Traditional Leadership vs Servant Leadership
aspires continuing expected grow humblest industry john maxwell lead leaders leadership listened noble podcast position reach servant leadership serve traditional wanted Mar 10, 2024
My inspiration today with this blog was a podcast that I listened to by John Maxwell, the ultimate GURU of Leadership. In this podcast, he talks about why the best are the best. I learned that there is a difference between your regular traditional leadership, and what he describes as servant leadership.
For me, as I am in my never-ending search for leaders in my organization, I am looking for the humblest position.
I am looking for people who want to serve people in general, but also serve the people that one leads.
Servant leadership is where you're growing with whoever you're leading. I do not expect up and coming leaders to know everything before starting to lead or before having people follow you.
Too many managers (or aspiring leaders) think that they need to know everything before they can lead, when really, it's probably more effective to people who follow you that you're growing with them.
Let’s face it, it is rare that you will find someone who knows 100% about leadership. True leaders are always growing. True leaders grow with the people they lead.
A servant leader is modest, humble, but confident at the same time. When you take someone who is willing to be at the frontlines, leading from the front, they look like the leader. But servant leadership entails not just being confident, but also entails being empathetic, working along the ones they lead. You might almost say, you may not even know they are the leader, because just like the ones they lead, they are serving others as well.
When you think about the most inspiring icons in history, you think of the great ones like Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Abraham Lincoln. When you think about what they did, and why they will be remembered throughout the ages, you realize that all they did was have passion to serve others, and see how they can better the entire world, starting with speaking their truth.
When you serve others in any role, you are more likely to have more followers than if you were just given a leadership role based on title.
Think about it….
Leaders are not leaders without followers.
But true leaders had to start off as a follower. And servant leaders are ones who help followers become leaders.
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