Pattern #2
Servant Leadership
Those who lead through fear apply pressure for results. Servant leaders remove obstacles to growth.
On February 12th, 2018, the Golden State Warriors were playing the Phoenix Suns. And though they had won the NBA championship the year before, they were a team that suffered from frequent lapses of careless play. At their best, they achieved a state of flow that was beautiful to watch…but then they’d seem to lose it—and overreach to find it again. Too many passes. Too much unselfishness. Poor decisions. Ugly, ugly play.
The head coach, Steve Kerr, called a timeout. In general, he was a master of saying just the right thing. They listened because he had also been a player; because he had also won championships; because he displayed an uncommon level of empathy with each individual on the team. He was the coach, ostensibly in charge, the decision maker. How was he going to set them right this time?
The team huddled. They looked to the coach. But Steve Kerr simply handed them the clipboard and stepped away. It wasn’t a moment of exasperation. It wasn’t passive aggressive. He was empowering the team to fix it themselves…taking himself out of the equation.
Because taking himself out of the equation was essential to the solution.
Servant leadership sounds simple enough. But to practice it, you need to set your ego aside. You need to make yourself expendable. You need to not assert your ideas, your experience, your skills. Because it’s about the team. It’s about the team knowing that the solution, the path to sustained improvement and real achievement lies solely with them.
In that broken moment, Steve Kerr, took the power he held and put it in the hands of the team. And in 2018, that team won another championship.