Servant Leadership: The Lowdown

Service is all well and good, but not at your own expense.

Servant Leadership is a lovely concept. It positions you as someone who is committed to the growth and development of others; it marks you out as a facilitator of greatness. It speaks to valuing social justice. But is it as noble as it sounds?

Robert K Greenleaf is cited as the ‘founder’ of servant leadership, and his definition encompasses the idea that rather than believing workers exist to serve the leader, the leader exists to serve the people. What is often forgotten about Greenleaf’s work is that he believes servant leaders have to first work on their own mindset and grow as people, so that they can better serve those around them. Over the years, the concept of servant leadership has mutated so that it is more closely associated with leaders putting everyone else first.

You probably know what I am going to say. Putting others first is a wonderful thing, but if done without due regard to your own needs, it can be a terrible barrier to progression.

I know this because I called myself a servant leader for many years, and only understood it on a superficial level. In practice, I made myself busy giving everything to my teams (to the detriment of their development) and skating on the edge of burnout. I rescued, swooping in to save those who were drowning. I had a hero complex that now, looking back, was unhealthy. If they needed me, if they looked to me for the answers, it meant that I could be of service.

What I didn’t do was think about my own development. I didn’t attend any training for my own needs for years. There is a gap between 2008 and 2017 in terms of my own continuing professional development. What kept me from the courses and the coaching that would have helped me grow as a leader?

Quite simply, I didn’t think I was that important.

Global majority staff often come from communities where service is valued. We look to our leaders, people such as Mahatma Gandhi, as a shining example of sacrifice for the greater good, and see his asceticism as a model for how we should operate. Our own needs are an indulgence to be rejected.

Is it any surprise that the years between 2008 and 2017 were my most stagnant?

When I finally recognised that I could not be of service to anyone if I was static, I started looking to my own development needs. Within two years, I had completed a Lead Practitioner course and achieved my NPQH (National Professional Qualification for Headship). It felt like I was breathing again. I had new skills with which I could support others. My mindset had changed, and I moved into a new space as a leader.

Self-development requires self-advocacy. But sometimes it also needs people around you to give you nudge and to help you look up from the service tasks you are completing diligently. I was lucky to have people in my life who were surprised that I hadn’t engaged in any self-development for years. While I didn’t need their permission to do something differently, their coaching meant that I saw the gaps I had created in my own resumé and how that could be seen as a sign of a leader that isn’t willing to grow.

The lowdown is this: you can’t serve anyone if you are not serving yourself. As RuPaul (a leadership icon!) quite rightly says: “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you going to be able to love anyone else?”.

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