MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 2 | 51
others first. When I ask them what it means
to them, I usually get responses such as, “we
don’t have any reserve parking spaces at our
company,” “we have monthly or quarterly
employee gatherings to celebrate our suc-
cess” or “we have training programs in a
wide spectrum of subjects.”
I rarely hear how the company is investing in
the lives of its employees. I rarely hear lead-
ers talk about helping their employees
through the unfolding of life (personal)
events that impact their performance at
work.
One of my favorite keynote talks is one I give
where I share why servant leadership is so
important in today’s world. I talk about the
“bookends” of life, young adults at one end
and those in the latter stages of life at the
other. Several years ago, hospice nurses
were asked what the topic of discussion is
with patients who are in the last season of
their life. What do they talk about the most?
By far the most frequent topic of discussion
is their regret that they didn’t live their lives
as the people they wanted to be. They lived
their lives to be the person who would be
accepted by others. In our world today, we
put value in being accepted by others, on
how we look or dress, and how we talk or
behave. In some cases, we spend time trying
to impress people we may never meet again.At the other end of the spectrum are our
young adults. Sometimes, we call them
emerging leaders, Generation X or Y, etc.
There is convincing evidence today that
many of those who have graduated from col-
lege and are now in the workplace aren’t
happy with their lives — with the professionthey’ve chosen or the company they
work for. When asked why, they shared that
they incur debt to go to college, where
they’re taught how to take tests, how to
dress, what to say, and how to prepare re-
sumes — but no one asks them what they
want to do, what they’re passionate about
or what their gifts are.We as leaders are responsible for these re-
sults; we need to accept accountability for
the lives we influence, especially younger
lives. We are a society that is focused more
on the image than we are the person. Organ-
izations, and as a result, the world, today re-
flects its leaders. And we are not helping our
employees live better lives. But, we can
change this through new leadership behav-
iors — to which we hold ourselves accounta-
ble. These behaviors are rooted in servant
leadership and include Serve First, Build
Trust, Live Your Values, Listen to Understand,