Service: Spend the Title, Do Not Hold It
A title is something you hold. Real leadership is the authority you spend on your team.
A title is something you hold. Service is something you spend.
This is the second of the six elements of The Plate. If the diagnostic pointed you here, this is your work.
The behavior
Put the people you lead ahead of the position you hold.
Robert Greenleaf, who named servant leadership, described the servant-leader as servant first. The natural feeling is to serve. The conscious choice is to lead.
In practice, service means spending your authority to clear your team’s path before you advance your own. Authority is not a thing to protect. It is a thing to spend, on them.
Strong and weak
Strong: you spend your authority removing what is in your team’s way.
Weak: your team serves your visibility.
The test is simple. Look at where your authority went this month. Did it clear their path, or build your standing?
