servant leader

What is a Servant Leader?

What made Jean-Luc Picard so badass? Was it his diplomacy? His infectious high standards and code of conduct? His Earl Grey tea, hot? His ability to battle and fight for others while still keeping to his values? Yes to this all and more. But what made him stand out was that he served others - his crew, the Federation, those he protected and anyone who crossed his path. This is the key to the aptly named Servant leadership.

The Servant leadership style is based on the idea that leaders prioritize serving the greater good. Leaders serve their team and organization first. They don’t prioritize their own objectives. A Servant leader shares power, puts the needs of the employees first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. And the higher into leadership you go, the more people there are to serve.

Servant leaders are focused on the needs of each member in a team and feel responsible for helping people learn and grow, feel purposeful, motivated, energized, and contribute at their highest level. Servant leadership is a very social leadership style. It’s also one of the most humbling.

This leadership style requires an individual to demonstrate characteristics such as empathy, listening, stewardship, and commitment to the personal growth of others. It also seeks to achieve a vision by providing strong support to employees.

It focuses on making sure that the team has the required resources, budget, skills, and attention to make an impact and providing a framework within which the team can flourish. It’s also about building ownership and trust from the team members.

Of course, like all other styles of leadership, they have their time and place. Traditionally, this isn’t a style that the military would use, for example, but The Federation is set up in a very military way and yet The Captain made it work. No leadership style is 100% - there are times Jean-Luc had to step into his full authority and make hard decisions. So realize that this style doesn’t weaken the leader, but strenghtens the entire team.

Pros

  • Encourages empathy and compassion

  • There is often a shared vision and greater trust

  • Individuals advance in a supportive environment

  • Higher morale and job satsifaction

  • Decisions are made in the best interest of the organization, not just one or two people

  • Collaborative decision making increases employee engagement

  • Creates a conducive and positive working environment

  • Leaders earn the respect of others

  • Ensures meaningful stability during times of rapid change

Cons

  • Requires profound authenticity and alignment with personal values - integrity is key

  • The servant leadership concept can be time-consuming for leaders, requiring extra effort, which can lead to burnout

  • Adopting this type of leadership may require difficult cultural change

  • The team can lose sight of goals, especially when the focus is on serving so many

  • Ego truly must take a backseat, which may be hard for some

  • The role of the leaders is lessened, which can affect authority

  • Servant leaders may not possess an adequate understanding of service and the business as a whole

elevating your leadership

This style of leadership may be one of the toughest in terms of completely encompassing. It’s the least-known one as well and will challenge both the leader and the team, but when it works and everyone is on board, it can also be the most powerful style of leadership.

Here are a few ways you can strengthen your Servant leadership:

  • Be a selfless mentor - this is critical in your role to help others on your team grow. Be relentless here

  • Keep the organization’s goals in mind - it’s easy to get caught up in the first point above, but you must keep the target in sight at the same time

  • Build strong communication skills - this style of leadership falls apart if you’re not communicating powerfully and regularly

  • Be an example of living the principles of humility, authenticity, and trust - when you step too much into authority, the energy shifts

  • ‍Encourage team-building and collaboration - community is vital with Servant leadership

  • Foster a healthy life-work integration / balance - part of serving is ensuring that your team doesn’t burn out and you’re developing the holistic health of the team

  • Continue to persuade, rather than force or manipulate, people to continue growing, building, living from the company goals and seeing the vision

In other words, open yourself up to stepping back into true service, parking ego, and also taking full responsibility at the same time.

And of course, if you need support, guidance, mentorship, or just a space to brainstorm to help build your leadership acumen, you can find out how to work with me by smashing the button below. I offer many ways to help you create the leadership you desire to make the impact you know you can make in your life.

Or, you can join THE SPARK: IGNITING NEXT LEVEL LEADERSHIP - a community of all levels of leadership - where you will get tools, peer support and techniques that you can use to shift your thinking and abilities so that you can help grow yourself, your team(s) and your business. It’s for folks like you - fired up, future-forward, and ferocious in your desire to be a stronger and more powerful leader. Click below to join for FREE!