Everything You Need To Know About Leadership Comes Down To This Rare Tip

In his legendary essay The Servant as Leader,Robert K. Greenleaf wrote these famous words:

The servant-leader is a servant first. It starts with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then, conscious choice leads to aspiration to lead.

As a management consultant and researcher, Greenleaf realized that successful organizations had leaders who acted more like supportive coaches and cared for the needs of employees and organizations. As he once said, "The organization exists for the person as much as the person exists for the organization."

So it became his mission to advance his ideas to transform the business and the workplace. In his essays, he emphasized that servant leadership emphasizes a holistic approach to work, promoting a sense of community and shared power in decision-making. Ideas unheard of in the middle of the last century.

Today, thanks to Greenleaf's findings, dozens of successful companies around the world are embracing and practicing servant leadership. These companies are known to have high trust, strong employee engagement, and low turnover.

Reflection on the quote

Notice that Greenleaf said that service "begins with natural feeling..." In essence, natural feeling is intrinsic; it resides deep within a person's value or belief system. When a leader chooses to "serve first," "conscious choice" kicks into high gear, making the practice of serving others intentional and achievable; it is what drives us to "aspire to lead" in this way.

This inside-out leadership approach is the main reason why so many managers never try to venture into servant leadership. This is selfless leadership, and not everyone is equipped to meet the high expectations that servant leadership demands.

Think about it: "The servant-leader is a servant first."

When you serve first, it is for the benefit of the other person. This requires that the best leaders focus their attention away and focus on their people, developing and empowering them first. Greenleaf has studied the practices and behaviors of servant leaders for decades and found that they get the most out of their employees; people were more motivated, creative and productive, leading to improved business results.

The Paradox of Servant Leadership

There is so much tension in the paradox of the term "servant leadership". The words servant and leader are generally considered opposites. And the term is extremely counterintuitive in command and control structures.

In reality, servant-leaders lead with authority, but they do so by supporting employees from the bottom up. They demand excellence and hold employees accountable for success and high performance.

Service leadership, in the most conventional business sense, is a total commitment to creating the conditions for superior performance (by serving first). That's what it's all about. The challenge is to step aside and focus on helping others achieve remarkable results.