Servant Leadership

A lot of leaders actually don’t ask for feedback, they don’t like to get feedback, for whatever reasons.

Sure.

How do you handle that and how do you receive feedback?

I handle it like a gift. I think, again, it’s a... I deal with a quite a bit of imposter syndrome on a day-to-day basis, like, I’m not supposed to be here.

Really?

Oh, yeah, I’m not supposed to be here. Or I’m not supposed to be talking to you. I don’t know why this is happening, but I’m going to do it anyway, so whatever. So I deal with that quite a bit. And the way that I get through that is by asking, after every meeting, how can I be better? How can I be better for you? How can I support you better? Ask any single person I’ve ever managed and they’ll tell you that the end of a one-on-one, at the end of a coffee or anything? They’re like, “Well, it’s good to see you, Eric.” And I’m like, “Hey, quick question, how can I get better for you? Like, how can I continue to support you?”

And sometimes people are shocked by that. They’re like, “Well, I don’t think you’re going to ask that.” But if you know me, you know that I really want that feedback. Even if it’s tough, even if they’re like, “You’re awful.” No one’s ever told me that. But even if they said that, I would think I would reject it at first, for sure. But then I would probably seek to understand why they said that, but really, I want it because I want to get better. Like I want to get better.

What are some of the things people have told you and how has it helped you improve as a leader?

What are the things people have told me? They’ve told me that I’m not harsh enough. And I’m like, “I don’t know what that means.” So, I don’t really want to be an A-hole, so I’m not going to be harsh. I believe in a different management style than that. Or they tell me that I need to support one person over another, like, “Hey, this one person needs your help, can you help them? Or, “Eric, can you stop texting me during the meeting?”

Or during a presentation.

Or during presentation, it’s very distracting. It’s anything that you could possibly think of, anything you can possibly think of. Because I think, especially when I lead a team, I never think about it as me leading the team. I think it’s you helping me lead the team too.

I love that. It’s a servant leadership model. I really like that.

I’ve been told that’s what it’s called. I’ve never actually seen that in literature. But I’ve been told it is called servant leadership. And I think, again, my philosophy is, I don’t win singularly like, that’s not my goal. My success is 100% reliant upon their success and your success, and therefore, I’m going to invest a disproportionate amount of time with you. Because if you’re not successful, then how the hell am I going to be successful? You know what I mean? You need to shine, you need to shine, and by correlation, yeah, I was a part of that journey.