I don’t think I have ever read a book that hits home with me more than this one. It was an extremely easy read to boot. In MBA discussions or case studies on organization management, corporate culture, or human resources you may have come across the servant leader philosophy. This book does a great job of breaking it down into an acronym and wrapping it around a story.
Leaders are sometimes defined by their vision, execution or performance, however I have always believed it is by the amount of people that would follow them. I think that is what permits and provides for the other things to happen. I especially like the portion of the book that speaks to caring about your employees. I am not sure why, but I witness way too many managers keeping their employees at arm’s length. Another observation is that the employees they bring close to them are the ones that are performing as if surrounding themselves with performers make them a stronger leader by association. The best leaders I have worked with and now emulate are the ones that care about their entire team and look to understand performance at all levels and how they can impact each individual differently. I have heard get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus, but I prefer the idea that sometimes people are in the wrong seats and it is about leveraging their strengths. Interestingly enough, these were the teams that had the greatest amount of engagement, teamwork, collaboration,best practice sharing. It was as if caring was contagious.
I don’t want to give up too much of the book, but I will leave you with the biggest question, “Are you a serving leader or a self-serving leader?”
Maya Angelo – “I’ve learned people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
John C. Maxwell – “True leadership must for the benefit of the followers, not to enrich the leader.”
Jackie Robinson – “A life is not important except on the impact it has on other lives.”
If you should want the book, here is a link to it on amazon.