Servant Leadership

My buddy Stuart Crawford writes in his morning blog today about the leadership triangle. It has been a while since I read, studied and taught the lessons on leadership that are brought to light by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges in their book "Lead Like Jesus". I taught their material to several groups a couple years ago and found it to be very valuable and so very true. Our church has hosted their simulcast a couple times and they have announced the event for the fall of 2008 to be held on October 17 and broadcast all over the country. I would encourage you to mark that day and try to join a simulcast somewhere in your region. Ken Blanchard teaches much about the concept of servant leadership. I had the discussion yesterday with one of my sales people as he shared the success he was having by serving customers rather than trying to first see what he can get from them. He shared a story of how he followed the principles of giving (as I shared a few weeks ago from the great little book called "Go Giver") and made sure he provided far more value to a former customer (who had decided to purchase a solution from a competitor who failed to implement it correctly) than this customer deserved. We have won back this customer and will make far more money cleaning up the mess than our original proposal, plus we will have them for life now. When we serve and give to people, we will succeed. Sure some will take advantage of us and take all they can. But most will appreciate our honest desire to serve and give, and they will then become customers or actually transform to be clients for life. My definition of a client is one who no longer is looking around to be sure he is being treated well. Servant leadership and living the giving principle will make that transformation happen sooner than later. It always works. We will succeed based on how well we learn to serve others and give what we have been given. Life is not at all about how much we can accumulate. It is about how well we take care of what we have recieved and then give it away. Are you a servant leader? Are your customers and clients at the top of your upside down triangle. Believe it or not, life is not about you or me. It is about others. We need to lead and live like that!