Leader of Servants

If you’ve spent any time in management, corporate training, or pretty much anything associated with the “agile” label, you’ve heard about servant leadership. I believe it started out with the best of intentions. Something about considering the people you lead - their values, health, growth, and success. If we look at the Greenleaf origin story (Herman Hesse’s novel Journey to the East), it stems from an unassuming servant named Leo. He was just one servant of a league of servants on a journey. It wasn’t until he disappeared one day that the other servants realized he was much more to them than just a peer or colleague - he was their leader. Without Leo, all the other servants deserted each other and their journey. As if to emphasize the point, Leo doesn’t even show up until 20+ pages into Hesse’s book.

What images come to mind when you think of servants or followers? Maybe the people to the right in the image below. Now think about a leader. What images come to mind? Maybe the person far out to the left in the image below. How on earth could these things be compatible?

Many people extol the virtues of servant leadership often without understanding, investing in, or internalizing its real truth. It’s not about ambition, and it’s not about leadership. It’s not about being the person out in front. It’s about service and followership. Leo wasn’t in front of the group, pointing east, and hitting the gas pedal. He was simply one of the group, supporting the others, being a unifying presence, and acting in service of the journey.

Some folks suggest that servant leadership has its place, but it’s not appropriate in every situation. When there is a fire, they say, you don’t want to get people’s opinions on what action to take before pulling the alarm and yelling at everyone to head for safety. Gas pedal!

That’s a cop out.

“Gotta take the short route, pedal to the floor watch me peel out.”
–Sage the Gemini, “Gas Pedal”

It’s a convenient, extreme example that, despite best efforts to the contrary, actually illustrates servant leadership. In that moment, you are serving the highest priority needs of others - not serving only your own, personal ambitions. You pulled the alarm, you alerted everyone to where an exit is, and you encouraged them to pursue their own health, safety, and security… Sounds a bit like serving the primary needs of others. You didn’t need to do any of that to save yourself, and you could have done much less to save just the people you like. Maybe you were a bit aggressive on the follow through, and you probably could have done with less yelling, but that’s not why it’s a cop out.

The truth is those folks who think it’s a valid circumstance for avoiding servant leadership might be a tad uncomfortable with letting others completely into the driver’s seat and taking a position as the navigator and road crew. They just can’t quite get to a place where their first instinct is to serve. It’s too much vulnerability, too much exposure, too much chaos. There simply must be some circumstance somewhere that would justify holding on to some form of the command and control, personal edification to which they are so much more familiar and accustomed.

It’s okay. Really, it’s okay. If servant leadership were easy, everyone would do it. At times, we may think it’s more effective to approach our interactions with others as leading servants instead. Wait… leading servants? If that doesn’t feel comfortable either then it might be worth exploring what it feels like to let go of those instincts that relate leadership with telling others what to do. The fact is it’s easy to tell others what to do. All day, every day. Making your opinion be known of others and how they need to live their life, if teenagers are any indication, requires no training whatsoever. Do we really want to see that as leadership? Something to aspire to in the workplace with our co-workers, our colleagues, our friends?

Let’s go back to that infamous fire. You most likely are not in a uniform that suggests anyone should believe you about a fire or that you know where any real exits are. Heck, you could have been the one that started the fire for all they know. So, why? Why follow you? Because you’re yelling and running and pushing and pulling other very afraid people around to get out? I’m hard pressed to call that leadership over following some very strong evolutionary, survival instincts. People are following you only in the most literal sense and only because you happen to be out in front. That approach may get you and many others out of the fire, but it won’t effectively lead a multi-year strategy for transformation or competitive advantage. It won’t sustain the momentum and trust required to have people truly follow you, and, most importantly, it won’t sustain the people. You could perform the same way without a fire - pulling the alarm and yelling to everyone to get out - and people would still follow you. Does that make you a leader?

Servant leaders serve the best interests of their people because they recognize that people create, maintain, and deliver value. They acknowledge that people are innately valuable - as consumers and as fellow human beings. Servant leaders also see that in themselves - just another one of those human beings. A servant leader in a time of crisis doesn’t need a uniform or fear to lead people to safety. Their super powers are humility, trust, listening, deference, authenticity, and help. Think about what a relationship between two super powerful human beings could really be like. What could you achieve?

I’m certainly not perfect. I don’t do this all the time. I’m not always a servant leader, and sometimes I end up telling people what they “need” to do despite my best intentions. That’s not who I want to be. I want to do better, and I want to be better. Hopefully, just maybe, wanting is a start. I want to remind myself to take a breath. To take a beat when someone opens the door to advice or to criticism or to mentorship. To ask myself, “Will filling this space with my voice, my thoughts, my intentions really serve this person or is my urge to serve more about me?” Here’s to making better choices in that moment - choosing to serve and not just to lead.

Think you’re a servant leader and not a leader of servants? Let’s take a quick quiz:

• Is it more important to you to be seen as a leader or a servant?
• Can you articulate who the people are that you serve and in what ways you have served them?
• Do you mind being treated as a servant? What about being called a servant or follower?
• Are you able to stay curious with others?
• Do you let the people around you drive or are you always the one reaching for the gas pedal?
• Are you constantly submitting to the urge to tell others what to do, what the solution is, where to go, when, and why?

You can probably tell how this quiz turns out. If you are in a position of authority, esteem, or opportunity during a conflict and the first thing that crosses your mind is “how will my actions be perceived?” You’re not thinking like a servant and, more than likely, not thinking like a leader. When will we learn that when we all choose to put ourselves last, we all get to go first?