The Harvard Business Review published a biting article a few years ago. Essentially: Why Most Leadership Programs Fail. The summary: there is a massive gap between what we know about great leadership and what we do as leaders.

I call it the "Know / Do Gap" - we know what a great listener does, but we don't always do it. We know what healthy routines for diet and exercise look like. We know what a sincere apology looks like. We know what clarity of expectations and accountability look like... But there's a know/do gap!

We are designing this Servant Leader Challenge from our decades of helping leaders with the "Who are you BECOMING Blueprint". We use an incredibly simple and powerful process for putting the ideas into real life. Yes, we'll discuss, but much of this Phase II will be doing. In the real world. In our homes. With our colleagues. In work settings.

In the weight room with real resistance!

We are looking for a very small cohort committed to:

1) becoming better at the 4 choices that emerged from our research.

2) helping their peers in the cohort to work towards strengthening these 4 choices.

3) creating a ripple effect by building a culture in their own organizations and communities that is ever improving at these 4 choices.

 What you bring:

1) Hunger (batteries included - bring a drive to pursue excellence)

2) Humility

3) Honesty

This process is about "Good People Doing Leadership Together"!

I played a lot of basketball, so please allow a metaphor: we worked on strengthening our legs, upper body, cardio and footwork. In this program, we will follow a similar process. We will zoom in on specific things to DO. This is not simply a theory or conversation. We will intentionally exercise each of the 4 choices.

 The workouts will not be separate from your leadership and life. They will be an integral part of your leadership and life. Your peers will be cheering you on and sharing ideas, strategies & best practices.

The "workouts" will be game-changers. But don't expect easy.

We will utilize:

1) Focused Challenges

2) Small Groups

3) Tools and Blueprints

4) Simple yet powerful assessments

5) Your real world leadership talents and scenarios

Parenting is the job for which all others exist. Both C.S. Lewis and legendary UCLA coach John Wooden said versions of that.

1) we all need good people to do life with. We want a group of peers who take this journey seriously, a group who are willing to invest in themselves, their peers and their community!

2) we want to build and deliver an exceptional experience, an experience that you can take back to your organization and life!

3) one of the most consistent messages in our research with hundreds of "deeply authentic Servant Leaders": parents create a profound impact and ripple effect on lives!

Love (the Verb)

Agape. Selfless Love. Love of Choice: to will the good of the other as other. Choose to want & act on what's good for those you serve both now and in the future... a lot harder than liking them or being nice, feeds the rest of the choices. Improving at this one is a lot like joining a gym with a world-class trainer. You will make progress, but it will demand a struggle. Radical affect on engagement, ownership, accountability, innovation, trust, turnover, life!

1) Choosing to care deeply about people is quite natural - sometimes - and quite a challenge at other times. In our interviews, Mimi Silbert put it best: "Yes, there are people who are hard to love every single day!"

2) Expressing that care comes in many different forms.

3) Developing that deep caring in others.

This is NOT an area where you can arrive. One of our interviewees spent more than a month working directly with Mother Teresa. She practiced this choice moment by moment and never pretended that she had arrived.

"Do small things with great love."  ~ Mother Teresa

Serve Needs, not Wants 

Sometimes I need a reality check, even though I may not want a reality check! Sometimes I need encouragement, guidance, feedback, help, to be allowed to own a decision and perhaps fall flat on my face. This choice takes a serious combination of wisdom and will... the wisdom to be aware of unique individual needs and the will to take effective action to truly serve that need. Wisdom and Will! People don't tell us what they really need. Quite often they don't know. So how do Servant Leaders figure this out?

Needs change. Several parents explained it this way: sometime in the teen years, my kids need me to let them pay for things - in more ways than one. They need to earn the money, save the money, spend the money. They need to make the team or not make the team. They need to earn playing time and earn their grades. Or not. They need me to protect and they need me to prepare. At times, these are completely opposite.

"My brother was suffering through addiction. He needed me to cut him off. To keep him away from the people he wanted to spend time with. To stop buying him things. To have the same hard conversation with him over and over. To be firm. To love him enough to give him what he needed, which was precisely the opposite of what he wanted, not comfortable, not easy. The easy thing and the right thing are rarely the same thing."

From our almost 200 conversations with "Servant Leaders", I expect this choice to be a significant focus of the bootcamp. Knowing true needs and meeting them.

Serve a Cause that's Bigger than You

"It's not about you" might be the the most repeated phrase from all of our Servant Leader conversations. One leader put it this way: "I'm in it for the outcome, not the income!" She works with at risk youth across the country, developing them into Servant Leaders.

This choice is built on Hunger and Humility. Hunger to do something great. Hunger to deliver. Humility to say "we're not there yet" or "I don't have all the answers."

For some, that cause is massive, at a scale that affects thousands or even millions. For others, the cause it the one person right in front of them. One interviewee put it this way: "Am I solving a problem at a global scale? No, but I can tell you what I did do: I made one person smile this afternoon. This family needed a good moment and I was there for them."

Quite often the cause felt like this: "Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone!"

This price shows up in many ways, some obvious and some rather subtle. For example, there is a price to letting someone else struggle - especially when it's one of your own children, a close friend or someone you hired. The price of difficult conversations, of helping someone surpass your results, of allowing another to sacrifice when you can see their pain. One of our interviewees spent more than a month working directly with Mother Teresa. She practiced this choice moment by moment and never pretended that she had arrived.

Humility and courage also saturated our "Servant Leader" conversations, but we think these fit into this choice and the other 3 choices above.

The price is often paid when there is no applause. In so many of our interviews, a leader described a mentor who did the small things over and over again, things like picking up a piece of paper on the floor in a hallway. Paying the price. Not arriving.