Mahatma Gandhi

Service as Success

You don’t hire people to work for you, you hire people so you can work for them.  Your job as a leader is to help people succeed.  In his book, The Stuff of Heroes: The Eight Universal Laws of Leadership, William Cohen said, “Helping your employees is as important as, and many times more so than, trying to get the most work out of them.” 

You start with service. The basis for your actions as a leader should be the service you are providing to your team.  What are you doing to help them succeed? That is the number one question.

“It is high time the ideal of success should be replaced with the ideal of service.” ― Albert Einstein

You will get to know yourself through your service.  Helping other succeed causes us to dig deep into our knowledge and abilities.  Pulling from all you can to provide the best individual service to each person will hone your skills and perhaps lead you to solutions you might never have otherwise seen. 

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

Your success is defined by the success of those you serve. Leaders like to win, so how do you keep score in the area of service?  Simple, it’s the success of those you serve.  Their success is your success.

“True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not to enrich the leader.” ― John C. Maxwell

Instead of questioning intentions, review outcomes.

When plans are not working out, assume others have good intentions and work on helping them achieve the right outcomes through questions, suggestions, and solutions. In the end, you are going to get what you focus on. Invest your time achieving the results in this way and you’ll find success while also teaching someone something new.

Actions, not intentions, lead to results. Why spend your time thinking about other people’s intentions when it’s actions and outcomes that bring success? Paint the picture of the future and build a plan to get there.

“Better to inspire into action then to inquire as to intentions.”– Denis G. McLaughlin

Sharing knowledge makes for good discussion. Facts are universal and non-judgmental. Intentions are personal and internal. Gain alignment with the facts and you’ll gain alignment with the plan.

“Never question another’s motive. Their wisdom, yes, but not their motives.”– Dwight D. Eisenhower

Don’t focus on faults. It’s too easy to assign the cause of mistakes to a lack of concern when in reality it could be just a lack of understanding. Correct the understanding and not the person.

“The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything they do becomes tainted.”– Mahatma Ghandi

 

In the end it’s the execution that matters.

two-paths-to-the-endEveryone doesn’t have to agree with you. What matters is that everyone aligns on the outcome and then figures out the path to get there. In fact, if execution is the key then disagreement will get you to a better place. If everyone agrees there is no new thought or challenge. It has been said that, “We find comfort among those who agree with us – growth among those who don’t.”

So how do you work through disagreement to get to execution? Here are three distinct steps that will lead to the right answer:

Disagreement. Start with the belief that disagreement is nothing more than people feeling free to voice a different opinion, or question an assumption. You should not only let this happen but encourage it to happen in the right way. Zig Ziglar has said, “You can disagree without being disagreeable,” and the right atmosphere for disagreement should be maintained. Questions raised, ideas shared, and objections levied are all documented to be taken into consideration in the next step – discussion.

“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Discussion. Never discount an idea that is different than your own. Instead, each question asked in pursuit of the desired end state deserves an answer, and every objection should be heard and talked through. This is the only way to process the honest disagreement.

“An oil lamp becomes brighter after trimming; a truth becomes clearer after being discussed.”– Chinese Proverb

Decision. At this point you are ready to make the decision as you now have more knowledge than when you started this process. The disagreements have been raised and thoroughly discussed so that the next step is clearer. Decisions made in this way will be carry the most impact.

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”– Tony Robbins

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