How to Improve Your Servant Leadership

One of my favorite leadership quotes is “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the leader is a servant.” – Max de Pree. I have reflected on this quote many times during my journey to becoming a servant leader.

So, what does it mean to be a servant leader? It is about focusing on meeting the needs of your employees, customers and the community rather than exercising your personal power and authority to get things done. Robert Greenleaf, in his essay The Servant as Leader, puts it this way: “It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant–first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.”

How can you improve your servant leadership?

• Start by building servant leadership into the core values of your company. Find ways for your employees to share in the success of your business through profit sharing, employee ownership or other plans.
• Create a flat organizational hierarchy that promotes open communication and allows senior leaders to hear and try out new ideas from employees throughout the organization.
• Really listen to what your employees have to say. I worked in an organization where the CEO would regularly meet with employees at all levels across the company. It was inspiring to see how employees opened up and felt comfortable to share their feedback on how things were going.

It is all about improving the partnership and cooperation between employees, customers, business partners and suppliers. Businesses can apply many useful concepts of servant leadership to help them run more effectively and efficiently.