I’ve learned and continue to learn several servant leadership lessons in my 25-year career. One of the key ones is that servant leadership is not about wielding authority, but more about fostering connections, building trust, and helping colleagues accomplish their goals and aspirations. It’s about loving people, seeing their potential, and helping them get there.
Trust me. I have made my fair share of mistakes, like the time when I took on a senior executive role and was given a dossier on several employees who weren’t meeting the CEO’s standards. Instead of asking the CEO more questions before I embarked on the mission she set forth, I pushed forward and resolved to solve the problem quickly. It didn’t go as planned.
Or the time I allowed one underperforming team member to deplete the morale of other high-performing team members. I showed grace to one team member but lost the high-performing team members. They’ll probably line up to tell you about it. And they should. It was a hard lesson in leadership for me.
But every stumble has taught me something invaluable. So, pull up a chair (or balance on that exercise ball you’ve swapped your office chair for) as I share three key leadership lessons that have reshaped my approach and our entire organization.
Servant Leadership Lesson One: Be the Bridge Between the Inside and the Outside
I always knew I wanted to lead a creative marketing and advertising firm early in my career. Selling the invisible is a passion of mine. Another is seeing concepts turn into campaigns that change people’s perspectives. I was uber-competitive and enjoyed working with some of the best creative minds in the business. Anticipating that a leader, particularly a CEO would has to bridge the gap between his team and the opportunity outside the organization wasn’t something I thought much about initially.
Peter Drucker once said, “The CEO is the link between the inside (that is, the internal organization) and the outside, which is society, economy, technology, markets, and customers.” Spot on, Peter.
Inside our organizations lie costs, processes, talent, and resources. Outside waits a world brimming with opportunities, customers, and markets yet to be tapped.
Your role as a servant leader is to align the internal strengths with external opportunities. It’s about asking, “Where can we win?” and “How do we leverage what we have to outpace the competition?” It’s not about navel-gazing over spreadsheets but looking outward to where growth actually happens. You must understand the Servant Leader Ladder of Success and that as a leader your needs are last on the list. It’s about looking to the interests of the organization and others before your interests.
It’s also about ensuring that your team knows that you care more about them than you do about your clients or even the opportunity before you. You have to connect the team’s role to the organization’s mission and help each team member see how they play an integral role in achieving it.

Servant Leadership Lesson Two: Set the Bar High; People Want to Clear It
There’s a common misconception that employees prefer the easy route. In today’s world that might mean a light workload, minimal expectations, and maybe a casual Friday or two. In the aftermath of a problematic period, leaders are starting to remember that people crave purpose. People want to be winners. They crave challenges that push them beyond their perceived limits.
When we started setting higher standards in our organization, something remarkable happened: not only did our team meet them, but they exceeded them. According to a study by Zenger and Folkman, employees are 4.6 times more likely to perform at their peak when they feel their leaders hold them to high standards.
The Navy Seals have a mantra. You can do 20x more than you think you can. Working in an advertising agency is stressful. You have competing deadlines and unexpected revisions from the client, and you often have to convince your clients to take the bigger risks to get the reward they seek. It’s not easy, but it’s rewarding.
Time and time again, I’m inspired by our people’s work. The effort they make to do whatever it takes to help our clients stand out. Our team exemplifies looking at the bar and seeing that together they can clear it. Yes, there have been some sleepless nights, but we’ve also shared the feeling of lying exhausted and victorious on the playing field. Trust in your people. They want to do great things.
Servant Leadership Lesson Three: Get to Know Your People (Yes, All of Them)
Admiral William H. McRaven, the longest-serving Navy SEAL and affectionately known as the “Bullfrog,” once shared a piece of wisdom that stuck with me: “A good shepherd should smell like his sheep.” This is from his best selling book Wisdom Of The Bullfrog which I can’t recommend enough.
I learned this the hard way. For years, I tried to solve problems in a vacuum, sidelining the very people whose insights were crucial. It wasn’t until I started involving my team in problem-solving that things changed.
They wanted autonomy, mastery, and purpose—the trifecta Daniel Pink highlights as key to motivation. When we started tapping into that, engagement soared. Our entire agency started doing better work.
Now, before you conjure images of me herding livestock through the office, let me explain. Understanding your team isn’t about annual reviews and obligatory birthday emails. It’s about rolling up your sleeves and getting into the trenches alongside them. It’s knowing what drives them, what hinders them, and what makes them leap out of bed in the morning (or hit snooze).
On a side note, if your looking for servant leadership lesson plans The Wisdom of The Bullfrog is just that.

Servant Leadership Lesson Three: Get to Know Your People (Yes, All of Them)
Great leaders don’t just hit targets; they transform organizations. A Gallup study found that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. That’s a staggering influence.
By being the bridge between internal capabilities and external opportunities, setting high standards, and truly knowing your people, you don’t just lead, they you inspire. And when you inspire, you tap into the full potential of your organization.
Look, leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about asking the right questions and listening, really listening to the people who help find those answers. It’s being the kind of leader that is willing to go the extra mile and follow a bible lesson on servant leadership. So, embrace the mission, lift up your team, and embrace getting in the weeds with your team occasionally. After all, we’re all in this together.
