Servant Leadership Practices

The best leaders don't do it for power. They serve their team first and foremost. That's what Robert Greenleaf meant when he coined the term "Servant Leadership" in 1970. He described a leader that works to support their team and not control them. I didn't know Greenleaf when I started HomeServe. But looking back, the times we grew fastest were the times I stopped trying to control everything and started clearing the path for others. Here's what I've learned about servant leadership after 30+ years scaling a business to £4.1bn. Traditional leaders:  - Talk more than listens. - Keep information close.  - See leadership as power.  - Focus on control and authority.  - Measure success by personal results. Servant leaders do the opposite:  - Share knowledge freely.  - Listen first, speak last.  - See leadership as responsibility.  - Measure success by team growth.  - Focus on support and development. This matters a whole lot when you're trying to scale. There are three traits that define a servant leader. 1. Empathy Get out of the office and spend time where the real work happens. Know your people as individuals, what drives them and what drains them. 2. Humble Admit when you've got something wrong. It earns more trust. Share the praise, take the blame, and move on quickly. 3. Collaborative. Recruit and develop people who can run things better than you can. Treat mentoring and training as seriously as sales and marketing. At HomeServe, I hired people smarter than me and gave them autonomy. I set clear goals, then got out of the way. If you want to become a servant leader, here's how to start. 1. Spend a day each month on the frontline.  See what's slowing people down and sort it fast. 2. Start every one-to-one with their agenda, not yours.  Ask "What's on your mind and what can I do to help?" 3. Explain the why behind every big decision.  People commit more when they understand the reason. 4. Give praise in public, negative feedback in private.  Recognition lifts confidence. Correction works best one-to-one. 5. Let others make decisions and back them fully.  Trust builds faster through action than through speeches. 6. End every meeting thinking about, "Who needs my help next?"  Then act on it, because leadership is service in motion. The real job of a CEO isn't to be the smartest person in the room. It's to make sure your people have what they need to succeed. That's how you build billion-pound businesses.  Not by doing everything yourself. But by serving the people who do the work. Share one way you serve your team and why.  I'd like to know how you approach leadership. ♻️ Repost to share with other leaders in your network.  And for more on how to lead billion-pound businesses,  Follow me Richard Harpin. 

Last week, I promised to answer your top questions about leadership in the age of AI. So, here goes! I’ll start with a foundational topic: What mindset shifts do leaders need to make during times of huge change? For me, it comes down to this — we need to go from being “map readers” to “explorers.” Map-readers rely on past routes and like knowing the destination. Explorers enjoy shifting terrain and thrive in not knowing the destination. They run experiments, stay close to the work and their teams, and earn trust by being present and being human.  They succeed because they are curious enough to learn. “Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit.” – Frank Borman (Apollo 8 astronaut) Minimize change → Ride the change Why it matters Change is not a phase. “Back to normal” isn't coming. Success is building resilience and helping teams thrive in turbulence. The mindset sets the tone: it has to be “let’s do this” versus “oh no, change”. What should leaders do Communicate with clarity relentlessly - what’s known, what’s unknown, and how you are making decisions. Make calls with incomplete information: run tests, adjust fast.    2. Certainty mindset → Scientist mindset Why it matters When so much is changing, doing what worked before won’t work. A scientist mindset means you have curiosity over certainty. You look for reasons you might be wrong, not just reasons you must be right and you surround yourself with people who challenge you. What should leaders do Set hypotheses and run experiments (more about this next week). Iterate, and learn as much from being wrong as from being right. Be a “learn-it-all,” not a “know-it-all.” 3. Manage from above → Get close to work Why it matters When you are exploring new paths, you need to stay close to the ground. You need to be a master of your craft Managing with decks and dashboards is not enough. What should leaders do Write prompts, embed within your team, get close to your team's processes. Triangulate with feedback from customers, partners and team members and don't rely on filtered reports. 4. Drive with control → Enable with context Why it matters The simple definition of context: it is what enables great work. Humans and AI both need it to deliver. It is the shared frame that makes the next action obvious and lets teams move with confidence and speed. What should leaders do Start with the “why” and “why now” behind strategies, pivots and decisions. Communicate it on repeat. Don’t dilute the message as it cascades down. Own it. 5. Me → We Why it matters No single leader can solve challenges alone, and being a lone explorer will lead to burnout. Choosing “we over me” puts team wins ahead of ego. And that’s how we win. What should leaders do Stay humble and recognize you may not have all the answers. Listen deeply across the business. Coach and help others grow. Let’s keep the conversation going in the comments, and I’ll share my second post in this series next week.

“To lead people, walk behind them.” - Lao Tzu That’s the essence of Servant Leadership. ❌ Outdated Playbook → Top-down orders → Control masked as clarity → Success that drains the spirit ✅ Modern Leadership Reset → Listen with intent → Serve with strength → Build beyond ego And this isn’t just philosophy. It’s research-backed: ➡️ Gallup found that teams led by Servant Leaders show up with 6x more commitment. ➡️ Stanford research shows traditional leaders last 4.2 years on average - Servant Leaders? 11.5 years. Because power over people is fleeting. But power with people is legacy work. Here’s your Servant Leadership Framework: 🌱 Listen with intelligence 10-minute daily syncs - hear tone, not just tasks End meetings with: “What do you need most right now?” Use silence as a leadership tool 🌱 Grow people before metrics Assign stretch projects with reflection rituals Build personalized growth maps, not just KPIs Create space for failure without fear 🌱 Lead from the back, not the front Share credit, absorb heat Spotlight small wins weekly Keep a “Team Wins” wall (physical or virtual) 🌱 Clear roadblocks, not just give direction Audit your calendar - what can you remove for them? Replace hierarchy with access Create “autonomy lanes” for faster decisions 🌱 Model transparency, not perfection Open up strategic decisions to feedback Share behind-the-scenes thinking Invite reverse mentoring Leadership isn’t a title. It’s a daily conscious choice - to listen, to serve, to multiply others. And the return? → Resilient teams → Resilient cultures → Results that endure 👇 What’s one way you’ve seen servant leadership role-modeled? 📚 Explore more in my book The Conscious Choice ♻️ Repost to rehumanize leadership 🔔 Follow Bhavna Toor for more insights on Conscious Leadership

Most leaders aren’t destroyed by others. They’re destroyed by themselves. Here is why? They think success is about being strategically brilliant... or experts in their field... And then they fail due to missing self-awareness. Years ago, I worked with a strong executive. Sharp mind. Strong resume. Great results on paper. But his team didn’t trust him. They gave minimal input. They avoided him in meetings. He thought it was all about them - laziness, lack of ambition, wrong culture fit. He couldn’t see that the problem was him, with his dismissive, reactive, and self-centered behaviour. That's when I saw how easily success blinds us. How quickly ego blocks awareness. And how fast people stop telling you the truth when you rise. My learning until today: Self-awareness is the foundation of leadership. Without it, every other skill is wasted. Here are 10 principles to build it daily: 1️⃣ Ask for brutal feedback Don’t fish for praise, invite truth. Growth begins where comfort ends. 2️⃣ Watch your impact, not just intent Good intentions can still hurt. Measure how others experience you. 3️⃣ Listen beyond words What’s unsaid is often more important. Pay attention to body language and silence. 4️⃣ Spot your triggers Stress exposes blind spots. Know what sets you off before it controls you. 5️⃣ Separate ego from role You are not your title. People follow authenticity, not hierarchy. 6️⃣ Reflect daily 5 minutes of honest reflection beats 5 hours of excuses. Ask: “How did I show up today?” 7️⃣ Own mistakes fast Excuses destroy trust. Admission builds it. 8️⃣ Notice recurring feedback If three people tell you the same thing - it’s not coincidence. It’s your blind spot showing. 9️⃣ Test your assumptions “I think they’re fine” is not a fact. Validate before acting. 🔟 Grow with humility Leaders who think they’ve arrived stop learning. Stay curious, stay open. When leaders master self-awareness, people stop working for you and start working with you. Because self-awareness builds trust - and trust builds everything else. Remember: You can’t lead others if you can’t lead yourself. The mirror is the hardest tool in leadership. Self-awareness isn’t soft. It’s the sharpest edge you can have. ‐---‐------------------------------- ♻️ Repost this to support your network. 🔔 Follow me (Simon Koerner) for more valuable content on leadership, culture and growth.

Stop guessing your next move—let a Personal Development Plan guide your progress. A while back, I mentored a professional named Rahul, who felt he was being repeatedly overlooked for promotions. We conducted a competency mapping session and discovered a key gap in his ability to work cross-functionally and lead diverse teams. 🧩 Rather than feeling discouraged, Rahul saw this as an opportunity. We built a Personal Development Plan (PDP) to close those gaps. By enrolling in relevant courses and taking on cross-departmental projects, Rahul not only improved his skills but also earned the promotion he had been aiming for. 👉 What is a Personal Development Plan (PDP)? A PDP is a roadmap for your career growth, detailing the specific skills you need to develop to advance in your role. Here are the Key Sections every PDP should include: 💢Self-Assessment: Identify your current strengths and areas for improvement based on feedback or a competency mapping session. 💢Goal Setting: Set clear, measurable goals for what you want to achieve in your career (e.g., leadership skills, cross-functional collaboration). 💢Action Plan: Outline the steps you’ll take to close the gaps, such as enrolling in courses, seeking mentorship, or participating in projects. 💢Timeline: Assign deadlines to each action item to track your progress and stay on course. 💢Evaluation: Regularly assess your progress through self-reflection or feedback from peers and supervisors. 💡 Key Action Points: ⚜️Use competency mapping to identify specific skill gaps. ⚜️Develop a Personal Development Plan to close those gaps. ⚜️Engage in practical experiences like cross-functional projects or targeted training. Feeling stuck in your career? Start building your personal development plan today and tackle those skill gaps head-on! #CareerDevelopment #SkillGaps #PersonalDevelopmentPlan #LeadershipSkills #CompetencyMapping #ProfessionalGrowth

A high performer gets promoted to lead a team. They’re exceptional at what they do, but soon realize that what made them successful isn’t enough to make their team thrive. Familiar story? Because team leadership isn’t just a new role. It requires a whole new mindset. That’s why when I work with leadership teams, I focus not just on what leaders do, but on how they think. Because inclusive leadership doesn’t live in 0:1 decisions. It lives on a spectrum. A space of conscious choices between: 🧠 Directive → Co-Creative From “I’ll just decide, it’s faster” → to “What’s the best way to include the team in this decision?” 🧠 Protective → Brave From “I’ll shield the team from hard truths” → to “I’ll create space where we can face them together.” 🧠 Extractive → Generative From “We already know what works, let’s move quickly” → to “What could we learn if we invited in different voices?” 🧠 Fragmented → Coherent From ““Each person on my team is doing their job well" → to “How do we connect this into one aligned direction?” These shifts unlock high performance and psychological safety and with it, the full potential of your team and organization. P.S.: Which mindset shift is most alive for you right now? --------------------------------- 👋 New here? Welcome! I'm Susanna. I help organizations with high-performing, inclusive leadership and culture by fostering psychological safety.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less. That was a line from my pastor’s sermon yesterday. How often do we confuse humility with self-deprecation? We might think that to be humble means downplaying our strengths or avoiding acknowledgement of what we do well. That is not humility. That is unnecessarily making ourselves small. I was told many times as a child not to brag or boast, but that was taken to the extreme, where I was reminded of all the things I did wrong or fell short in. My accomplishments were not recognised. It was more about what else I could have done better. This is the common approach of Asian parenting in my days. I don't fault my parents on this. They were parented that way, and this was the only way they knew how to parent then. For the longest time, I thought humility was not thinking highly of yourself. It is to think less of yourself compared to everyone else. I've learnt that that is not what humility really means, and listening to my pastor's sermon reminded me of the true meaning of humility. True humility is quiet confidence. It’s knowing your worth, yet choosing to focus your attention outward, on others, on service, on growth. My pastor also reminded us to value every role, whether we’re leading from the front or supporting from behind the scenes. Every contribution matters. Every act of service has meaning. As a coach, I see this distinction come alive in my sessions. Many of my introverted clients hesitate to take up space because they have been told humility means staying in the background. When we explore this deeper, they often realise that genuine humility is about presence, not absence. It is about: - Owning your strengths without arrogance. - Listening deeply without losing your voice. - Valuing your role, whatever it may be, and giving your best to it. In coaching, we hold that same paradox. We are fully present, yet not the centre of the conversation. Our role is to create a space where others can shine, reflect, and grow. Perhaps that is what humility really is: being grounded in who you are, valuing your place in the bigger picture, and helping others flourish too. How do you define humility in your own life or work? #Coaching #Leadership #Introverts #PositivePsychology #FaithInAction #RiverLifeCoaching

One of the most underrated leadership skills, I believe, is seeing yourself clearly. I often tell the executives I coach that real transformation begins with self-awareness. Not the kind of “I know my strengths and weaknesses” version, but the deep, often uncomfortable clarity about how we see ourselves and how others see us. Last year, I worked with a senior leader, let’s call her Maria. Brilliant strategist, deeply committed to her team, and yet... frustrated. Her team described her as intimidating and distant. She saw herself as focused and fair. The gap between those two realities was the source of most of her stress. We used a 360-feedback tool and a practice of asking “what” instead of “why.” (As organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich’s research shows, “why” often leads to rumination and self-justification, while “what” opens the door to learning and forward movement.) Maria started asking her team questions like: - “What am I doing that makes it hard for you to speak up?” - “What could I do differently to make collaboration easier?” It was awkward at first. But over time, she noticed her team leaning in instead of shutting down. Three months later, one of her direct reports told her, “You feel more human now.” That moment captured what self-awareness really does: it humanizes leadership. Tasha Eurich’s research offers three powerful insights that I see play out regularly in coaching: (1) There are two kinds of self-awareness: internal (how clearly we see ourselves) and external (how others see us). The best leaders balance both. (2) Experience and power often erode self-awareness, because feedback gets filtered or silenced. (3) Introspection isn’t always helpful, especially when we keep asking “why.” Asking “what” keeps us moving forward. In my coaching practice, I don’t use a single “magic” tool to raise self-awareness. I use what I believe best serves the leader I am working with. Sometimes it’s structured 360 assessments. Sometimes it's a psychometric assessment. Sometimes it’s reflective writing. Often it’s simply creating a space where leaders can hear feedback without defending themselves. But always, it starts with this simple belief I hold: The ability to see ourselves clearly is the foundation of every other leadership skill. And like any skill, it can be learned, with courage, curiosity, and the willingness to ask, “What do I need to see that I’m not seeing yet?” #selfAwareness #coaching #learning #leadership #understanding #curiosity #assessments https://lnkd.in/edMhJq8s

How often do we design with people, instead of for them? It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that creativity is something only designers hold the key to. But when we pause and engage with communities, we realize something powerful: Creativity thrives within the community itself—it just needs the right conditions to flourish. Take, for example, the Collective Action Toolkit (CAT) by Frog. It’s not just a tool; it’s a framework that empowers communities to solve problems by tapping into their collective strength. Through a series of activities—like clarifying goals and imagining new ideas—small groups around the world have used this toolkit to not only share their thoughts but to take decisive action that addresses their concerns. The beauty of this approach is in its adaptability. It’s not a one-size-fits-all model. Each group can mould it to fit their unique needs, ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard and valued. But collaboration, as we know, isn’t always easy. There’s often discomfort, sometimes even conflict, when differing ideas meet. Yet, as designers, navigating these challenges is where true progress happens. As Otto Scharmer and Peter Senge, leaders in organizational development, have shown, it's in this space of tension that new solutions are born. A recent contribution from @Design Impact offers a set of guiding principles for designers to keep in mind when working with communities. One of these, “Value me for who I am, not who I’m told to be,” resonates deeply. It’s a reminder that behind every design is a real person, with history, emotions, and passions. When we acknowledge that, we move beyond simply gathering feedback—we tap into real leadership within the community. At the end of the day, Social innovation isn’t just about creating a product or service. It’s about co-creating, about building alongside communities rather than handing down solutions. It’s about fostering a space where everyone’s creativity can shine, and where long-term, sustainable change is possible. Have you been part of a design process that values community leadership? What challenges—and opportunities—did you encounter along the way?

You would never follow a general into a life or death situation if you thought they had no idea what they were doing. You would never want to play for a football coach who clearly did not understand the game. Competence matters. Competence is your ability to perform, make sound decisions, and deliver sound strategy. It’s built through study, skill, and repetition. The best leaders are relentless in improving their competence without letting expertise inflate their ego. However, competence does not earn loyalty. Humility does. Humility is your willingness to learn, listen, and admit you don’t have all the answers. It’s built through curiosity, gratitude, and perspective. After coaching leaders for more than a decade, I learned most leaders unintentionally slide too far in one direction. - High competence with low humility produces ego and makes an arrogant expert. - High humility with low competence produces ineffectiveness and a well-meaning beginner. - Low competence and low humility produces bad results and an unaware pretender. - High competence and high humility produces great results and a respected leader. Here is the tricky part. The more competent you become, the harder it is to stay humble. The more humble you remain, the easier it is to keep growing. Use this with your team. Use it to evaluate yourself. Because authority comes from competence, but loyalty comes from humility. Do you agree? #leadership #management #coaching #teamwork