Serve to Be Great: Leadership Lessons from a Prison, a Monastery, and a Boardroom

Foreword

For the past several years, I have been implementing a practice that has been very powerful for me. It has also been very powerful for many of the clients with whom I work. The practice is to simply find a word that represents my core focus for the year to come. Three years ago my word was purpose. Two years ago it was surrender. In 2013, I didn't choose my word. The word chose me.

While driving in my car in late December of 2012, I was listening to the radio and heard the word serve. It really stood out to me. When I changed the station, I heard the word serve again. I immediately knew it was my word for 2013. Serving others had always been important to me, but 2013 would be the year that my main focus was to serve more frequently and selflessly.

I met Matt Tenney a little more than halfway through 2013. We were both flying from Houston to Jacksonville and ended up sitting next to each other. As we got to know each other, I noticed that Matt used the word serve quite frequently.

He spoke of his passion for improving his ability to serve others. He spoke of his vision of a world in which the vast majority of leaders realize that the best way to achieve lasting, high levels of success is to make serving and taking care of others their main focus. And he mentioned that he was working on a book called Serve to Be Great.

Needless to say, I did not see this meeting as coincidence. Matt reenergized my focus on serving. And, as we chatted, I realized that one way I could ...