What’s one way to scale culture at your organization? Hire servant leaders.
I recently saw a tweet by Mark Crowley that said, “UCSD researcher Pamela Smith says people who are self-centered, & who have more self-centered values, only tend to become more selfish as they gain more power. The key: Be discerning when hiring & pass on candidates who aren’t other focused.” At Service Express, that is what we call a “servant leader.”
I was having a similar conversation with another CEO where he asked me how we’ve been able to scale our culture as we continue to grow – the answer I gave was, “the first thing we do is hire right.” If we didn’t have the right leaders in place, our culture would start to crumble over the years of pressure and growth. If we have servant leaders who care about others and their goals, achievements and development — that’s how we achieve success.
We need leaders are invested in others, and when we get it right, our success increases. Like any growing company, we have moments where we don’t do as well as we wanted to; sometimes, that can hold us back. Those moments get to me because people aren’t experiencing the real Service Express if they don’t have the right leader from the start. However, when that does happen, we move quickly to rectify that situation!
If you’re thinking about promoting within your organization, make sure they display traits of servant leadership. If they don’t go beyond to help others achieve goals and put their team’s needs in front of their own, it’s possible things won’t change if they’re promoted. What we’ve found is that technical or specific skills for a job can easily be taught, the hard part is caring about others and having integrity. I hope this helps when looking at your culture and seeing how you can grow!
