Written by John Carbrey.

“Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge.”

 ~Simon Sinek

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

…but not so among you. The greatest among you is the servant of all.” ~Jesus of Nazareth

According to Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton, King George, musing about President Washington’s decision to not run for president in 1797, is filled with amazement.  He sings, “They say/George Washington’s yielding his power and stepping away/‘Zat true?/I wasn’t aware that was something a person could do.”  While probably not a direct quote of King George, the disbelief he expresses at someone willingly yielding their position is likely a common thought among leaders who prize the control that accompanies their position and fear its removal. 

Washington willingly chose to trade his personal status and power for the benefit of others, namely a new nation which would carry forward a precedent and practice of peaceful, regular transitions of power. Washington told his former military secretary that he wanted to avoid seeking power as a government official and being “charged . . . with concealed ambition.”  

What Washington modeled is a version of servant leadership, a paradigm that reflects an atypical view of power. A servant leader willingly accepts the downside of a decision in order to offer upside to others, often at great cost to themselves. 

A few years ago I witnessed an electrifying call to servant leadership.  I had traveled to Guatemala with John Maxwell, a thoughtful and prolific communicator on leadership principles.  Maxwell was invited to speak to the President and his cabinet and I accompanied him to the event, a breakfast in the Presidential Palace. We sat at a large table that could fit over 100 people.  Maxwell put a challenge before these political leaders and the President specifically: to continue the fight for the heart of Guatemalan politics and put an end to corruption.  The President had been making efforts to stop corruption and the night before our gathering, one hundred police officers had arrested his son on trumped-up charges. Maxwell clearly knew and communicated that the ongoing fight could possibly cost their lives. He encouraged them to stay the course, at great cost, in order to change the soul of their country for posterity.

Never before had I heard someone so clearly speak the truth that a good and right path at the top levels of a country’s leadership could be so expensive yet so transformational.  While the fight proved to be too difficult to accomplish the shared vision of a corruption-free government, the call to willingly lay down their lives for the sake of their country moved me deeply.

Servant Leadership: A sacrifice of status-seeking

Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy that focuses on putting the needs of others first and helping them develop and perform to their fullest potential. This mindset fosters a growth hierarchy rather than a domination hierarchy, as the servant leader goes above and beyond to create value for all stakeholders, including those they lead.

Domination vs. Growth Hierarchies

What often motivates a leader is status seeking, the desire to gain recognition, power, or influence within an organization or social group. Status seeking can look like no-holds-barred competition for promotions or seeking to control resources or decision-making processes.  

In order to protect and maintain their status, a leader might use their position to coerce and control those under their authority. 

The results for subordinates can include experiences of exploitation and demeaning, as they feel they have no choice but to yield and submit for fear of losing their job or missing out on advancement opportunities.  This type of hierarchy relies on domination and creates a culture of fear and compliance.

But servant leadership offers a different way altogether, a different moral ecosystem in which growth, not domination, becomes the goal. What if, instead of a person using coercion, a leader uses love, service, and self-sacrifice to create flourishing?  See the contrast below:

Love and service often require sacrifice—a willingness to accept downside so that others experience upside.  True servant leaders understand that upside is not a finite quantity but can multiply when shared. They don’t need to fight for or leverage power to hold onto the advantages.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with striving for success or advancement, the pursuit of status and the protection of power can become a distraction from the larger goals of the organization or team. It can lead to unhealthy competition and undermine the collaborative culture that is becoming an increasingly valuable ethic in our culture.

According to Tony Schwartz, author of The Way We Work Isn’t Working, leaders who  foster a growth culture can unleash an “unlimited” amount of energy towards solving problems, overcoming failure—in general, building capacity to create value.

This principle bears out. A Harvard  Business Review article citing research that links  character traits to return on assets reveals that companies whose CEOs receive high marks from their employees on integrity, responsibility, forgiveness, and compassion experience returns on assets nearly five times higher than those CEOs who receive low character ratings. It turns out that “self-focused” leaders (in the terms of the research) are bad for business.

Servant leadership is more than just a trade off of who’s in power – it’s an inverted pyramid of power in which a multitude can benefit.  In the coming series of articles we will explore different aspects of servant leadership.