The more I’ve studied business and leadership effectiveness, the more I’ve learned that servant leadership is a supportive, inclusive and empowering style of leading others. In short, it puts the needs of others above the needs of self, but without sacrificing the underlying needs of the organization.

Many leaders want to grow in servant leadership. I know, because they tell me so. But sentiment isn’t enough. What we all need is a strategy. These four items are a good place to start.

Who Will You Serve?

Without a subject, servant leadership is simply a sentiment and not an action. Did you know that as an organizational leader, your serving audience goes much further than just your team? In fact, that might not be the best place to start. Do a quick analysis of all the groups who are depending on your leadership. Which is most critical at the moment? Some may include:

• Customers
• Frontline employees
• Team members
• Owners
• Investors
• Board members
• The local community

Obviously, if you are just getting started, you can’t serve all members equally at the same time. Pick the top 2-3 you must focus on first.

What are the Core Needs?

How well do you understand the specific needs of the group you intend to serve? It’s so important that Stephen Covey focused his entire fifth habit “Seek to understand” explaining how to do it. Unfortunately, most leaders are busy and biased. Even when they have time to do a formal analysis, it’s easy to ascribe the needs of others to our (often limited) understanding of their situation.

For instance, if you are trying to better serve your customers, do you realize there is a categorically different need between a brand new potential customer seeking information and a loyal customer who has just received his first poor experience? Investors who bought when the company’s stock was high likely have different needs (and expectations) than those who bought when the stock was low. And don’t forget, needs change over time.

For your servant leadership strategy to truly work, you will need to differentiate the core needs within your group and conduct a thoughtful needs analysis.

How Will We Measure the Outcomes?

Peter Drucker is frequently credited with the quote, “What gets measured gets managed.” It’s impossible to measure an unspecific metric. Core needs need measurable metrics.

Here is a quick example. If you work in fast food, you’ve probably identified that one of your customers’ core needs is to receive their food quickly. One of your formal targets could be average wait time.

Embody the Values and Commitments as a Leadership Team

Ultimately, you won’t be able to accomplish a servant leadership strategy on your own, even if you are the CEO. You’ll need a team that shares the same values and commitments. It’s even better if you create the strategy together.

At the end of the day, servant leadership isn’t just talk. It’s action. It’s easy to say we believe in servant leadership. But until we have a strategy, we’ll never actually serve the people we need to lead.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

Mark Miller developed the SERVE model and curriculum and collaborated with Ken Blanchard to publish it in their book The Secret. Each member of our small team presented a portion of the model. I’ll summarize it for you here below.

See & Shape the Future

The first thing leaders must do is be able to envision a future that is somehow different than (and an improvement on) what exists today. Think about it: if the status quo is just fine, then leaders are unnecessary. Next, leaders must be able to communicate the vision to those around them and work proactively to shape the course. After all, nothing happens without someone going first.

Engage and Develop Others

In the course of pursuing any vision, leaders must find a way to engage the people around them so that they are “in it” for themselves, not just falling in line. When followers are engaged, they know what’s in it for them and they also know where they fit in the broader scheme of things. There are many visions out there to follow. Giving your followers the chance to grow is one of the best ways to ensure they choose your vision over the rest.

Reinvent Continuously

The “what” of the vision won’t change (if it does, then it’s a new vision), but the how is always subject to change. Change is often painful but it’s necessary. When times are bad, change is easy – in the sense that there is not much choice involved. Either change or suffer the consequences. It’s much more difficult to embrace a change mindset when things are going well. That’s why constant improvement requires leadership to stay disciplined and look for ways to make things better.

Value Results and Relationships

The brilliant thing about this principle is that it makes results and relationships mutually inclusive vs. exclusive. Instead of pursuing one at the expense of the other, a vision is best served when a high value is placed on both. Many leaders tend to lean in one direction over another. That’s okay as long as there are other leaders to help provide balance, but the most successful teams find ways to win together – as a team.

Embody the Values

According to Mark Miller, someone who embodies the values exemplifies the non-negotiable elements that comprise the organization’s culture. When there is a disconnect between what a leader says and what they do, not only is credibility lost, but so is most of the motivation to follow. Trust is the ultimate foundation for any successful relationship, especially the relationship a leader has with followers. It only works when values, words and actions all point in the same direction.

You’ve probably noticed by now that the main focus of the SERVE model is always other people. A self-serving leader just won’t make it very far. Zig Ziglar famously said that you can have anything you want it you will just help enough other people get what they want. Will you join me in looking for new ways to SERVE?

If you’d like to assess your ability to lead according to this SERVE model, take this assessment from the author’s site.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

So when I called up a friend who had been associated with the organization this man had led, I couldn’t have been more shocked at what he told me.

“I’m taking a class from so-and-so and it’s really great!” I said. “Did you know him?”

“What??” my friend replied. “You’re taking a class with the boob-grabber??”

“Wait.. what are you talking about?” I sputtered.

“Yeah, he got busted for sexual harassment a couple years back and they gave him the pink slip.”

As soon as I hung up the phone, a quick Internet search confirmed my friend’s claims.

What do you think: did my opinion of this man change?

I’ll go ahead and answer: you bet it did! I was sorely disappointed for one reason. I had expected this man’s leadership character to match his leadership competency. When I found out that it didn’t, I knew I could no longer consider him as a leader worth emulating. I could still learn from him, but ultimately I couldn’t view him as anything less than a bad example.

So what can you and I do to make sure our legacy stays in tact?

Be Humble

I once met with a CEO of a regional bank and found that my seat across his desk was significantly lower than his seat so that I had to look up at him when I spoke to him. It felt as ridiculous as it looks in the movies. And it really seemed to be an intentional message that he was the far superior person in the room.

Author Mark Miller says there is really one question to consider as a leader: are you a serving leader or a self-serving leader? In other words, are other people a means to an end for you or are you in it for them? If we feel we have to convince people that we are better than they are, they may follow us temporarily when they have no other options, but that will be it.

Increase Your Accountability

I’ve heard stories about married leaders who never spend any one-on-one professional time with a member of the opposite sex other than their spouse, even though it can sometimes create a hassle. That’s always seemed extreme to me, although in my college  instructor’s case it would have saved him a lot of grief. But I do know that when it comes to accountability, as leadership authority increases, the standards for ethical behavior should expand, not retract.

When the Founding Fathers of the United States created a limited government with many checks and balances, it was because they understood firsthand the human tendency to abuse power. Don’t play above the system. Look for ways to demonstrate that you operate above reproach, whether it’s in the way you handle relationships, the company credit card, time away from the office, etc.

Treat People the Way They Ought to be Treated

Obviously treating people right goes above and beyond simply not harassing them. All people deserve to be treated with honor, dignity and respect, regardless of their status, position or demographic. If you are a leader, are people more likely to succeed because of you? Do they know where they stand with you and do you make sure they have the resources to get their jobs done and become more in the future than they are today?

Maya Angelou famously stated, “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

There are many outside factors that will affect your leadership legacy. But don’t let what you can’t control keep you from what you can control. When your work is finally finished, your legacy is all you’ll have left.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

I distinctly remember the first time I ever heard Captain Tucker tell us that he loved us. Captain Tucker was the platoon commander charged with instilling in us the art and science of becoming Officers in the Marine Corps. As you might imagine, this raised some eyebrows. Captain Tucker is still to this day the hardest Marine I have ever met. As a Purple Heart recipient, he could have ordered us to follow him to hell and back, and none of us would have hesitated. So why would such a man openly tell a bunch of new Lieutenants that he loved us?

When We Talk About Service and Sacrifice, We Really Mean Love

When one thinks of the military, the idea of service and sacrifice appropriately come to mind. Any Marine would quickly tell you that his motivation comes from a duty to serve his fellow Marines and fellow Americans. Love, however, is perhaps a more powerful and apt identifier of what it means to be a Marine – and also to be a leader. At its most fundamental level, love implies sacrifice, and conversely, genuine sacrifice or service cannot exist absent of love. What good are our claims of loving our neighbor (or followers) if they don’t translate into sacrifice?

Love very naturally translates into the core values on which our Marine ethos is built, that is: Honor, Courage, and Commitment. Honor recognizes, endorses, and protects the dignity inherent in every human being. Courage is the ability to act honorably, even when it seems impossible. Commitment is the resolve to hold on to the other two at all costs. For an elite warrior class where effective leadership is a matter of life and death, we sure do talk a lot about love.

Without Love, Effective Leadership Is Impossible

Anyone with more than a tertiary knowledge of leadership knows the value of servant leadership, which defines the most effective leader as the one who serves those he leads. This isn’t just “a” form of leadership, it is “the” form of leadership. A true leader isn’t driven by what’s in it for him. He cares about how he can develop those around him for their sake and for the team’s sake, rather than his own sake. The leader who cares more about what his men can do for him than what he can do for them isn’t a leader, he’s a manipulator. A non-servant leader does such things as lie, unjustly accuse, and cut corners in order to enhance his position for the most profitable gain – all at the expense of those he is supposed to lead. Unfortunately, in many occupations this is such a subtle deviation from true leadership that it has become normalized and acceptable. In my occupation, dishonesty, a lack of justice, and cutting corners means Marines die. In your occupation, inept leadership may not result in lost lives, but rather losing the breath of life that powers your organization. The price is simply too high not to love and sacrifice for those you lead.

True Leadership Isn’t About You

As an Officer of Marines, my sole purpose for existence is to accomplish the mission and to serve my Marines. Enlisted Marines (i.e. non-officers) are the ones who get stuff done. To not serve them undermines both justifications for my existence (i.e. the mission and my Marines). Ask any enlisted Marine and he will tell you that if you care about him, he’ll follow you to hell and back. My job as an officer is to set the parameters (e.g. timing, tactics, rules of engagement, etc…) within which they can work and then support them in every way possible. In the same way, a healthy organization doesn’t run simply on the competence of senior leadership. It runs because the average employees have enough buy-in to put their nose to the grindstone and get the job done. I promise you that if you let Joe Employee know you sincerely care about him (and by that I mean support as well as sentiment), you’ll see a level of buy-in and output that you never knew was possible.

True leadership isn’t about you. It’s about leveraging your influence to love and serve those you have the privilege to lead. Ruthlessly holding yourself to this standard is your duty to yourself, your coworkers, your family and your country. And it is the lifeblood that makes all of these institutions successful.

Semper Fidelis.

Engage others in leadership conversations and listen well

I recently shared the three leadership questions I always ask, no matter if I am talking to someone for the first time or to my best friend. They actually don’t feel like “leadership” questions at all, but by the end of the conversation, I have a good understanding of the basic leadership situation they are dealing with. I know what’s working and what’s not. Leadership isn’t always about sharing what you know with others. In fact, that’s never the right place to start. The better you become at encouraging others to talk about themselves, listening to them and truly understanding their situation, it is uncanny how much you will grow as a leadership expert in their eyes.

Share what you’ve observed

No matter how much or how little “real world” experience you have, you’ve observed leadership in action. You’ve seen things that have worked well and you’ve seen things that haven’t worked at all. You’ve seen things that started out well but ended up poorly. Always pay attention to the leadership mindsets, decision-making process and execution that happens around you. Use those learning points to inform what you know about leadership, and then share them with others. Learning from the successes and failures of others is as free a leadership education as it gets. (Click to Tweet that).

Share the things you’ve learned through experience

It’s hard to learn how to lead people if you never do it yourself. Therefore, your own experiences in leading others can be quickest and sharpest developmental points you get. For better or worse, you are always the expert on your own experience. It won’t take long before you have a list of what works well and what doesn’t work at all. Don’t keep this to yourself! Help others go further faster by sharing what you’ve learned through experience. And incidentally, don’t be afraid to share your mistakes – sometimes people relate to them much more than to your successes.

Share the ideas you’ve developed

As a student of leadership, you’re probably on the lookout for ways to lead more effectively. At the beginning, all you have are untested theories. Keep it up and eventually you may discover the “Higgs Boson” of leadership. (Hey, it’s possible!) But regardless of your progress, don’t keep from sharing your ideas with others who could use them, whether it’s on a napkin at a restaurant or publishing a white paper. Even scientists have to start with a hypothesis in order find the solutions they are looking for. (You’ll need to get your own peer-reviews just like they do!)  Even if your ideas aren’t perfect, they are better than none and often a great place to start.

Share what other experts are saying

Don’t just develop your own ideas in isolation. Even the top leadership experts pull from what others have said about leadership. You can use the best of the incredible things you’ve found that others have shared. Another perk is that you benefit from the association. On top of that, if people don’t like what you’ve passed along, they aren’t disagreeing with you but with the person you referenced!

Subtly self-promote around areas of competence

Depending on your personality, you could be the most competent leadership expert available but still have a hard time tooting your own leadership horn. (Disclaimer: I’m not sure these instruments actually exist.) Reconciling humility and leadership can be difficult for some of us. Learn to subtly self-promote around your areas of competence. If you don’t, not only will you miss a huge opportunity to share your influence, more importantly, those around you could end up following second-rate (or just plain terrible) leadership ideas instead of yours.

Serve.

I mentioned this in my last post as well, but it bears repeating. You are never too unqualified to set a good example, and that includes setting a good leadership example. Leadership is about putting others first and working toward the success of something bigger than yourself. There is no better way to earn the opportunity to influence others than to be willing to serve them.

What other ways would you include to establish yourself as a leadership expert?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.