Servant Leadership
Leading by serving the team and removing obstacles
Week 4 Day 1: Servant Leadership Is Not Weakness
Servant leadership is the most misunderstood concept in management. It does not mean you serve your team's every request. It means you serve their ability to do great work....
Week 4 Day 2: The Hero Complex -- When Helping Becomes Hurting
The leader who saves the day every time is not a hero. They are a single point of failure wearing a cape....
Week 4 Day 3: You Are Not Responsible for Solving Every Problem
Your team has problems. That is normal. Your job is not to solve all of them. Your job is to make sure the right people are solving the right ones....
Week 4 Day 4: Serving Means Removing Obstacles, Not Doing the Work
The servant leader's primary question is not 'How can I help you do your job?' It is 'What is preventing you from doing your job, and how do I remove it?'...
Week 4 Day 5: When Servants Burn Out -- The Cost of Always Being Available
The servant leader who never says no does not serve anyone. They just burn slower than they realize....
Week 4 Day 6: The Difference Between a Servant Leader and a Doormat
A servant leader serves the mission through the team. A doormat serves the team's comfort at the expense of the mission. The line matters....
Week 4 Day 7: Assignment: Identify One Thing You Do That Your Team Should Own
This week's assignment: find one task you do regularly that someone on your team could and should own instead. Then hand it over -- properly....
Week 5 Day 1: Your Job Is to Make Their Job Possible
Your team does not need you to do their work. They need you to make it possible for them to do their work without fighting the organization to get it done....
Week 5 Day 2: Carrying the Load Feels Noble but Breaks Teams
The leader who carries the heaviest load is not the strongest leader. They are the leader whose team never learned to carry anything....
Week 5 Day 3: What Clearing the Path Actually Looks Like
Clearing the path is not a metaphor. It is a series of specific, boring, structural actions that make your team's work flow without friction....
Week 5 Day 4: The Three Questions: What Is Blocking You? What Do You Need? What Should I Stop Doing?
Three questions will tell you more about your effectiveness as a leader than any engagement survey ever written....
Week 5 Day 5: When the Path Is Unclear Because You Made It Unclear
Sometimes the biggest obstacle in your team's path is the ambiguity you created and never cleaned up....
Week 5 Day 6: The Leader Who Does Too Much Creates a Team That Does Too Little
Every task you take on that your team could handle is a vote of no confidence they can feel even if you never say it out loud....
Week 5 Day 7: Assignment: Ask Your Team What Is Slowing Them Down
This week's assignment: in your next one-on-one with each team member, ask one question and write down every answer. The question is: 'What is the biggest thing slowing you down right now that I could...
Week 30 Day 1: The Leader's Real Job Is Making Other People Better
Your value as a leader is not measured by what you produce. It is measured by what the people around you produce because of how you led them....
Week 30 Day 2: Multipliers vs. Diminishers -- Which One Are You?
Most diminishers do not know they are diminishing. They think they are helping by providing answers, making decisions, and driving results. The impact on the team tells a different story....
Week 30 Day 3: The Power of Asking Instead of Telling
Telling gives someone an answer. Asking gives them the ability to find answers for themselves. One solves today's problem. The other solves every future problem of the same type....
Week 30 Day 4: Building People Up Without Creating Dependency
The goal of developing someone is not to make them need you more. It is to make them need you less. Every interaction should move them one step closer to independence....
Week 30 Day 5: Teaching People to Think, Not What to Think
If your team always reaches the same conclusions you would reach, you have not developed thinkers. You have developed mirrors....
Week 30 Day 6: The Servant Leadership Mindset: Your Success Is Their Success
Servant leadership is not about being soft or passive. It is about redefining what leadership success means: you succeed when the people you lead succeed, and your job is to remove every obstacle betw...
Week 30 Day 7: Assignment: Identify One Person to Multiply This Month
This week's assignment focuses your multiplier energy on one person -- creating a deliberate development plan that moves them toward greater independence, capability, and confidence....