Servant leadership: A new model

YES! There are many religious beliefs. But there is only 1 religion- HUMANITY.

Similarly, there are many professions in our society. You can be an engineer, teacher, store-owner, business executive, publisher, student, speaker or anything much more important. But above all, there is only one purposeful profession- SERVANT! Let me explain.

Life takes a different turn in an awesome way when you start seeing yourself as a servant. When you are a servant (trust me, in reality you are!), you become humble to do any work, you smile, you take full responsibility (trait of a leader), you don’t make excuse, and above all, you are not hungry for credit. Look around you- most people are craving for the credit (whether they deserve it or not). They have a feeling that they are most important to their company/family/school, so they deserve all the respect and credit for the work. Correct me if I am wrong. Well, good leaders ask for credit, great leaders give it away.

Few days back I got an invitation to speak at a seminar named UTTHAN, in Siliguri. A part of my speaking ritual is to meet the attendees and the backstage team before the event starts. As usual I spoke to them, shook hands, wished them all the best and sat at my place (intentionally in the last row)! Bidisha, a good friend of mine, was the creator of the event. Surely she had her whole team working amazingly with her. Yet, Bidisha was the person whose ideation was being executed majorly, that day.

Before my speech, I noticed that Bidisha was doing all the work: taking care of the guests, making sure all things were going right, setting up other things. After my speech was done, I saw that she was still doing the same. NO- she was not the anchor for the event. NO- she didn’t even come on stage. That day, she was a SERVANT.

At the end, Bidisha was happy for her team as the seminar was supersuccessful. I delivered my motivational speech (more about my work- www.speakrise.com) for the attendees- but that’s not the best part. The best part was what I learnt from her that day- that, when you are working, you are a servant first.

Are you into business? Or you are a manager? Maybe a student? Or a mother? Whatever you are, when you start seeing yourself as a servant, you get immense gratefulness, you become happier by appreciating what you have and people around you want to be around you always.

7  traits of a Servant Leader: 

          1)    They smile

          2)    They realize that others’ happiness is most important for them. So they serve with passion

          3)    They work for others and for themselves

          4)    They have a purpose and significance

          5)    They don’t crave for credit. In fact, they give it away 

          6 )   They never hesitate to do the “dirty work” (eg. taking the trash from the floor/ setting up chairs/sweeping the floor/washing the dishes

          7)  They focus on the point #6 the most

I encourage you to see yourself as a servant for the next 7 days and see the change yourself. So from now on, you are a servant. The sooner you realize it and take actions upon it, the better your own world will be.All the best for your next 7 days!

Thank you.

Bishal Sarkar, a SERVANT.