coaching for development and adding value to each other because it does so many great things for the organization, our customers, and our bottom line! This post is such an encouragement to me – thanks for writing.
Thanks Dale. The connection between coaching and servant-leadership is profound. In some ways, you could drop the term servant-leader and replace it with coaching-leader. Best for the journey.
Encourage the others in the group to be Leaders to their fullest ability, with guidance when needed. Allocate time to develop them as best we can. Cherish their questions as a challenge to enhance them and the group, aspire them to take the reigns when opportunity present itself, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, just acknowledge when you do make mistakes and correct them expediently and judiciously as possible.
Thanks Tim. Your comment helped me realize that we encourage curiosity and questioning by the way respond to it. If questions threaten us, people will ask fewer questions. If we lean in when we see curiosity, we encourage curiosity. Thanks again
Dan, interesting topic. Please define the term, “servant-leaders.” And, who created the term?
servant leaders expect nothing but to share skills, knowledge and model behavior back to others, in my opinion.
I think mirroring and developing a set of behavior skills that others can take with them into their future as servant leaders.
Thanks Dan. Never thought in this way.
I have been more than surprised at the numbers of people who talk servant-leadership, even “teach” it, but haven’t heard of Robert Greenleaf, and/or, who have never read his document on the servant as leader. Although one could argue the concept is found throughout wisdom literature, as far as I know he is the one to introduce the concept in “modern” times (1969) and gave it a name. Thanks for your column today.
A leader must serve the organization/people with accountability and responsibility both. Any action without accountability and responsibility is of now value. A leader shall and must inculcate the habit of serving and also help others to develop this habit. A leader must try to bring the cultural shift in the in the organization by action not by words, these actions will automatically motivates the learning leaders.Many a times the shrewd leaders take advantage of the position and wants to be served but do not want to serve , this is not a healthy leadership.
Servant leadership is very tough! (For me) it’s like the metric-system of leadership – I have to think through the conversions and consciously yield to a system that is different from what I’ve been hard-wired to. It requires ongoing, conscious work… So finding examples (living or historical) who can pull me toward the process are very valuable. I’m convinced the pay-offs are great – but like an IRA, their benefit may require some patience.
The concept of servant leadership seems to be related to engagement. Involvement in committees and other organizational initiatives shouldn’t be for the sole purpose of career advancement. It doesn’t do the organization any good when people get involved in these types of activities just to “check the box” so they can meet promotion benchmarks or have something new to discuss in their performance evaluation. An attitude of willing service is much more productive and rewarding.