How to Empower Yourself to Be a Servant Leader Today

The concept of servant leadership can be challenging to comprehend, especially when leaders need to be both assertive and a servant at the same time to lead effectively. Additionally, the extreme popularity of some “charismatic leadership” examples such as Elon Musk and Steve Jobs can make one wonder if it’s possible to lead by serving in a real-life work setting.

If you’ve any interest in the concept of servant leadership, you may already know that a servant leader puts the well-being and growth of their team first, and that they help their organizations by bringing out the best in their teams and helping each team member reach their optimal performance. However, despite reading multiple definitions, servant leadership might still be an abstract concept for you. This is why I suggest you focus on a simple question over another definition.

"How can I help?"

If I had to summarize the concept of servant leadership in a single sentence, it would be a short question because nothing gives you the spirit of servant leadership better than their willingness to ask “How can I help?” and take action accordingly.

When I first started training other accountants on leadership and business strategy, I was really uncomfortable with being assertive. I eventually realized that this wasn’t about me and my discomfort. I was there to teach and this was about helping people learn as much as they can. Once I understood I wasn’t helping anyone by not being assertive, I found a way to be assertive in the classroom and teach better.

Realizing it’s not about you but those that you’re meant to help will get you better employee and client satisfaction and retention and by doing that you can create sustainable value for your organization. Here are some ways to help you become a servant leader so that you can make your people’s lives better and create long-term value.

Understand the Strategy

Putting the well-being and growth of your team and customers first does not mean strategic objectives are less important for a servant leader. You should understand how your organization is implementing strategy at corporate, business and operational levels, as well as your organization’s mission and vision. That way you can help your team reach their goals and KPI’s?by explaining the strategy at the team level so that they can advance in their career.

Growth Mindset

People have an amazing capacity for change and growth when they are both willing to and believe that they are capable of change. Have faith that most people can change for the better. If you see the capacity for growth in your team members, show them you believe in them. The same applies to you. You also have the capacity to be a good leader. Have faith in yourself that you can help your people grow.

Effective Communication: Listen with intention

Humans want to be heard and seen. Even though most of us start crafting a message as soon as we hear the word “communication”, communication starts with listening. What’s not being said and body language can be as important as what’s being said. To be a better servant leader, listen with the intention of understanding the needs of people. The more you listen intentionally, the more people will engage with you which will allow you to grow deeper relationships with your team members.

Integrity & Authenticity: Building trust

Actions do speak louder than words. You can share your values at every team meeting if you want to but do you embody your values? Are you true to who you say you’re? Build trust in your team by building trust within yourself. Knowing what you actually value and behaving accordingly will help you build and sustain trust. Trust-based relationships will allow people to be more transparent with you and you’ll get to know them better which will allow you to serve them better.

Delegate to empower

Servant leaders are great at retaining talented employees because they empower them. To empower team members delegate not only tasks but also some decision-making processes that will allow them to use their strengths but also work on at least one area of improvement. Use delegation as an opportunity to prepare them for future roles. Set clear expectations to minimize confusion and carefully assess if training is needed before delegation.

Actionable Feedback

Provide actionable feedback to your team members. Don’t give feedback for the sake of giving feedback. Even the most constructive feedback can be confusing and bring down morale if the person receiving it can’t understand how to improve on it. Give feedback immediately and with the purpose of helping the growth of the team member. Explain how they can get better in actionable steps, and explain why and how this will help them be a better team member. Also get regular feedback from your team and ask them to give you examples of the actions you could take to improve.

Take action to be a servant leader for your team today.

Leadership comes with it's struggles. When you struggle with leading your team, remember that the spirit of servant leadership can be captured in a simple question: "How can I help?"?and remember this isn’t about you but about the positive impact that you can create. There’s so much power in that single question when you’re willing to be honest with yourself and take action. Share that power with your people by leading by example and serving them.

Zeynep Mercan, ACCA is a certified accountant, tax advisor, ACCA Strategic Business Leader trainer and a coach for ACCA candidates and other young accounting professionals. Zeynep posts about business strategy, leadership, accounting and ACCA exams.

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