It’s been said for a thousand years: Give and you shall receive. That is the essence of servant leadership.
- Character: You serve your team with credibility, integrity, and the core values that they expect.
- Learning: You serve your team by being a student, by setting aside your ego, and acquiring the knowledge required for success.
- Creativity: You serve your team by crafting a vision they understand and are inspired and motivated to follow.
- Drive: You serve your team by bringing the passion and energy it takes to stand above the crowd.
- Courage: You serve your team by taking risks and standing up to your fears.
- Caring: You care for and motivate your team by understanding their needs as human beings.
- Discipline: You serve your team by maintaining discipline and focus, and by providing the management tools that are essential to execution and success.
“It’s not where you serve, but how you serve.”
-J. Rubin Clark
“Organizations exist to serve. Period. Leaders live to serve. Period.”
-Tom Peters
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
-Albert Einstein
“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.”
-Donald A. Adams
“Serving people means growing their capacity and implies that everyone can contribute.”
-Juana Bordas
“We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must serve before we can lead.”
-William Arthur Ward
“Servant-leadership is more than a concept; it is a fact. Any great leader, by which I also mean an ethical leader of any group, will see herself or himself as a servant of that group and will act accordingly.”
-M. Scott Peck
“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
-Ken Blanchard
Essential personality traits that that coincide with Servant Leadership:
- They are trustworthy
- They are lifelong students
- They are creative and driven to succeed
- They are courageous and caring
- They are disciplined
- And ultimately, they are servants to their team
“It has generally been my experience that the very top people of truly great organizations are servant-leaders.”
-Stephen Covey
“Servant leadership is easy for people with high self-esteem. Such people have no problem giving credit to others. They have no problem listening to other people for ideas. They have no problem in building other people up.”
-Ken Blanchard