It all starts with the leaders of the organization creating a motivating environment for their people to work in. When that happens, it’s no surprise when the workers go out of their way to serve their patients—their customers. Then the patients, who are pleased with the way they are being treated, start bragging to their kids and friends about the great service they receive, and the good word gets around. The organization’s best salespeople are the customers they’re already serving. The end result of all of this good news is that the organization becomes sound financially. So often we think business is all about making money and that customers are the most important thing. But if you don’t treat your employees well and give them a reason to come to work, they aren’t going to be motivated to give excellent service to your customers, and customers who aren’t treated well have lots of other places they can go.

Don’t forget that without your people, you’re nothing. Think of your organization as a stagecoach. Upper management might be the drivers of the stagecoach, but your people are the horses—the ones who create the forward movement. If the leaders get knocked out of the stagecoach, it keeps moving. But if something happens to the horses, everything comes to a screeching halt.  So serve and help each other, and then reach out to your customers with the enthusiasm and desire and fabulous service that will make them raving fans.

When people hear the phrase servant leadership, they are often confused. They immediately conjure up thoughts of the inmates running the prison, or trying to please everyone. Others think servant leadership is only for church leaders. The problem is that they don’t understand leadership. They think you can’t lead and serve at the same time. From my experience, not only is it possible, it’s the only way over the long run to get great performance and human satisfaction. To prove my point, I’m always looking for good servant leader examples.

As an ex-basketball player and coach, I love March Madness and the NCAA basketball run. This year was especially sweet with Coach John Calipari leading his Kentucky Wildcats to the National Championship. I have known Cal since his coaching days at the University of Massachusetts. He considers me part of his “kitchen cabinet.”  What I admire most about Cal is that he is a classic servant leader. He proves season after season that you can lead and serve at the same time if you understand the three aspects of servant leadership: the servant, the steward, and the shepherd.

As a servant, Coach Cal realizes that leadership is not about him; it’s about the people he is serving. When asked how he felt about winning the championship, Cal was quick to say, “This is not about me. This is about these thirteen players. This is about the Big Blue Nation.” He always focuses on the kids and the fans who support the Wildcats.

As a steward, Coach Cal knows that he doesn’t own these kids—they are “on loan” to him to nurture, support, and help develop. Some people criticize him because a number of his players are “one and done”—they leave after their Freshman year and go straight into professional basketball. Last year, four members of his team were drafted in the first round and this year there likely will be two. He is pushing the NBA to not draft any college players until they have completed a minimum of two years of college. Whatever Coach Cal does, though, it’s all about his kids and what’s best for them and their families. If he feels a player such as Terrence Jones is not ready for the pros after one year, he encourages the player to stay—which is what Terrence did. The Terrence Jones who played in the Final Four this year was very different from the Terrence Jones who played last year. Coach Cal does whatever he can to help each player develop to his own highest level of performance.

As a shepherd, Coach Cal thinks every one of his players is important. This year’s team had six players who averaged 25 points or better in high school—in other words, they were all stars. The great gift that Coach Cal has is to get them to subvert their ego and realize that “none of us is as smart as all of us.” Different players in every game stepped up when they needed to.  Anthony Davis, who was chosen the most outstanding player in the NCAA Final Four tournament as well as being the recipient of several National Player of the Year awards, realized the importance of everyone as well. When he was interviewed after the game about what a great game he had played even though he only scored six points, he said, “Well, it’s not me. It’s these guys behind me. They led us this whole tournament. This whole game, I was struggling offensively, and I told my team, ‘Every time down, you all score the ball; I’m just going to defend and rebound.’” What a great example of everyone depending on each other.

Just think of these young people, who have learned to recognize that:

• As servants, life is not about them but about those whom they serve;
• As stewards, they don’t own anything—everything is on loan and they need to nurture and support what is given to them; and
• As shepherds, every human being is important.

These are life lessons, whether they stay in college one year, two years, or four years.

As Reid Cherner recently said in USA Today, “John Calipari persuaded teenagers to put others first, play unselfishly, and believe the whole is better than the sum of its parts. Every parent of a teen has to be in slack-jawed awe of that.”

Does servant leadership work?  You bet it does—and Coach John Calipari proves it. The result is great performance along with great human satisfaction. Not a bad outcome for a servant leader.

I love the concept that feedback is about the past and counsel is about the future. My friend Marshall Goldsmith, who is a great author, says that even when some people aren’t too excited about feedback, they are excited about what he calls “feedforward.” He has a great exercise where he has people get up and walk around the room and think about something they would like to accomplish this year. He has them go one on one with each other and ask, “Do you have any advice for me?”  They move around and meet ten or twelve people and get advice and counsel from everyone. 

Receiving counsel from others is about what lies ahead and is a tremendous opportunity to benefit from someone else’s wisdom. We can gain the most if we are open minded and guard our heart against pride and arrogance.  Over time, what we learn from the counsel of others will add to our own store of wisdom.

Work with a mentor or mentors—particularly those who are further down the road than you are. Borrow from their wisdom and experience. A mentor is someone who has “been there and done that.” One of the best ways to learn from a mentor’s experience and wisdom is to ask profound questions. You’ll be surprised what you’ll learn. For instance, ask an open-ended question such as, “What decisions in your life have made the greatest contribution to your success?” “What books have had the greatest impact in your life?” “What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far in your career?” Start making a list of profound questions such as these, and then look for opportunities to ask those questions. When you ask a profound question and listen—really listen—to the answer, that’s when the learning really soaks in. In my seminars I try to encourage more interaction by asking participants questions and then having them interact with others around them. That’s when learning really seems to come alive for everyone involved.

A commitment to pursuing wisdom will enhance your leadership—but don’t expect to become wise overnight!  Walking toward wisdom is a lifelong journey. Every step you take will enhance your growth and bring you closer to your final destiny. So decide today: I will Walk Toward Wisdom.

As are many of my books, Great Leaders Grow is an easy-to-read parable with an enduring message. If you read The Secret – What Great Leaders Know and Do, my first book with Mark Miller, you will be familiar with the characters in Great Leaders Grow. If you enjoy it, pass it around to other folks who may be able to benefit from it, and then leave a comment here to let me know what you think.  Remember, everyone is a leader and everyone needs to keep growing. Mark and I hope that Great Leaders Grow will fuel your passion to grow for the rest of your life.

Wisdom can be defined as the application of accumulated knowledge and experience. Contrary to what you might think, wisdom really has nothing to do with age. We all have known younger people who might be described as “wise beyond their years,” and many of us probably can say we know a few “old fools.” The truth is, wisdom is attained, bit by bit, throughout our lifetime. It’s always within our reach, but it must be pursued. The walk toward wisdom should include these elements:

Self Evaluation – First, slow down, look in the mirror, and be truthful with yourself. What’s working and what’s not working? What are your strengths and how can you better leverage them? What are your weaknesses and how can you minimize them? How are you adding value to your life, your organization, the world? Self evaluation isn’t easy, but it is a necessary starting point for pursuing wisdom. We all have blind spots and things we don’t know but need to learn about ourselves. Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” And even Shakespeare referred to self evaluation when he wrote, “To thine own self be true.”

Honest Feedback – Feedback helps us learn from our past. No matter how candid you try to be during your self evaluation, you’ll never be able to overcome your own bias and perspective, so you must ask others for feedback. This can be done either formally or informally. My associate Rich Case always used to say that feedback is the breakfast of champions—I love that!  So ask your colleagues at every level for honest feedback on how you have been doing. Encourage them to be frank. Ask them what you should start doing, what you should keep doing, and what you should stop doing.

A word to the wise:  Typically, even folks who are honest with their feedback will tell you only about 90 percent. Yes, they tell you the truth, but don’t always give you that last 10 percent. Both Mark Miller and I have always had a few people who care enough to tell us the whole truth by giving us that last 10 percent. It’s important to have at least a handful of these “truth tellers” in your life to keep you in check.

 Whether you are successful at getting people to give you honest feedback has a lot to do with how you react when feedback is given. One of the ways you can tell the difference between great leaders and self-serving leaders is the way they respond to feedback. Self-serving people get very protective and defensive, because they think they already know the truth, and will often “kill the messenger.” But you can always tell when someone wants to learn from feedback, because when you give that person feedback the first thing he or she will say is, “Thank you. That’s really helpful. Is there anything else I should know?” or simply, “Tell me more.” Great leaders will actually encourage the other person to give that extra 10 percent of feedback. They want to be sure they are getting everything out of that person. Self-serving leaders don’t want to hear feedback at all.

Next week I’ll talk about the last aspect of walking toward wisdom and have some final words about Great Leaders Grow.  In the meantime, I’d love it if you would leave a comment and share how you are choosing to grow as a leader, either in the workplace or at home.

The third aspect of growth we’re going to focus on is to Open Your World. It’s so easy to get into a rut, both in our work life and our home life, and just stay there. One of the greatest ways to ensure your own continual growth is to expand your mind and your life through new experiences—both at work and outside of work—that light a spark within you. Mark Miller likes to use the analogy of an artist with a palette. When an artist puts paint on the palette, he can then use that paint to create a masterpiece. As we open our world, we’re putting different colors of paint on our palette. We won’t be able to use all the colors immediately, but they are now at our disposal because we’ve had that experience or we’ve established that relationship.

What are some ways for you to open your world—and open yourself to growth—at work?

• I love the idea of having lunch with different people periodically. I have lunch with different groups or departments at our company every so often. I’m always surprised at how learning a few new things about someone can give me a whole new perspective on that person. And then I have a better connection with that person. Try it!
• Take advantage of the opportunity to lead any kind of group at work you can, whether it’s a cross-functional team working on a new company initiative or a weekly book club. Any time you lead, you learn more about being a leader.
• Shadow someone from another department or team. If you are in Finance, learn more about Marketing. If you are in Marketing, spend an hour with a person in Shipping. If you are in Shipping, hang out with someone from Human Resources. It can be eye-opening to see the view from a different side of the organization.

It’s just as important to open your world outside the workplace. A balance between interesting professional work experiences and exciting personal life experiences is essential if you are going to keep growing. This still counts as paint on your palette, because all of these experiences impact you and fuel your point of view. Here are some ideas to open your world outside work:

• Take a class at a local community college. Learn a new language or become proficient with a new type of computer software—this will add something to your resume that wasn’t there last year.
• Volunteer at church, a local Boys and Girls Club, or an animal shelter. Volunteering not only expands your mind, it can make your problems seem less important.
• Travel. It doesn’t matter where you go. Whether you take a day trip to a nearby town or plan a three-week European vacation, growth and learning can happen anywhere.
• Expose yourself to the arts. Get out of your comfort zone if you have to.  Listen to a classical music CD, attend a local play, go to an art museum, or take guitar lessons.

Remember, leaders are learners. Every time you open your world, you grow a little. Whether it be meeting with a new colleague, helping at a food bank, organizing the company picnic, or whitewater rafting with friends—you’ll be a more well-rounded person, a more interesting conversationalist, a more critical thinker, and a more confident leader. Take advantage of every opportunity to open your world and you will continue to grow as a leader for life.

In addition to Gaining Knowledge, which I talked about last time, another important move toward becoming a leader for life is to Reach Out to Others—the R in our GROW model.  One of the best ways to reinforce your own learning is to help others grow by teaching them what you have learned. This doesn’t need to be a formal situation where you facilitate a seminar or teach in a classroom. It can be as informal and friendly as a lunchtime conversation. In fact, storytelling is one of the best ways to share what you know with someone else in a memorable way.

Look for “teachable moments”—opportunities to challenge others to grow. For instance, I reach out every day by sending a voicemail to everyone in our company. My morning message usually includes something I learned while working with a client, something I read in a book, or maybe just an interesting observation that I felt like passing along.  I believe these daily messages reinforce our organizational values and also strengthen our close sense of community with each other, even though we now have team members all over the world.

If you pay attention, you might just encounter a teachable moment while you are driving your daughter to soccer practice, having a phone conversation with a colleague across the country, or grabbing a cup of coffee with some co-workers in the break room. When we share what we learn, we model self-leadership as well as personal growth. It gives us credibility to challenge others to grow.

What is something you recently learned that you could reach out and share with people in your organization?  How will you do it?

One way great leaders can grow is to gain knowledge. Gaining knowledge doesn’t happen all at once. It’s a long-term commitment you must make and then put into practice year after year.

Gaining knowledge generally comprises four elements. The first is self-knowledge. This is a matter of looking in the mirror and being aware of your own strengths and weaknesses as well as how your temperament and personality mesh with your environment.  Great leaders have a high degree of self awareness. Assessment tools such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the DiSC Profile, or Gallup’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 can help you understand what makes you tick as well as how to better relate to those around you.

Equally important is gaining knowledge of others. Spend time getting to know the folks around you at work. When you work on building relationships, you can go beyond the superficial to learn how people like to be recognized, how they prefer to communicate, who their families are, and what really matters to them. The more you know about your colleagues at every level, the more effective you can be in working with them to attain common goals.

Gaining knowledge includes learning about your industry.  Read up on the history of your industry and do some research on what’s happening today. What’s true now that may not be true in the future? Also, take a closer look at your chief competitors. What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Finally, gain knowledge about the field of leadership. Explore the profusion of books, blogs, and other information available about leadership to discover trends and best practices. Take a look at your current skill set and see what skills other leaders have that you might need to work on.

So, what will you do this week to grow through gaining knowledge?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Like many of my books, Great Leaders Grow is an easy-to-read parable, but its message is significant:  Our capacity to grow determines our capacity to lead.  In today’s economy, this is more important than ever before. Will you be a leader who is always ready to face the next challenge? Or will you be a leader who tries to apply yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems?

Mark and I are convinced that the path to increased influence, impact, and leadership effectiveness is paved with personal growth. Growth is at the heart of what creates and sustains great leaders. And the lack of personal growth sabotages the careers of more leaders than anything else. Case in point:  A leader mentioned in the book was terminated after fourteen years with the same company. Because he wasn’t learning and growing, he had basically repeated his first year of service fourteen times. The world is moving too fast to rely on past success and past knowledge alone. Leaders must continue to grow.

We believe that great leaders make a choice to GROW in four areas. In a nutshell, to be a great leader, you must:

• Gain Knowledge
• Reach Out to Others
• Open Your World
• Walk toward Wisdom

In the next few blogs, I’ll expand on each of these ideas. In the meantime, in both your professional and personal life, think about whether you are growing in these four areas. And remember:  Continuing to learn and grow leads not only to professional success, but also to personal fulfillment.

So what would you like to do between now and then?  Now you’re going to obviously have some goals in terms of your job and your organization, but what about you personally?  What about your weight?  Your exercise?  Your health?  What about learning a new language, like Spanish or Chinese?  What about improving your organizational skills?  What about writing something that you’ve wanted to write for a long time?  What would really make you feel good if you accomplished it by the end of next year? 

It’s great to write out your resolutions as SMART goals.  Be Specific on what you want so that it’s observable and measurable.  M stands for motivational—make sure it’s something that excites you. Is it Attainable?  Don’t set some unrealistic goal that there’s no chance you’ll accomplish.  Make sure your goal is Relevant and important to you.  And have a goal that is Trackable, which means you can chart it over time so you can catch yourself doing things approximately right and see yourself making progress. 

I have found that I do best on New Year’s Resolutions if I share them with my wife Margie and people at work, and anybody else who is around me, so they can help and support me. We all need an accountability group to help set ourselves up for success. 

So in the next few days I’ll be thinking more about what I would like to accomplish that’s going to make me feel good.  What would you like to do?  How do you want 2012 to go for you?  Let’s see if we can help each other keep our commitment to our commitment.  So often New Year’s Resolutions are just announcements.  Don’t just announce it; really make it happen!  And good on you for 2012!

Lastly, I’ve posted a few of my resolutions for 2012… take a read, and let everyone know a few of your own! http://howwelead.org/resolutions/

I came across a wonderful quote by Henri Nouwen.  He was a Catholic Priest from Canada who spent much of his life ministering to the less fortunate and he has written some great things over the years.  Just listen to this as a way to think of this holiday season:

“More and more the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, sit up on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them.  It is a privilege to have time to practice the simple ministry of presence.  Still, it is not as simple as it seems.  My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, and to be a part of some impressive project is so strong, that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets.  It is difficult not to have plans; not to organize people around an urgent cause; not to feel that you are working directly with social progress—but I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and to tell your own.  To let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them but you really love them.” 

Isn’t that wonderful?  I think that we get busy with work, busy with shopping, and aren’t practicing the whole wonderful ministry of presence—simply being present with people we care about.  So today and throughout the holidays, consider the idea of just being present with each other.  Maybe what you ought to be doing first is to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own.  Let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, you truly love them. I think that’s what the holiday season is all about. Take care.