Robert Greenleaf, the founder of the servant leadership movement of the 1970’s describes servant leaders as individuals with the natural inclination to serve others. Such people make a conscious choice to lead and serve rather than gain power or material possessions. 

• Natural Inclination to serve others – Influential Servant Leader who mines for the real gold in service of the well-being of others and reaching their full potential

• Gain power or material possessions – Authoritative Entitled Leader mining for self-serving fool’s gold in service of themselves

I also believe the natural inclination to serve as an influential leader and teammate is a conscious choice, we make to mine for the real gold in those we genuinely care so much about and have the privilege and responsibility to serve personally and professionally. It is intentionally good and kind. There is intent and impact, and it is proactive versus reactive when we hardwire our heartful intent to authentically serve with our good and kind hearts of gold as we mine for the real gold in others working to bring out the best in others in pursuit of serving them to reach their full potential both personally and professionally.

So many times, in my life when a person has been described as one with a Heart of Gold, it is an enduring expression that the person is truly good, kind and caring to the core. I think about the immediate special feeling I experience about the person as there must be evidence that they put their heart, mind, and soul into everything they do, and they place other before themselves. It creates this automatic and immediate feeling that others have witnessed the evidence of their hearts at work. They are good and always in the pursuit of being their selfless best. The choices they make in life are always for the greater good, no matter what the opportunity or situation.  I want to get to know, learn from, listen to, and serve that person in any way I can.  I want to meet them and mine for just one gold nugget from the real gold they are mining for in themselves and others. With the gold we mine for and find in each other, we can seek continuous improvement as servant leaders, teammates, and in our personal lives serving others.

The greatest award an Olympic athlete can win besides the pride they have representing their country is the coveted Gold Medal for the achievement of winning first place. While the medal is 92.5% Silver, they are covered with 6 grams of pure shiny smooth glowing gold.

Real Gold vs. Fool’s Gold – Something to think about

The actual difference between Real Gold and Fool’s gold Includes the following characteristics

• Real Gold remains shiny under any circumstance while Fools Gold also known as pyrite loses its glow
• Real Gold has no smell and Fools Gold can smell like sulfur or the horrible smell of rotten eggs
• Real Gold with a true solid nature will always fall and cling to the bottom of a bowl of water whereby Fools Gold will float insecurely attached to anything.
• Real Gold and the lumps of gold are soft with more smooth rounded edges accompanied by a polished glow while Fool’s Gold will have an edgier shape with many tiny and large crystals

Now think about those characteristics of both real and fool’s gold, and how they relate to the authoritative hierarchical leader whereby their edges are a bit rough, and you can sense they are servants of themselves through their actions and their words which are generally accompanied with the word I and me versus us or we. They are very concerned about who gets the credit when things go well and who is at fault when they don’t. You can sense their self- serving intent. Their selfish nature is the leader who often creates unsettled cultures and unsettled people with challenging work life balance, versus the real peace they deserve as human beings with real hearts, minds, and souls that want inclusion, collaboration, co-creation and celebrations as individuals and teams.

As influential authentic servant leaders, we lead with our hearts of Real Gold, knowing our people are first and that each person like each of us is wonderfully flawed while having their own very special gifts and talents. Aren’t we all in a constant search to have that shiny glow that can become their inner and outer shiny glow that can be carried forward for over and over for generations to come?

“In life you realize there is a purpose for every person you meet. Some are there to test you, some will use you, some will teach you and some will bring out the best in you.” – Facebook.com

In my career I have learned that the relationships we have are sacred and as human beings we all have real gold, however it takes more than just ourselves to mine for it. When we are authentically mining for the gold in ourselves and each other through learning, listening, being kind and selfless, feeling each other’s feelings, being a positive influence and empowering each other to innovate and co-create consistently our chances to find the real gold in all of us are endless.