How do you connect servant leadership with your personal mission?

It is a huge surprise when we realise that not many leaders work on their personal mission. I strongly suggest that leaders should first and foremost develop their personal mission or purpose statements. Ken Blanchard and Susan Fowler offer a template that one can use for this. And for alignment with Servant Leadership, my thought is simple. You cannot have dual personalities when it comes to Servant Leadership. You must be a Servant Leader across all your life roles. Any misalignment will be seen, and will derail your leadership journey in many of your life roles.

Lead with purpose, serve with passion, and inspire with impact. By aligning your purpose with the principles of servant leadership, you can create a meaningful and fulfilling leadership journey. In addition to identifying your purpose, cultivating a servant leadership mindset requires a deep understanding of the needs and aspirations of those you lead. It involves active listening, empathy, and a genuine desire to support and uplift others. By putting yourself in the shoes of your followers, you can gain valuable insights into their perspectives, challenges, and goals. This understanding forms the foundation for building strong relationships and fostering a culture of trust and collaboration.

It’s hard to fake passion in any profession, be sure to have these conversations before you jump into leadership within any category. Servant leadership is all about problem solving. Problem solving becomes exponentially harder when you don’t possess passion for the subject matter.

Often we don’t pause for perspectives. We are busy. It is good to reflect on life purpose. Your north-star. It has to be bigger than you, truly audacious. It has to be what is good for others, in the highest service of others. ‘Paropakarartham idam shareeram’ (the purpose of life is to serve others), says our scriptures. Master says, ‘the purpose of life is to live a purposeful life!’

One thing that I found helpful to do with teams I work with is to facilitate a collaborative discussion around personal values. Each person selects 3 values (typically a sheet of words is shared) they feel speak to what is important about the work they do. After selecting the three, one person shares their most important value (without any additional information). Each person in succession then adds why that value is important and this continues until they get back to the person who started. They then have the last word, sharing why that value is important to them and how it connects to the work they do. This continues to the next person and so on until everyone has shared. This allows the group to build relationships around values.

Take the time to reflect on what truly matters to you and what impact you want to make in your field or community. By defining your vision, you create a roadmap that guides your actions and decisions, ensuring they align with your mission. Your vision becomes the driving force behind your creativity, innovation, and collaboration, fueling your passion and inspiring others to join your cause.

Empowering your followers involves: - Recognizing and addressing the needs, interests, and aspirations of your followers. - Helping them grow, learn, and perform to their full potential. - Creating an environment that fosters growth, collaboration, and shared purpose. - Providing necessary resources, opportunities, and autonomy for your followers to excel. - Actively involving followers in decision-making processes and valuing their perspectives. - Encouraging input, feedback, and contribution from your team members. - Cultivating a sense of ownership and shared responsibility. - Harnessing the collective potential and strengths of your team.

Coach them. Be a coach. Create a coaching culture. Empower others! It helps to learn to overcome our biases & beliefs. LeaderShip - the ‘S’ stands for service!

In my experience personal reflection, thought journalling or finding an alternative 'safe space' for ourselves to consider the intention, the action and the impact of all we do (we often act with intention but without actions or impact aligning to our initial intention) from the most DEEPLY honest place, is a core practice in understanding how we are showing up and who and what we are currently really serving. Seeking feedback from those we lead and those who observe us leading is critical as we see only through our own lens with the filter we wear. How OTHERS see us through their lens of direct and observed experience is crucial to our own development journey - carefully using non-judgement when they share, so they feel and are safe to!

Reflecting back on your success and failures often depend on KPIs or metrics you can easily track to keep focused on both good and bad trends. When you have goals or mile markers you’re able to assess your success in a much more subjective way without having personal bias.