How To Serve While You Lead – A Story

Written by: Santarvis Brown, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

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Servant leadership is becoming a more popular style of leadership as a new generation of leaders begins to emerge. However, the question I most often hear on the topic is How do I serve and lead at the same time? I think the reason that this question is so common is based on our understanding of both. After all, when we think of the word “leadership” we think of someone on the top rung of a ladder. And when we think of “serving” we think of someone near the bottom rung of the ladder. So, how do we merge these two seemingly opposing forces into an effective leadership style?

To be as simple as I can, leading while serving is simply providing the tools and resources for your team to succeed. It means allowing your workforce to develop their own ideas and efficiencies. It means developing and promoting from within. Sounds like leadership, doesn’t it? It certainly sounds like leadership to me. But that is not how everyone thinks. In fact, I recall a story I recently heard from a middle-manager at a production company.

I was supervising a production line at a company. It was running fast. Too fast for the employees to keep up, but that’s what the business demanded. So, I was helping to load, unload and jumping in where I could. My manager saw me and pulled me aside. He told me that I shouldn’t be working, I was the supervisor. He literally said my job was to stand in front of my employees with my arms crossed and pushing them to work faster. He said that my presence should move them to work faster. How crazy is that? Well, I couldn’t do it and as I was trying to set my employees up to keep up, one of them said to me, “You know. If you slow the line down, then there wouldn’t be as much waste at the end of the line. Without so much waste we’d be producing a lot more product than we are now. And it worked! We flipped ten-percent of our waste to good product.

Those are the moments that I realize that jumping in may not be effective. Had that leader stood there, arms crossed, I doubt his employees would have been comfortable making suggestions. That leader also showed that he trusted his employees by implementing the suggestion. He implemented the suggestion even after the business leadership was pushing for a faster pace. This leader understood that the people on the line were the ones whose input was most important.

There are many ways to serve while you lead. In this real-life scenario, this leader used listening as his approach. While this servant leader hustled to provide the physical resources, he thought his team could use. It was an intangible resource that saved the day and saved the company a lot of money. This servant leader listened. But more importantly, this servant leader showed himself as approachable.

Focus on establishing yourself as an approachable leader, and your team will approach you with solutions. Establish yourself as unapproachable and you’ll find leadership to me a very lonely and ineffective place.

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Santarvis Brown, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dr. Santarvis Brown has spent 15+ years serving as a leader, innovator, and changemaker in education, showcasing in-depth insight as an administrator, educator, and program director. A noted speaker, researcher, and full professor, he has lent his speaking talent to many community and educational forums, serving as a keynote speaker. He has also penned several publications tackling issues in civic service, faith, leadership, and education.