What Does Leadership Start With?

I’ve always had a rub with the concept of servant leadership.

Coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 essay The Servant as Leader, servant leadership is popular with executive types. They typically use the term to soften the top-down, authoritarian idea of the CEO that lives in lots of people’s heads.

Sure, it does sound nice that a CEO would primarily serve others. My caution to CEOs is that being a “servant first,” as Greenleaf phrases it, puts the cart ahead of the horse.

In my estimation, leadership begins with, well, leading. You have to first define a vision, a destination, a goal. Unless you meet this requirement, efforts to serve your employees will be fruitless. You can enable people, but to do what? You can help the team along, but in order to get where?

This does happen in the real world, a lot.

A certain type of CEO places inordinate emphasis on supporting and empowering their people while neglecting their duty to own the vision of the organization. Good leadership has a sequ…