Much ink has been spilled on servant leadership. Most of it tends to hang out in the nebulous, theoretical side of things. Since I was first introduced to the concept of servant leadership I have tried to model my life and any leadership roles I find myself in after it. One problem with reading about servant leadership in MBA books, entrepreneurship books, and blogs is that it rarely ever gets practical.

What does it actually mean on a daily basis?

I don’t claim to have the answer to that question in its entirety but I feel like I had the opportunity to model it today in the clinic. Let’s see if you agree.

Servant leadership at its core is making yourself lower than the people around you to raise them up. I interpret that to mean doing the dirty work when no one wants to or being a team player in order to let someone else get “the glory.”

In the clinic today we received 6 new office chairs for the PTs and front desk staff. They came in 6 big boxes and sat in the corner of the clinic for most of the morning. I had a patient cancel so I started tearing the boxes up and building chairs. I ended up building 4 chairs today and setting them up for the other staff. Now, this act felt very menial at the time, and in the grand scheme of life, it really is. BUT, I think that is the point of servant leadership. The little things add up. I easily could have just done paperwork and treated patients and went home for the day, but I went out of my way, sat on the floor with a tiny Allen wrench and built chairs. These are the types of little things that make you a servant leader and make you worth following. There are countless opportunities I have missed or actively dodged out of selfishness or laziness but this happens to be a small one that, after reflection, I’m a little bit proud of.

My point of saying all that is simply to put some meat on the bones of servant leadership. I don’t like when good concepts stay in the theoretical and never make it into the practical.

Next time you have the opportunity to do something small for someone else, take it, you don’t know what will come of it.