We hope you are having a great summer!  Both Sarah and I are experiencing life events this summer.  First, Sarah is the proud Mommy of a baby boy!  We welcomed the newest member of The Faurote Group on May 15, 2009. Sarah and her son, Luke Jackson, are doing great and getting ready to jump back in at work!  Second, I am 10 days away from taking my oldest daughter, Elizabeth, to college.  She will be a freshman at the University of Kentucky.  New beginnings for both of us on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Serve Your Way to the Top

What is leadership? Talk to twenty different people and you are likely to get twenty different answers. Answers ranging from: visionary, decision maker, authoritarian, charismatic, good communicator, resilient, knowledgeable, risk taker, mentor, coach, persistent to fair, integrity, trustworthy, passionate, strong character, compassionate, confident, enthusiastic, courageous, influential, goal oriented.  All are good characteristics of leaders; however, there is one word that is missing and it is vital in defining leadership - servant leadership. This description is not included in a traditional definition of leadership. The American Heritage Dictionary defines lead/leadership as follows: to act as a commander, director, or conductor; to be at the head; foremost position; to aim in front of; to guide by taking by the hand; and to cause to follow some course of action or line of thought (induce).    

At it's core leadership is about getting people to want to follow you because of who you are, not because of where you sit or the title on your business card. If you want people to truly want to follow you, you need to serve their needs. Of course, you need to have many of the characteristics listed above as well; however, you will not get people to willingly follow you if you do not serve their needs.

Servant leadership is based upon the fundamental principle that in order to lead others, you must first serve them. As a leader, you must recognize that you only succeed when those around you succeed. Thus, in order to make an impact, you must answer the question "what do others need from me to succeed?" Once you identify the needs of others, the job of a leader is to serve and fulfill those needs.

Unfortunately, a high percentage of “positional” leaders do not grasp this fact. They believe that because they are in a leadership position they are actually leaders and people follow them because they want to. These individuals are victims of the “position” myth: leadership based on position. People follow positional leaders because they have to not because they want to. The fact is leadership is based on the person: the person of character; the person who cares; the person who seeks ways to help others succeed; the person who puts others interests above his/her own; the person who knows leadership is about serving others needs.    

To illustrate this point, take a moment and think of someone you have worked for who truly had your best interest at heart, did everything to help you be your best and succeed, was there with you rolling up his/her sleeves ready to help, told you the truth even when it hurt, or made you feel special. Now that you have identified that person, the question is “what would you do for that person?” Most people say “run through a brick wall,” “whatever they ask," "anything.”  The fact is you are willing to do whatever it takes to help that person. You are willing to follow them because of who they are not because of how smart they are or where they sit. This anonymous quote sums it up best “I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care.”   

If you are not convinced that servant leadership is the way to get people to want to follow you, consider the findings in the book The Servant Profit Chain by service firm experts James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, and Leonard A. Schlesinger. Based on five years of research of some of the largest service organizations such as Southwest, American Express, and Bank One, they discovered a direct way to impact profit. The following chain of events (in order) leads to profitability in service organizations: service to employees; employee satisfaction; employee retention; client satisfaction; client service; client retention. It starts with serving others needs.

Servant leadership is even more important in the business world today. People do not follow leaders just because they are the boss, they are in a leadership position, they are the most knowledgeable, or they said so. They follow leaders they trust and respect. Unfortunately, a lot of leaders are missing both of those key elements. If you want to be a respected and trusted leader that people want to follow, serve your way to the top.
 

Built to Serve

The book recommendation for this issue is Built to Serve.  I found it to be very enlightening and I hope you do as well. 

In Built to Serve, Dan Sanders, CEO of the award-winning, service-oriented United Supermarkets, makes a bold claim: the prevailing business culture is broken and a radical transformation is required.  This transformation is a paradigm shift that reshapes our understanding of the true purpose of work.

Leaders have a choice - continue to chase a broken price-profit and suffer the consequences or build a culture committed to servanthood and discover the fulfillment evident when people see their work as a ministry.  The choice leaders make will not only determine economic success and failure but also will determine their organization's long term impact on humanity.