Will the real leader please stand?

“When I try to put people in the picture of what Ronald Reagan was like,” says Peggy Noonan, former White House speechwriter, “I tell them the bathroom story.”

The what? The bathroom story:

A few days after President Reagan had been shot, when he was well enough to get out of bed, he was not feeling well, so he went into the bathroom that connected to his room. He slapped some water on his face and some of the water slopped out of the sink. He got some paper towels and got down on the floor to clean it up. An aide went in to check on him, and found the President of the United States on his hands and knees on the cold tile floor, mopping up water with paper towels. “Mr. President,” the aide said, “what are you doing? Let the nurse clean that up!” And he said, “Oh, no. I made that mess, and I’d hate for the nurse to have to clean it up.”

Many leaders are defined by moments of crisis or war or tragedy. But Ronald Reagan was defined beautifully and appropriately by a very small incident with profound implications: the President was a servant. He would much rather serve than be served. Can this be said of you and I that we would rather serve than be served? The African man needs servants, not task-masters as we are currently having on this continent!

Under the leadership of C. William Pollard, the ServiceMaster Company became an eight-billion-dollar corporation with over 250,000 employees and over twelve million customers in thirty-one countries. In his book, “The Soul of the Firm,” he says that ServiceMaster’s success is built on four simple objectives; to honor God in all they do; to help people develop; to pursue excellence; and to grow profitably. Put simply, the leadership model at ServiceMaster is a model of servant leadership. Says Pollard:

“Will the real leader please stand up? Not the President or the person with the most distinguished title or the longest tenure, but the role model. Not the highest paid person in the group, but the risk taker. Not the person with the largest car or the biggest home, but the servant. Not the person who promotes himself or herself, but the promoter of others. Not the administrator, but the initiator. Not the taker, but the giver. Not the talker, but the listener.”

What then are the distinguishing characteristics of a servant leader? Here are a few ways you can spot a genuine servant leader—and know if you yourself are a servant leader:

A servant leader has relinquished the right to control: a servant, by definition, cannot control people or circumstances or events. A servant can only serve. Herb Kelleher puts it this way: “a financial analyst once asked me if I was afraid of losing control of our organization. I told him I have never had any control and I never wanted it. If you create an environment where the people truly participate, you do not need control. They know what needs to be done and they do it. The more that people will devote to your cause on a voluntary basis, the fewer hierarchies and control mechanism you need…I have always believed that the best leader is the best server. If you are a servant, by definition, you are not controlling.”

Also, a servant leader sees servant-hood as an end, not a means to an end: I have read books on servant leadership that seem to promote servant-hood as just another tool or technique for manipulating people. This attitude says: “I want power, and servant-hood is a good way to get it. If I serve people, they will respond by gratefully becoming my followers.”  Servant-hood in Nigeria and Africa as a whole—is just another form of manipulation, a subtle means of controlling people.

But authentic servant-hood is not a means to an end. It is an end in itself. You do not serve others expecting a quid pro quo. You serve others expecting nothing in return. You serve simply to serve, period. Even if no one responds, you serve. Even if no one follows, you serve. Even if no one shows gratitude, you serve.

“Someday, you may well be sitting here where I am, now, as President of the United States,” Franklin Roosevelt said to Wendell Willkie in the Oval Office in 1941, a year after he had beaten him and won a third term. “And, when you are, you will be looking at that door over there and knowing that practically everybody who walks through it wants something out of you. You will learn what a lonely job this is and you will discover the need for somebody like Harry Hopkins (FDR’s trusted aide) who asks for nothing except to serve you.”

Bosses tend to be found only in “boss places” (the ivory tower private office, the board room, the halls of power, the country club), doing “boss stuff” (giving orders, threatening and intimidating underlings, being served by others). Servant leaders are often found where you would least expect to find a boss, doing things that are nothing short of shocking; taking out trash, setting up chairs, scrubbing toilets, helping and loving people, listening to people’s problems, serving, serving, serving.

Bosses prize control, aggression, combativeness, and intimidation. They consider love a sign of weakness. Servant leaders exemplify empathy, caring, and love. They know the power that is generated by authentic caring in the workplace. They know it is not the commanders and autocrats—who have transformed the world, but the mentors, teachers, and servants—those who practiced caring and concerns, not coercion.

Last of all, no leader automatically deserves to be followed. Followers must be earned. One way a leader earns the right to be followed is by demonstrating followership and obedience himself. A leader who can obey is a leader who has walked where his people walk. He views them as partners, not underlings. He listens and learns and allows people to teach him while he is teaching and leading them. Can these (and more) be said of you?

See you where great leaders are found!