Whom Do You Serve?

Too often, would-be leaders forget their place. These self centered individuals ignore the interests of direct reports, members, or customers.  Don't feel sorry for them - help them. They're confused, but it may not be a lost cause. With the right coaching and development, they will decide to behave as true leaders do, or they will show their colors and stay on the course they have unfortunately charted for themselves.

There are many leadership styles. The most common and well known being:

• Autocratic leadership
• Bureaucratic leadership
• Charismatic leadership
• Democratic leadership or Participative leadership
• Servant leadership
• Transactional leadership
• Transformational leadership

Each offers benefit for given circumstances when applied correctly. Interestingly, all styles have an element of service.  

Effective leadership is greatly achieved when serving others. Service is a leadership trait that rarely gets discussed in the open because, as leaders know, it is an automatic quality and characteristic they demonstrate routinely. When considering service as a leader, it can be broken down into common sense actions and can be brought to the surface by asking a series of basic questions. Here are a few examples.

Does the leader:

• understand what's important professionally to those within their area of responsibility?
• understand what's important personally to those within their area of responsibility?
• show sincere appreciation for those around them?
• really know what the people around them do for a living everyday?
• offer help, guidance, and support to those with whom they come in contact with?

The way a leader acts tells everyone what is most important to them. Serving others or serving themselves.