This is a reprint of a post I wrote for a company blog in 2016

A few months ago Pat Falotico (@patfalotico) from the Robert Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (@Greenleafcenter on Twitter) came to my company to give a talk on servant leadership using Robert Greenleaf’s book “The Servant as Leader” as the basis for discussion.

I find it not a coincidence that nearly all leadership development approaches start with self-awareness at their core. Whether or not the next step in the program is the self-realization that “I want to serve”, self-awareness is at the core. Intrapersonal skills are so important but lacking in the leadership ranks, yet those same leaders push their companies through transformations then wonder why they fail. One of my pet peeves is the use of the word “resources” to describe people. They’re people! You would call your child a resource. Why? Because you love them. So why call folks in the workplace resources. Because you have not transformed yourself or the culture or your company. You’re still thinking about “people using” and not “people building.”