The concept of servant leadership is pretty simple. A servant leader puts others’ needs ahead of themselves and actively looks for ways to help them shine, grow and accomplish. The opposite of top-down or do-as-I-tell, servant leaders thrive when those around them grow.
I ain’t no expert and I do love to learn and think about servant leadership. You can read my musings below. Have an idea to share for a post? Drop me a note here.
Getting To A Really Forking Good Place
Crying? Me? Why do you ask? These red and swollen eyes? Just allergies. Honestly! Well, ok…truth be told, I’ve been balling like a baby. We…
Leaving Leadership Behind
“Leave leadership out of it”. It was the second time I had heard that statement in a week and it caught me off guard. Even…
Connecting with Elsie
I am sitting in one of Elsie’s favorite places, surrounded by memories of her and Clifford, aunts and uncles, cousins and second cousins once removed.…
Three Simple Words: Black Lives Matter
When asked about my 8 years as a single, self-employed father I reply with a few observations. One: it was truly the worst and the…
EQ and Servant leadership
I’ve been thinking about Emotional Intelligence (EI) this week both with my personal reading and after a professional development session. And after some refection I…
Happy Mothers’ Day
At some point during most of my Four Simple Words talks I mention my mom Kath (Elsie’s youngest child) as an example of someone who…
Not So Simple
Our Four Simple Words Forum #2 with CV Harquail this week about the connections (and tensions) between feminism and servant leadership was brilliant for a…
The Right Conversations
Our Four Simple Words Forum this week with my friends Glenna Banda and Melanie Lang was a lot of fun. The three of us shared…
Serving One Another Online
This week was filled with Zoom meetings. From hardly using the platform 3 weeks ago to now running my day, I have to say it…
Getting Over Myself
This has been a challenging week. With work grinding to a halt and a number of other projects now on hold, I’ve been feeling very…
Servant Leadership in times of crisis
This week has been filled with examples of strong and not-so-strong servant leadership. Trying to absorb the onslaught of information has me reflecting on the…
Elsie Was A Feminist
I witnessed a great example of Servant Leadership this week while attending a training session about the power of feminist business development. It was fun…
#TryItYoullLikeIt
I want each of us to think about how we can grow our servant leadership skills in 2020. No public pledges, no social media commitment…
About Elsie
Mary Elsie was born to Ida and Charles McBride in 1903 in the small town of Smith’s Falls Ontario. The first of four daughters, the…
Happy International Women’s Day 2020
March 8 is International Women’s Day. It’s also my 50th birthday. Can’t imagine a better day to launch FourSimpleWords.ca. At this halfway point in what…