This month's newsletter is about servant-leadership. This term has resonated with me since this first time I heard it and read any of Robert Greenleaf's work. "Service" and "Leadership" are two of my core values so a leadership model that combines them touches me deeply.

What's important about servant-leadership?

It's important because it takes the focus off of the leader and back on serving the people he or she is leading, where it belongs. It takes the ego out of leadership and makes it more about making a situation better for another person, community, organization, etc.

In my coaching practice I talk to clients about discovering how they want to serve the world. When we are able to find the intersection between our strengths, values, interests and some need in the world, we discover our opportunity to lead. It is where we can apply the best of ourselves to some problem that exists that we feel the most fulfilled and we serve the world around us.

I do want to clarify one point above, good leaders have a strong sense of themselves. They have healthy ego's. But, leadership isn't about feeding their ego in order to make them feel better about themselves. Instead it is about recognizing their strengths and being willing to use them to serve the world around them.