Great Leaders Serve
At NAFCU, we pride ourselves on “extreme member service,” so a recent Mark Miller leadership article caught my eye. In the article Miller recounts a recent interview where he was asked the question, “What’s the biggest insight you’ve had regarding leadership throughout your career?” He responded with a simple statement; great leaders serve.
Although this idea sounds counterintuitive, Miller clarifies that the ability to serve is exactly the quality that makes great leaders. He explained the application of this mindset from two levels, including:
- The issue of motivation and recognizing the root of why you lead – and for great leaders, you lead to serve others not yourself; and
- SERVE as an acronym for the strategic practice of becoming great leaders:
- Seeing the future
- Engaging and developing others
- Reinventing continuously
- Valuing results and relationships
- Embodying the values
By understanding leadership as a service to others, you become a person who truly encompasses hard work and dedication to those you lead. This helps you to gain well-earned respect from others, while driving you closer to your employees, your organizational mission, and all stakeholders in your company.
Every single day employees at NAFCU go to work to serve our members; and in turn, our members work for their own credit union members using the tools we provide. Such a strong focus on service as a form of leadership helps bring clarity to our mission as we see the direct impact our work is having on our credit union members – and American families and businesses – across the country.