Simple Truths of Leadership

To figure out what type of leader you want to be, you need to do one simple thing: listen to your heart. What does it say? Does it whisper that you should serve the common good? Or does it tell you that you should follow your own narrow self-interest and not care about who gets hurt along the way? 

Once you understand your inner motivation, you’ll know whether you want to be a bad leader – or a servant leader. 

As a servant leader, your priority is to serve your subordinates and your wider organization rather than yourself. In practice, that means giving your people a strong sense of direction. A servant leader’s team should understand exactly what results they’re working toward – and what success looks like. 

So far, this might sound like pretty standard leadership behavior. But the servant leader does something else, too. Once you’ve given your people some goals, you help your subordinates achieve these goals. You serve your staff by offering feedback and training opportunities. You also take the time to listen and find out what support they need. 

By providing strategic direction and a lot of day-to-day support, you’ll enjoy great results and great working relationships with your people.