Seeing servant leadership in action or having examples of what it looks like is one of the best ways to further understand what servant leadership is. Leadership is driven from individuals, but when you build a culture of servant leadership,

Many people assume when they hear the term servant leadership that it must be a weaker form of being a leader. Unfortunately, leadership I soften misunderstood or used synonymously with ‘in charge.’

The idea and term of servant leadership is becoming more prevalent in discussions around styles and types of leaders. But many people may still not know what servant leadership really is. Over the course of the next several articles I am going to explore this subject and share my thoughts and insights into my own learning on this skillset of a leader.

Many people are afraid to start in one direction, only to find they need to go in another, so they stand still. “I better stay here for just a little longer while I get this completely resolved in my mind”, might be what they are saying to themselves. Just getting started is 80% of the battle.

Change management is a difficult thing. Asking people to do different things, some of which may feel uncomfortable in the sense that it is new or an activity they have never done before is one of the most challenging things a leader is asked to do. It can, however, be a rewarding and satisfying experience.

Every organization needs a way to identify and develop talent for the long-term. One of the best examples of how this works is in baseball. Professional baseball teams have development league teams, commonly referred to as ‘Farm Teams.’ These are teams that play at lower levels than what we know as the ‘Major League.’

A while back I wrote [Culture is What You Do, Not Something That You Create in a Day] pointing out that culture is always there, the summation of the behaviors of everyone in your organization. That is what defines your culture, not what you espouse it to be.

Motivation is perhaps one of the most significant outcomes a leader can create. Motivation is not a result; it is the creation of an environment that encourages others to be engaged.

It would not be difficult to find several people defining delegation as shifting stuff you don’t want to do to other people. And in some cases that may be true, however, there is so much more to delegation when it is done effectively.

Delegation. Few leaders will come right out and say they don't know how or that they don't have much experience with it. And the longer they have been in a leadership role, the more difficult that becomes. The truth is, delegation is hard. It takes practice.

Engagement is more than a buzzword, it is an output of effective leadership. If we were to simplify that thought process, we might be able to make a more significant impact on those we serve. There is no shortage of information related to the subject of engagement.

Calendar applications are one of those things that tend to be a personal choice. Most of the calendar apps essentially do the same thing - keep track of your daily appointments. Whether you have many meetings each day or just the occasional scheduled session, having a single place to keep track of that information is necessary.

Creating an outstanding customer experience should be the goal of every retail leader. Over the past decade, voice of the customer type surveys have continued to gain in popularity. I would wager that nearly every major retailer has some level of customer satisfaction measure within their business.