How can you celebrate success in a Servant Leadership context?

What does Success look like as a Servant Leader? Success is when team members are ready to take on the next level of leadership. Success is when you (the leader) become less so that team members can become more. Success is when your team members are selflessly supporting their team as well as the organization as a whole. Servant Leadership is just that...serving, supporting, encouraging your team members to become selfless leaders ready to take on and exemplify Servant Leadership.

I'd like to think that I've embodied the "Servant Leadership" effort in my mentoring/coaching of those served. My best moments of celebrating success focus on acknowledging and uplifting the achievements made. It's a selfless act, whereby I've directed attention and recognition towards the individual/team - emphasizing their growth, contributions, and development. This approach reinforces my commitment to creating an environment where others are empowered to succeed.

The most effective leaders recognize, acknowledge, and promote the talent of others. "Ego Get Behind Me"- a motto I lead by and value- will foster a healthy, happy, and productive work environment. When we provide space for growth, creativity, and innovation, while amplifying the voices of all members of any team- success is in guaranteed!

Whether recognizing an individual or coaching them for improvement, smaller and more frequent doses of feedback are key to the recognition (or coaching) making an impact. Additionally, servant leaders don't wait for a project/task to be completed to appreciate and recognize progress. A great servant leader cheers the "first downs" and not just the "touchdowns".

A servant leader elevates others. When celebrating a team member's success, I will email the individual and recognize, very specifically, their contribution. Depending on the contribution and its impact, I will also include (carbon copy) my boss or the CEO on the email distribution. (Note: Before doing this, I speak with my boss or the CEO so that they know the criteria for including them in the distribution, as well as encourage them to piggyback onto my email by replying with their "appreciation".)

How do you focus on the process? Once a plan is in place to achieve goals. We seldom review the process because the busyness of day-to-day activities the goals are prioritized. The process in return becomes a shadow of yesterday. Recently I was reminded how times of quietness and reflection are invaluable. These times help to recenter, consider, and plan our efforts. We, leaders, too often get carried away to achieve results and only visit processes when something goes awry. We must have the time away from the daily noise so that we can make adjustments so that the process can continue to align with the goals. Agility is a key for success. We must focus on processes in order to remain agile enough to reach our goals.

Impact! Impact! Impact! … this is where the magic happens. The success of Servant leadership starts and ends with the lessons the journey teaches us. In addition, the lessons we encounter along the way can fuel the impact and the outcomes. The things we face in the journey help us understand our people, our communities, and the problems that must be solved. Then we must ask ourselves, What did we learn? Did we accomplish what we set out to do? Are we better for it by going down this path? If the answer is “Yes,” it’s a win-win for both sides.

In sharing your story, include your failures and mistakes. This not only keeps you humble, but it keeps you in touch with the people who look up to you. No one is perfect. Some of our greatest lessons come after mistakes. Extend grace to yourself by acknowledging you can both fail and succeed when serving others, then be open and vulnerable to sharing strategically that message was others.

The Servant Leader is always looking for ways to inspire others. To focus on the well-being of employees or individuals they aspire to lead and inspire to make a difference in their lives. The needs of others is the number one priority of the Servant Leader. Working together the Servant Leader and members of the organization or group set goals to take the organization to the next level.

Servant Leaders are role models. As they achieve success in growing talent they show what success looks like when a leader is not afraid to ensure the team they lead is successful in achieving not just organizational goals but also personal and professional ones. When organizations celebrate these successes it inspires others other leaders to self reflect and lead by example as servant leaders.

Servant Leadership is all about serving your people & community. The role of a servant leader is to create opportunities for others, facilitate their growth, mentoring & providing guidance. This person serves as the guiding light towards the path of success. Such a person won’t take credit when things are achieved. Infact, they will give credit to their team for the performance. If things go wrong, this person takes the responsibility & ownership. They create an environment for their team to thrive, constantly engaging with them, soliciting feedback and promoting an effective communication culture.

Servant leaders are “growers AND exporters of talent”. Servant leaders never hoard or prevent their talented team members from advancing. A key measurement of servant leaders is the # of their team members that advance/promote into positions of greater responsibility.

One of the key ways servant leaders recognize others is by providing additional training & and developmental time with the individual. Additionally, I will ensure that the individual has a robust career development plan and will make supporting and executing the plan a priority.