Have you been inspired by a great leader during your life? Perhaps it was someone you worked for professionally that energized you and your colleagues, or maybe it was a neighbor who galvanized your community into action. 

When I think of the most inspirational leaders I have known (like Coach Kay James from my Berry College National Championship basketball team), they share a common quality: they lead with a servant’s heart.

It’s my intention to approach everything in my life as a servant. Whether I’m serving my clients, my team, community organizations, or friends and family, I put great stock in serving because I believe our ability and duty to serve others is one of the reasons we are here on earth.

So when it comes to leadership roles, I know the power of leading selflessly and tirelessly as a servant to the people who follow me. I’ve experienced it with leaders I’ve served and I’m better off because of them. And I’ve experienced it as a leader myself. I have no doubt that being a servant leader has benefited my company, my team, myself, and my goals.

Who is a servant leader?

The term servant leader was popularized by management expert Robert K. Greenleaf in his famous essay, “The Servant as Leader.” In it, he describes servant leadership in the following way: “Becoming a servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.” 

In other words, a servant leader instinctively considers the needs of others, especially those on their team and in their community, before their own needs. They share power and are invested in the growth of those around them.  

Below, I want to share with you five characteristics I find important in the continued development of my own servant’s heart. I pray that you may also find these useful in your personal leadership development.  

 1. A servant leader cares genuinely.

A typical leader might value that your team member’s child care or elder care is stable and consistent because that means she’s available for work, but a servant leader values stable and consistent care because it’s important for the well-being of the team member.

Make sure you’re showing the people you lead how much you truly care about them on a regular basis, whether it’s with kind words, tokens of appreciation, or taking time to congratulate and thank them for a job well done.

This is why my blog is so important to me. I care that you succeed, whether or not you ever hire me for coaching. So I aim to give away valuable content here each and every week as an act of service to you.

 2. A servant leader loves what she does.

While you might not love every moment of every day, as a servant leader, you approach your work with love. After all, that’s what got you into doing what you do in the first place, isn’t it? You felt a passion that led you to take action.

Many of my Celeste Giordano Coaching clients are hard at work making the world better in one way or another. But you don’t have to change the world to love what you do. Find the aspects of your job that you love and see if you can amplify them, by focusing your time on them, outsourcing other projects to your team, or tweaking the parts you don’t love to be more like the parts you do.

 3. A servant leader is humble.

While your typical leader might feel that certain tasks are beneath them, a servant leader knows there is no such thing as too small a task. Although they might report to you, you are no better than anyone on your team, nor are you too good for any task. And if you expect them to do any kind of work, you had better be willing to do it yourself as well.

Now that’s not to say it makes sense to do all the work yourself. As you know, delegating is an important part of leadership. It’s about your attitude. You’re not above anyone or anything.

 4. A servant leader listens to her team.

In order to serve, you have to understand. And in order to understand, you have to listen with empathy. That’s how you’ll build a solid relationship on which to lead. When you truly listen, you’ll learn from your team, your clients, your customers, and your followers, and you’ll know what they need from you.

That’s why servant leaders earn the support of their team, rather than demand it.

 5. A servant leader leads in service.

As a servant leader, you not only want to be a servant yourself, but establish a culture of service. If you demonstrate a pattern of serving others, your colleagues, peers, clients, and friends will be inspired to join you.

I’ll give you an example. The non-profit organization I co-founded, Women of Community Impact, will be holding our annual Mother’s Day Service Project next week. For the eighth year, we will be providing a special Mother’s Day dinner at Home of Hope at Gwinnett Children’s Shelter. The young moms and children at Home of Hope are transitioning out of homelessness, and oftentimes, out of difficult situations. Home of Hope provides them with a safe place to stay and the life skills training they need to thrive on their own.

At our annual Mother’s Day dinner, Women of Community Impact honors these mothers with a lovely meal. We engage sponsors in the area for great food, beautiful flowers for each mom, and even live music. Our volunteers lead the children in a craft project to create a gift for their moms. It is a wonderful evening, brought about through the hard work of servant leaders and the generosity of sponsors all over the country (if you are interested in supporting this event, please visit our donation page, and if you are interested in volunteering at the event on May 8, please contact me).

This annual event has grown thanks to our ever-increasing contingent of supporters, each inspired to give of their valuable time and resources for a worthy cause. Our core team has inspired those around us to get involved and act in service as well. That’s servant leadership in action.

Servant leaders find success organically.

Humility is the source of strength as a servant leader. As Jesus told his Apostles, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35).

As a humble, selfless servant leader, your success will grow organically because you’ll attract excellent clients and an outstanding team who will be eager to serve you as you serve them. That’s a formula for building a Legacy Business.

If you want help developing your servant leadership skills, contact me today.

 

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Celeste Giordano’s mission is to help business owners develop the skills, knowledge and attitude necessary to “DoublePlus™” their income and become effective and inspirational leaders in their fields. Whether it’s taking your successful business to the next level or starting a new venture, she will teach you the exact skills and strategies you need to enroll more quality prospects, build a rock-solid team, and break through obstacles to achieve real profit and lasting success. Celeste is a professional business growth specialist, a master sales strategist, and dynamic speaker with more than 40 years experience in direct sales and managing high-performing teams.

To learn more about Celeste, click here.

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