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Friday, February 24, 2017

Lean Quote: Leadership Is Service, Not Position

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Leadership is service, not position.— Tim Fargo

Lean organizations need leaders who know how to serve their people. A servant leader -- one who wants to serve first and lead second -- strives to create a work environment in which people can truly express these deepest of inner drives. Servant leadership entails a deep belief that people are the greatest asset any organization has, and to nurture their individual growth becomes the basis for all organizational development. That growth goes far beyond the limited dimension of financial benefit -- it dives into our core motivations as people.

A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first, and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

Leaders are nothing without people. Put another way, people will make or break you as a leader. You’ll either treat them well, earn their trust, respect and loyalty, or you won’t. You’ll either see people as capital to be leveraged or humans to be developed and fulfilled. You’ll either view yourself as superior to your employees, or as one whose job it is to serve them, learn from them, and leave them be better off for being led by you.


Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world.

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2 comments:

  1. Lead by doing, listening caring and understanding. It starts with respect that builds trust and leads to greater teamwork, moral,quality and productivity improvements. "If you invest in those on the front lines, they will help you improve the bottom line".

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  2. I completely agreed with the fact that, leadership is a service not position. We all need a good level of leadership skills in our attitude and to develop this attitude, we need to follow different sources such as; leadership coaching programs and learning and getting inspiration from others. In this way, we are able to improve our leadership skills and develop our personality. Most probably, this article also helpful in providing some better sources to understand about leadership.

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