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.

Fast forward several years. I was serving in Iraq with the Army. I was proud that my Special Operations job allowed me to work in an advisory capacity with both the State Department and local NGOs. One day I opted to work from the base instead of going on the mission, only to find out that all the soldiers remaining behind needed to help with a special project: sandbag detail. When I tried to get out of it, my leader gave me a pretty healthy tongue-lashing and appointed me sandbag project leader for the day.

How did I get so mixed up about what was really important?

If I could go back, I’d give myself a little shoulder-shaking and a reminder about what service really looks like.

We All Serve a Purpose

It’s unfortunate how quickly we lose sight of the larger purpose of our efforts. For instance, why do grocery stores exist? (It’s not primarily to create a sense of self efficacy for 15 year-olds). They exist to provide food products to the local neighborhood and to earn a profit. To that extent, every function of the store, from straightening the shelves to cleaning the floors to bringing in carts helps the grocery store serve the customers. And in Iraq, there was a very real possibility that the sandbags I stacked would prevent a rocket from landing on my head at night. (The rockets didn’t care if I had “special skills”).

One of the major factors of disengagement is the inability (including by choice) to see how one’s job connects to the greater purpose. There is a significant difference between “laying track” and “building the first transcontinental railroad,” even if the job is the same. Sometimes a little perspective goes a long way.

The Purpose of Serving is Others

I remember another Army mission that started before 5 A.M. one day and lasted until late at night. Everything that could go wrong did. The next day, the battalion commander brought all the leaders into a room to take us to task. His main message was a poignant reminder: “If anyone here thinks you are too important to help one of the younger soldiers be successful, I’m here to tell you that you aren’t. And neither am I. So we’re not going to let this happen again.”

A former FBI executive once addressed our project team stating that successful leaders are the ones who “are good at making other people looking good.” In working with a Center of Excellence director at another company, we built a development model that helped identify future executives by significantly factoring in the success of their direct reports – even above their own individual performance. (After all, being a great individual contributor is never enough to succeed as an executive).

It’s interesting to hear the success stories of successful people. Nearly all of them point to individuals who went out of their way to show them the ropes – people who weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty together.

In his book The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni talks about an interaction with a CEO of a hugely successful company where he asked why the competition didn’t emulate their best practices. The CEO responded that he honestly thought the competition felt it was beneath them. What a waste!

Greatness is within reach, but it’s greatness through service. Find the greater purpose in the day-to-day tasks. (And by the way, if you believe there is none, it’s your responsibility from a continuous improvement standpoint to share your thoughts). And find others around you to serve in the process. When we do the little things like they are the big things, the bigger opportunities will start to come.

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.

I still haven’t forgotten that day, but not for the reasons you might expect.

We sat down at a table and I began telling this busy man what I was learning in my graduate program and in the store and what I hoped to contribute at the corporate level. He was interested and engaged, but not enough to miss the young mother who had walked past my line of sight and into his with a stroller, her items and a small child in tow and was approaching the door. He quickly jumped up from the table, held the door open for the customer and then returned to our table where I continued my spiel.

And then it happened a second time.

Talk about making a poor first and second impression. But it gets worse.

I had somehow failed to let my operator know the director would be stopping by his store. He had taken the Friday afternoon off to celebrate his son’s birthday at the lake over the weekend. He was also in the process of applying for a larger store. So when he found out the director would be coming by, he had to make a mad dash from his family at the lake to get back to the store in time to greet the director and make a positive impression.

Here’s the ironic part: both my operator and the director had gone out of their way to put their focus on me – to help me win. Unfortunately my complete tunnel vision on my own goals blinded me to the situation and I missed my most important objectives: to serve my customers and my operator. I cared about them, but in the moment I was focused only on me. What a mistake!

In his new book The Heart of Leadership, author Mark Miller says the one distinction that sets great leaders apart is this: Are you a serving leader or a self-serving leader? He then goes on to talk about the character side of leadership, which starts when we think others first. It’s a mindset more than anything else. Instead of being in the leadership game solely to accomplish personal victories, the greatest leaders use their influence and resources to help the people around them be more successful. It’s not easy, but it is crucial. Without leadership character, a person may attain a position of leadership but is not likely to keep it for the long-haul.

If this had happened in a military context (I was in the Army Reserves at the time), I would have been dressed down so severely I might not have talked to a superior ever again. But my operator never mentioned it to me and is still a champion of my goals today. Years later, the director is now a senior director. My operator got the bigger store and is currently being considered for a second one. I never did make it into the corporate office and became a consultant instead. I’d like to think things have worked out for the best.

I missed an opportunity in the store that day, but hopefully I haven’t missed out on the greater lesson: to use who I am and what I can do to help those around me win. Will you join me?

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.