Are You A Servant Leader?

Recently I read a blog in Harvard Business Review about humble leadership and how you need to be a servant leader if you want to get the best out of your employees. The article basically claims that humble leaders have the courage to admit that they don’t know everything and that they need to surround themselves with people that have more knowledge than them in certain topics. And to let these people do what they do best without too much micro-management and control.

This may sound like common sense, but do you know a lot of humble leaders? Because traditional leadership is more about control and outcomes that make the leader look good. Threats to hit targets or otherwise you won’t earn your bonus. However, the results of the team would be much better when a leader acts to “serve” the team members to feel motivated and energized to get the very best out of themselves.

In order to be able to apply humble leadership, knowledge mapping should play an important role. Because, if you want to surround yourself with the best people, you need to know who knows what and where you might have skills gaps. And, to motivate your team to get the best out of themselves and to keep growing, knowing their development areas is key.

I agree with the HBR blog point of view on humble leadership and the courage to be a servant leader. However, I would add that it needs an effective knowledge management strategy to deliver the best results.



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