The leadership in our country these days has gone with the wind. Where did it go? I’m really not sure, but I do know we need to get back to the basics of honest leadership. How do we do that, you ask, and my reply is: it’s very simple it’s called “Servant Leadership.”

  We spend our lives either as a leader or being led. If we are the leader how we lead directly impacts those that are led. It was while attending George Fox University in Portland, Oregon when I discovered a type of leadership that I had used without even knowing it. I had used the basics of that leadership to form two trucking company’s, a grocery store and a restaurant. Had I known “the rest of the story” I would definitely still be in business with at least three of those.  

   During the time spent at George Fox University I met several professors that I couldn’t help but enjoy listening to. They all seemed to have something in common, and that was all of them had a sense of personal regard for others. About halfway through the course our class had a leadership seminar that took place on an entire Saturday. It was during that seminar that I came to realize what Servant Leadership was all about.

Over the next few weeks I intend on outlining what servant leadership is about in this blog. If only to help make the world a better place to live and our work places more tolerable. If I can touch one leader in this blog enough to make a change in their own work place I will be completely satisfied.

  Considering the way I was raised in south Texas where visitors were always invited in for a meal, served first, and their needs always taken care of before our own I wasn’t surprised when I started learning about servant leadership. It was how it was explained that really surprised me. I want you to draw a triangle. Now consider how many bosses you have in your organization. With the CEO at the top of that Triangle draw a line below the CEO and add middle management, another line and add supervisors, another line and add front line employees. At the bottom write customers.

  Notice how everyone is below the CEO and how the customer is at the bottom. This is exactly how most employers see their own company’s. Now, draw another triangle upside down with the wide part at the top. Invert the names from customer at the top and CEO at the bottom. This is how the diagram should look when actually facilitating servant leadership.

  When a leader takes the responsibility of leading their employees that leader should consider how to remove any and all barriers for those employees to accomplish the goal of the organization. What is the GOAL? What is any business’s goal? It is to make a profit am I right?

Okay, now that we have that settled, lets take a look at why this is important. A lot of leaders consider their position as a power position. With that power these leaders can say several things to damage others outlook on the job. Some of these things can be as simple as, “just do it and get it done,” or, “I don’t care what your problem is just do it,” and one more, “NO, you can’t have tomorrow off to see your mother in the hospital, I want you back at work in 5 hours.” All of these comments have been made without regard to the employee’s needs or how hard the employee had worked.

We will cover the basics of servant leadership in the next few blogs, but for now consider this; How do you want your business to be ran? Do you want to be known as a tyrant that doesn’t care about their own employees? Did you know that the success of Starbucks was based on servant leadership?

TO BE CONTINUED…….