Being of service

- You know I get a lot of questions from people when I talk about servant leadership, 'cause they say, how can you serve and lead at the same time? They get confused and all, and what I really tell them is, first of all, the world is in desperate need of a different leadership role model. We've seen what self-serving leaders have done in a destructive way in every sector of society around the world, 'cause they think leadership is all about them. And servant leadership is, it's really all about the people you're serving, and what you're trying to accomplish. It's not about you. And servant leadership, to really be effective, starts in the inside, it starts in your heart with, who are you as a human being? And the question I always ask to ask is, are you here to serve or be served? That's a character question. And of course a lot of people say, well, of course I'm here to serve. Who would say that I'm here to be self-serving? And yet, we see all kinds of self-serving behavior. And so what we do is we follow that hard question up with taking a look at, where are they in terms of their ego? Because the thing that keeps people from their good intentions to serve rather than be served, is the human ego. And there's two ways that people's ego in the way. One is false pride, when they have a more than philosophy. When they think they're brighter than, smarter than, and all, and they put other people down. They're judging, and evaluative, and all. And everybody knows that's an ego problem. But the other ego problem a lot of people don't think is an ego problem is fear or self-doubt when you come from a less than philosophy. And you say, yeah I'm not sure if I can do that, or am I good enough for this, kind of thing. And the reason that's also an ego problem is, what are you focused on? You're focused on yourself. Gordon McDonald has a real interesting concept along here. He says people are either called or driven. And driven people think they own everything. They own their people, they own their organization, they own their position, you know, and they're trying to control it, they're self-oriented. Where people are called think everything is on loan. Their people are on loan, their position is on loan, and all, and they're really other-directed. When you talk about service, we do want to move from an I, which is the self, to a we. And the we is, what are we trying to accomplish? What are we trying to do here? And I want to tell you, the way this really gets powerful, is when organizations realize that their number one customer is their people. And if you train your people, you motivate your people, you create a leadership culture, those people are going to feel fully engaged, they're going to feel valuable, and they're going to reach out and take care of your number two customer, which is the people that use your products and services. And when they treat them as if they really care about them, and they're interested in what they're doing, and want to find out what they need, not jam our products down your throat and all, they become raving fans of your organization, and that brings you more sales. They'd be almost part of your sales force, and that takes care of the owners, and the profitability and all. Where we get in trouble, and we get self-serving leadership, is when people act like the only reason to be in business is to make profit. No, profit is the applause you get for creating a motivating environment for your people, so they take care of your customers. And so, that's the power of servant leadership. That's what it really means, for you to understand. And I want to tell you, it is not soft leadership. The only way I have seen organizations get great results and great human satisfaction is when people understand the power of servant leadership.