Leadership is a privilege we work to earn, and we are also responsible for taking every opportunity to influence the personal and business lives of those we serve. It is our moral duty to coach, mentor, and influence those we serve to reach their full potential personally and professionally. It is also our duty to be committed to the learning and development within ourselves to enable our ability to serve that intent.

 Again, Robert Greenleaf describes servant leaders as individuals with the natural inclination to serve. Such people make a conscious choice to lead to serve rather than to gain power or acquire material possessions. He adds – They work to serve their organizations and teams through characteristics such as listening, empathy, building relationships, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, commitment to individual development and building a community.

During my career, The Authentic Servant Leaders that were my best examples have and had the following characteristics:

• Genuine, Real and Caring –Their authenticity in their desire to be genuine, real, and caring while encouraging, engaged, thriving motivated team members
• Empowering Others – They have a genuine desire to serve others and are authentically interested in empowering the people we serve by building non assuming trust with one another and a spirit that “we will not let each other down”
• Commitment – They seek to do the work that encourages a living pulse to the organization’s values, mission, vision, and purpose so we consistently see it, feel it and live it, while always in the pursuit of finding our defining strength and seeking continuous improvement
• Serving Each Other – They place high importance on establishing and building relationships while serving others and encouraging them to serve each other for the greater good of every individual, team, and organizational outcome
• Reaching Your Full Potential – They lead with a strong commitment to doing whatever we can to help others reach their full potential or even dreams they never thought they could achieve versus our own status, popularity, or self -reward.
• Influential Thrivers verses Entitled Drivers – They focus on people’s strengths and seek continuous improvement in service of a better overall life with influential encouragement versus the driver hierarchical authoritative style of leadership
• Encourager vs. Discourager – They encourage being courageously vulnerable as a strength while also being vulnerable themselves. They want being vulnerable to be a defining strength and not a fearful weakness. Remember the saying that there are no stupid questions. Repositioned is asking questions is a strength and not asking them is an opportunity.

We Get To Serve

Leadership is not only an earned privilege it is also our responsibility and one so amazing that in this special life we get to serve and work to influence others and each other.

Anytime a team member was promoted to a leadership role, it was also always important and encouraging to reinforce that we actually “Get To” to serve others in their personal and business growth.

The Four Get To’s

• Get To – Encourage proactive collaborative relationships so our teams not only work together but understand how their specialized roles impact one another
• Get To – Promote co-created innovation, empower team members, and always work to achieve a culture of trust in each other’s intent
• Get To – Develop and coach authentic servant leadership qualities through the gift of learning in others for generations to come
• Get To – Lead by example personally and professionally, as we demonstrate living evidence of competencies such as learning, listening, kindness, humility, empathy, positivity, and empowering others, with an all the time commitment to the personal growth of others and the organizations we serve

Authentic Servant Leadership is not only a privilege but also our Responsibility

The Four Responsible For’s:

• Responsible For – always understanding the privilege of being a leader and that our words and actions always matter – (personal and professional)
• Responsible For – never assuming the willingness of others to place their trust and faith in us as we lead ourselves, and the teams we serve
• Responsible For – being influential leaders and teammates versus authoritative, and to put in the consistent learning work so others trust in our influential intent, actions, and words as teammates, coaches, and mentors
• Responsible For – the teams we serve, to not only work to positively impact their professional life, but also their personal life in pursuit of reaching their full potential

Summary

As privileged leaders we have a responsibility to authentically serve our teams with the care that encourages consistent trust of our heartful intentions for the greater good of the person and the organizations opportunity to reach full potential. Reminding us as privileged responsible leaders we “Get To and are Responsible For” for the individuals and teams we serve

Exercise – Take the time to reflect and write who are the mentors in your life and why? How did they make you feel and what did you learn?

“Leave a piece of your heart in everything you do.”