Servant leadership is at the heart of how we do business both at The Income Tax School and at Peoples Tax, our sister company. It’s so important as a business owner that you set strong values for your organization to follow. For us, servant leadership is one of those values.
As a business owner, the way you lead your people could make or break you. But leadership is more than just managing people, it’s about making a difference and leading change. Business owners who embrace servant leadership have the opportunity to make an impact in their business, the lives of their employees and in their own community. In turn, the impact that you make will help strengthen and grown your own business.
What is Servant Leadership?
Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world. Servant leaders put the needs of customers, employees and communities first.
It’s about…
- Serving others.
- Leveraging your company or resources to produce worthwhile change.
- Transforming your business into a successful enterprise by inspiring people to excel and helping them grow. Both personally and professionally.
Servant Leadership in Practice
A servant leader focuses primarily on the growth and well being of people: employees, community members, clients, etc. Practicing Servant Leadership means implementing the following things into every action, decision, or interaction.
- Always put Integrity and ethics first.
- Show empathy and genuine concern for others.
- Communicate openly.
- Demonstrate mutual trust & respect for each other, for clients, and for the community.
- Lead a purposeful life.
Do the Right Things Right!
Servant leadership means taking pride in what you do and honoring a higher mission and calling to serve. We do this by doing the right things right:
- Exceeding customer expectations.
- Staying on the cutting edge of processes and products.
- Creating and maintaining quality products and services.
- Being thorough and accurate.
- Acting with professionalism.
We believe that when we focus on caring and having compassion for others, our employees and costumers are happier, and our business grows.
“This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions – often large, complex, powerful, impersonal; not always competent; sometimes corrupt. If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.” – Robert K. Greenleaf (the man who coined the phrase in 1970)
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Why Every Tax Business Owner Needs a Strategic Plan