Small Business Leadership - Are you Serving or Being Served?

I saw a cartoon the other day of the typical corporate structure. You can see it to the right.

Most small businesses function within the structure of a similar pyramid. Those organizations that get it right, however, are actually upside-down. This places company leadership at the bottom of the tree rather than the top. Given the example above, this seems a poor choice. Most nonprofit organizations place leaders within their organization who will work for the employees and not the other way around. As with many of the nonprofit tactics discussed here, this seems counterintuitive at first. As you will see, however, there is a method to the madness.

In the above example, the birds on the bottom branch are the ones carrying the majority of the workload (i.e. getting crapped on). Using the model of a healthy non-profit, the role of organizational leaders is to invert conventional leadership and become a servant to those who work for him/her.

What would a business look like that has a leader who takes the mentality that (s)he goes to work primarily to serve those whom (s)he employs? Obviously while working within the framework of the mission. In this new way of thinking about business, our leader (and interestingly enough, all who work under him/her) serve to help out those whom (s)he serves. Please understand, I am not talking about a touchy feely place where everyone comes to work just to get the warm fuzzies. I am talking about a style of leadership that allows employees to maximize their personal potential through leadership that allows them to be a part of solving problems. In short, the business leaders work for their employees, are responsible for their well being, and will do whatever is necessary to simultaneously give them the freedom to do their jobs and function as an asset for each individual within his/her company.

Here is what this might look like. Leaders work through day to day issues to ensure that the goals for each project are met. Meeting the goals is the key. If this is lip service, and nothing really happens, employess becomes bitter and complain about their new “responsibilities” for no pay. Soon they are in front of their “all talk no action” CEO demanding a raise. If, however, the plan that is put in place is acted upon, employees (even with added responsibility) take added ownership and new pride in their position. What if the same were true for a receptionist, and then for a sales staff, and then for…… you choose the title. A business that has employees that take ownership and pride in their positions would be a great company to work for.

So what does this have to do with marketing? This is supposed to be a blog about marketing! The answer is surprisingly simple. Using a model of service by the top people in a company creates ownership and pride as mentioned before. Ownership and pride foster an environment where everyone wants to go above and beyond to make the business better. This is at the heart of marketing. As those who work within the business take pride and ownership in their company, they ensure that all who come in contact with it know how great a business it is. All the advertising dollars in the world cannot buy that level of good will.


So – do you lead as a servant?