My intention was to blog about Servant Leadership this week because it is something I am passionate about, plus, I believe it is the most effective type of leadership, from top to bottom. Employees thrive under that type of leadership and so does the organization.

But as I thought about the subject of servant leadership, I realized that for some, servant leadership would be a radical change.

Have you ever attended a seminar or heard a speaker and, upon leaving the event, felt energized, enthused and motivated to make great changes? If so, how did things change? Perhaps you set about, with great determination, to make the changes in your life only to notice that within days, your enthusiasm soon vanished and you were back to the same old pattern that characterized you before you heard that motivational speaker or participated in that workshop.

If that has ever happened to you, take courage! It has happened to countless others.

So why can’t we seem to make the change that becomes ingrained and a part of who we are? Usually, it is because you were not given directions on how to replace old behaviors with new ones. The old behaviors have become habits and habits cannot be broken or established very quickly. There need to be concrete steps that enable you to put into practice those things that will result in behavior changes.

Then those behaviors must be practiced day-in and day-out – at work, at home – everywhere! After regular, persistent practice you need to get feedback and then there must be accountability. It is then that those things we have practiced become a habit.

While servant leadership “sounds good” it is not something that a person can do after reading an article or a blog. It results only after having put into practice some very concrete steps.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s first discover what this seemingly contradictory thing is that we call Servant Leadership. I hope you will check back next week because that’s exactly what we will do. I hope to see you then…