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So with one of the job opportunities I have been pursuing recently, I had an interesting follow-up conversation with the recruiter after interviews with several of the executives.  The conversation stemmed from a question one of the executives asked me, and my subsequent response.  Basically it went something like this …

EXECUTIVE: So, if [COMPANY] were to hire you, what would we be getting?  Who are you as a leader?

ME: Fortunately, I was challenged not too long ago by a prior President to define my leadership choices, and would be happy to send you a link to my blog where I fully explain my position.  But to summarize, I would say I am a servant leader.

I wouldn’t learn the executive’s response to this answer until a later conversation with the recruiter where she shared he had said “I didn’t know what that meant.” 

I was affected by this executive’s response, and it took some time to sort through why.  What helped was a LinkedIn Learning session a connection of mine recently completed – Ken Blanchard on Servant Leadership. As I have long said, pay attention to when coincidences converge.

If you were to type in Servant Leadership on the search of this blog, you will find many postings covering the topic.  But the learning session helps to boil down some of the points and explains it perhaps a bit differently. Here are some of the salient points I captured, but I highly recommend you check out the ~25min session for yourself!

  • Great results AND great human satisfaction come from great servant leaders
  • Servant leadership is about the people you are serving, it starts with your heart “who are you as human being” – [PH Comments] I’ve had many posts on purpose, values, etc … this one is perhaps my favorite
  • Are you here to serve, or be served? Are you seeking success, or significance? If you focus on success, you’ll never reach significance … if you focus on significance, you’ll reach success
  • Gordon McDonald – people are either called or driven. Driven people think they own/control everything. Called people understand everything is on loan, they are here to serve with their time, talent, treasure and touch (reaching out to people).
  • 2 parts to servant leadership –
    • 1) Strategic Part – clearly articulating vision, direction, goals [PH Comments] – lots of posts on Vision in this blog as well
    • 2) Empower employees [PH Comment] – love the “are you a duck or an eagle?” comment
  • Profit is the applause you get when creating a motivating environment for your people so they take care of your customers

Perhaps my favorite part of the learning session was the Monopoly example and the analogy of “everything goes back in the box”.  For me, this sums up everything … at the end of the day I want my success to be measured not by material means, but rather by what I’ve contributed and perhaps the legacy left behind.  My material possessions ultimately will go “back in the box”, hopefully my other contributions will be treasured.

By the way, I didn’t end up getting the position with this company. But the recruiter did share when she explained Servant Leadership to the executive, he did respond “Oh, that is the type of leader we want.” So perhaps this was the positive contribution I can walk away with!