Purpose & Service: Key Factors in Leadership Effectiveness

Are you serving your organization, your community, or in another leadership role? If you answered yes and aspire to enhance your leadership approach and increase your influence, you have come to the right place.

You are seeking ways to improve your leadership competencies, which shows that you recognize the need for change to achieve different results. Understanding that what brought you to this point will not necessarily take you to your desired destination is crucial. The purpose of this article is to assist you in more effectively inspiring deliberate and motivated action among your constituents toward achieving individual and shared goals.  

Start with why. What's your purpose?
Whether you are an emerging or established leader, remember your reasons for doing what you do. This influences everything you do and how you do it. When addressing your followers, frequently reiterate your why. Clearly understanding and expressing why you do what you do — essentially clarifying your values — is the first step toward greater success and significance as a leader. Leaders who think, act, and communicate based on their why are more likely to inspire, influence, and command greater loyalty and commitment from those around them.

If you haven't done so already, take some time for introspection — to identify, define, document, and showcase your why for everyone to see. In your leadership communications, while expressing your why, aim to connect with those whose interests align with yours. By doing this, you will awaken people's intrinsic motivations that you might otherwise struggle to uncover. Create an environment that invites the creative contributions of your team members, especially encouraging input that helps develop or enhance the how and the what in support of and aligned with the why.  

Invest in people: Seek to serve rather than to be served.
The most effective and influential leaders are those who act as servants to those they lead. Servant leaders prioritize their people, empower them, address their concerns, empathize with them, nurture them, and help them reach their full potential. As a leader, take responsibility for something greater than yourself.
 
Assume responsibility for the lives entrusted to you, seek the goodness in them, help them recognize their unrealized gifts and talents, and inspire them to become who they are meant to be. However, don't just embrace this responsibility silently; communicate it to your constituents consistently and demonstrate it intentionally through your actions. Your level of influence will naturally increase when you consistently ensure that the highest priority needs of others are met and that those you serve grow as individuals, becoming healthier, wiser, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to become servants to others.  

The positively transformative effects of incorporating servant leadership into your approach can be astonishing, as people will begin to go far above and beyond what you ask or expect of them.

The Takeaway 
Be intentional in defining and communicating the purpose, mission, and vision that your organization, department, or team is built upon. Stay mindful of the significance of involving individuals whose interests and values align with your 'WHY', and aim to ensure consistency in staffing decisions accordingly.

Recognize that you are responsible for fostering and supporting the growth of your team. Invest time in building deeper connections with your team to understand their strengths and interests, as well as to identify opportunities for their development. Take pride in prioritizing your team’s needs above your own. Consistently communicate your intentions to your team.  

The benefits reaped by all parties involved will be exponential.

 
Sources 
Balodini, J. (2003). Great communication secrets of great leaders. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Chapman, B. & Sisodia, R. (2015). Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family. Portfolio.

Goldsmith, M. & Reiter, M. (2007). What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful! Grand Central Publishing.

Greenleaf, R.K. (1977). The Servant as Leader. Paulest Press.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The leadership challenge sixth edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 
Rockwell, D. (2015). 7 qualities servant leaders expect from others. Leadership Freak. https://leadershipfreak.blog/2015/02/02/7-qualities-servant-leaders-expect-from-others/

Sinek, S. (2011). Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. Portfolio.