Servant leader, not order taker

When morale is low, the leader has two options:

1. Ask what people need to feel better and give them the psychological safety to answer honestly
2. Just try stuff that may make people feel better even if nobody asked for it

The trap of servant leadership is to stop with option one. And that may work on a team full of people who know what they want.

But many teams are full of people who just know they’re missing something. So giving them space and open ended questions will make them keep feeling however they’re feeling, just more acutely. It won’t tell you what action to take.

With those types of people, it’s time for option two. Try some experiments to learn what helps and what doesn’t. If someone can’t tell you what they need to feel better, you as the leader need to start guessing.

“I’m a servant leader” doesn’t mean “I do what my people ask me to do.” It means “I exist to serve my people, not the other way around.” And sometimes serving your people means finding and doing the things they didn’t know to ask for.