Serve to Lead: 21st Century Leaders Manual

by James Strock

“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.… You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.” —MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Organizations exist to serve. Period. Leaders live to serve. Period. —TOM PETERS

Today, the only effective leadership is serving others. It’s no longer optional. It’s the essence of twenty-first-century leadership.

Adaptability renders one able to serve in new and often unfamiliar circumstances.

Leaders—both individuals and organizations—must adapt to remain effective.

When your ultimate concern is those you’re serving, your vantage point necessarily is from the outside-in, not the inside-out.

Thinking about your own life experience, who were you serving at times of your greatest performance or accomplishment? Were you inspired to serve a person, a cause, an ideal? Are you performing at that level now? If not, why not? Do you intend to do so in the future? What concrete steps are you taking? Do you observe others performing at that level? What are you learning from them?

Reflect on your experience: Who Are You Serving? Write down a list. Think about those you are serving effectively and how you might do better. In what ways are you simply serving yourself? What areas of your life, and your service, do you regard as most effective? Why? Are you serving the same people and organizations and causes as in the past? Do you intend to serve different people and organizations and causes in the future? How will you decide? How have you decided in the past?

Any service is made more effective by transforming it into a deepening, evolving relationship.

Peter Drucker declared: “The effective person focuses on contribution…. The focus on contribution is the key to effectiveness.”

Your contribution is evaluated by those you serve. Their interpretation, based on their goals, and their needs, is the critical metric.

If work is love made visible, we demonstrate our love through unconditional engagement.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do. —AMELIA EARHART

The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy. —MALCOLM S. FORBES

Remember: no matter what your life expectancy, you aren’t assured of any tomorrows.

To be committed to service means you will never “arrive.” No status is secure. You cannot view yourself as entitled to a certain position.

Silos are about serving yourself.

The most challenging silos to break down are those of habit and custom: silos of the mind.

Before you become a leader, success is all about growing yourself. After you become a leader, success is about growing others. —JACK WELCH

Reflect on your life. Which teachers, coaches, mentors and friends had the most impact on your development? Why are they effective? When have you been most effective in mentoring and encouraging others? Are you applying those lessons in your workplace?

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. —GENERAL GEORGES. PATTON

If you can’t credibly evaluate yourself, your organization, your product, as the best to serve your intended customers, you’re in serious trouble in the marketplace.