Terms like “servant leadership” often take on a life of their own. What starts as a healthy, helpful approach is misunderstood or misapplied, often leading to confusing and conflicting results.
In contrast with a top-down, command-and-control approach, servant leadership tends to result in stronger teams with higher engagement, better decisions, and more positive results.
But it can be too easy for those new to servant leadership to confuse serving your team with pleasing them. Here are some traps to watch out for.
❌ Softening accountability or relaxing quality standards may let your team avoid discomfort, but it keeps them from growing and demotivates those who want to excel.
❌ Accommodating every request and preference may feel like service, but it’s not sustainable long-term, and it sets up your team for future disappointment and disillusionment. Effectively serving your team often means involving them in making hard decisions, including choosing where to say “No.”
❌ Taking on the hard tasks yourself may seem to be a generous gesture, and it’s a trap I fell into myself when I was leading software engineering teams. But our desire to shield them from current stress can be the very thing that impairs their preparation for future success.
In our attempts to avoid selfishness in our leadership, we can find ourselves moving beyond service into coddling our team, which doesn’t serve them at all. If you’d like a thinking partner to help you find the right balance to serve your team for their greatest benefit, let’s talk. Visit stevedwire.com/talk to start the conversation.
Leave a Reply