Is there trust within your organization? Do you feel respect and transparency from your peers and above? If not, you are no stranger to the effects of an uncommunicative, unreliable team. Based on a study done by Edelman, a “Trust Barometer” indicates that one in three people do not trust their employers. In the same study, it’s found that trust decreases the higher the position within the company. This highlights that individuals are more likely to trust their peers than their C-Suite executives. Unfortunately, the higher your position, the importance of trust becomes more salient. So the que ..read more

Creating teams able to achieve the remarkable takes a special leader. These leaders look for and find qualities in people that others overlook.   Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash  Leaders bring out the best in their people. The leader's responsibility doesn’t stop with selecting new team members. Instead, the selection is where our commitment begins. Activating the full value of team members requires the discovery of their latent abilities. It becomes our job to enable our people to thrive. We do this through varying assignments, exploration of strengths, and focused lea ..read more

These phrases are not particularly egregious but for the servant leader, these phrases unduly complicate conversations and take away opportunities to build trust.  Omit these phrases from your vocabulary and elevate your servant leadership path.      1. “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way” Words matter, and the aspiring servant leader understands that hearers hang on every word, especially when feedback is being provided. To lead in with the “...don’t take this the wrong way” statement sets up a negative expectation and a defensive reaction. The natural response is ..read more

Inspired by The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek Servant Leadership is consistently seen as a weak style of leadership where a leader caters to the people he or she works with, is overtly nice, and lacks the strength to make the critical decisions when needed. In his book The Infinite Game, however, Simon Sinek speaks to a mentality that coincides with the core tenets of servant leadership and shows that the principles of servant leadership are the ones that allow for organizations, businesses, and people to succeed in their endeavors. Although his book is not directly about servant leadership, Si ..read more

Millennials have taken over the workplace. In 2020, the millennial generation accounted for more than half of the American working population. This is not an easy place to be. As a young individual entering the workforce, you’re trying to not only learn the ropes in your industry, you’re also figuring out who you are as an individual. Younger millennials, like me, are finding themselves in this stage of their lives. They’re branching out, finding new approaches to teamwork and leadership. For me, all signs point to servant leadership.     When I first started studying servant leader ..read more

As a society, we have found a way to become resilient with work. Most have figured out a way to shift their operations to become a partially or fully teleworked entity. They still employ people, provide products and services, and keep their organizations afloat. However, our country is in an unprecedented mental health crisis. A federal emergency hotline for people in emotional distress registered a more than 1,000 percent increase in April 2020 compared with the same time last year. In that same month, roughly 20,000 people texted a hotline run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service ..read more

As a business coach and salon owner, every single time that a company or person brings me a challenge, the answer always comes back to their foundation of culture. Culture is a sustainable environment for suitable growth. A lot of times, people look at the word “culture” and think it’s just a buzzword. They think “culture, culture, culture”, that’s all I need to have. However, they then forget about processes and procedures; they forget about their bottom line. Yet, those who are only focused on the bottom line say, “I don’t care about the culture, as long as I make money.”  If you forget ..read more

More than ever, it has become more evident that a servant leader is the kind of leader needed to help navigate this pandemic we are facing. Facts are that no one has the experience to lead others through what we are dealing with currently. Leaders are experiencing the loneliness, frustration, and anxiety that all others feel and the unknowns around the corner.  It seems as though what is needed is the kind of leader that leads with compassion and understanding. Since so many are disconnected because of social distancing and a healthy fear of contracting a virus, the leader that is needed ..read more

“Can everyone hear me?” I’m sure you’ve heard this question a lot over the last six months.  What about this one: “May I share my screen?”  Video conferencing, emails, and remote working have become not only the norm, but the expectation of 2020. We’ve replaced in-person interactions and fully immersed ourselves in the online world. While adapting to this new environment, one aspect of humanity that is declining is empathy.  Empathy is the ability to understand and relate to the feelings of others. Specifically in business, empathy is an aspect of emotional comprehension, a stap ..read more

I think I have a good grasp of what it is to be a servant leader. I am a good person, honest and well-intended, but I know my journey is far from complete and there is more work to do. How do I know this? I thought about my thinking. I realized that my tally of thoughts was often more about my experience, my perception, and my objectives than the other person’s. Was this reducing my effectiveness as a servant leader? Of course, it was! So, I needed to shift and eventually got clarity on what now seems so obvious. The shift was awkward at first, but soon felt natural. It made communication so m ..read more