An Argument Against “Servant Leadership”
“Servant leadership” has become a popular identity label among veterans rather than a practiced discipline. Without technical or domain expertise in the relevant industry, claiming servant leadership often functions as a way to signal moral intent while avoiding the harder work of organizational decision-making. True servant leadership is a post hoc recognition from your team, not a title you confer on yourself. It emerges from deep, relevant domain expertise combined with the ability to manage people and motivate the right team in the right way. It’s a culmination, not a starting point.
“It’s a culmination, not a starting point.”
“But Jon, I’m a servant leader, my LinkedIn says it.” You might be. That’s not the point. Proclaiming it during an industry transition isn’t helping you as much as you think it is. You may be excellent at leading your current team, in your current environment, with your current problem set. You may be highly senior in the military. You know how to onboard Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Sailors, and Guardians. You know how to take care of people.
You’re leaving that system behind. You’re leaving the rank structure, the shared operational context, and warfighting as the primary measure of success.
In a new industry, technical expertise often has more influence on outcomes than your ability to manage people well. Managing engineers is different from managing corporate staff, which is different from commanding Soldiers. In the military, you often knew when something the team wanted was categorically wrong. They wanted time for a skill that wouldn’t matter. They wanted a solution that felt right but failed the mission. You knew when to step in and when to let the team operate within mission boundaries.
That’s where servant leadership actually becomes difficult.
If we get reductive, which I love to do, a servant leader is someone who makes organizationally-focused decisions. Not team-focused decisions. Organizationally-focused ones. And making decisions is, almost by definition, unpopular with a meaningful portion of the team. A leader who prioritizes harmony because they lack technical understanding will default to conflict avoidance over outcomes.
Serving the team isn’t about asking what everyone wants. It’s about enabling success, enforcing boundaries, and challenging technical experts when they’re wrong. If that’s what servant leadership means to you, say that. Those are concrete skills. They’re far more compelling than an amorphous, self-assigned title that signals virtue without competence. You don’t need to be the expert, but you do need to know how to integrate experts, drive outcomes, and challenge them publicly without destabilizing the team.
Servant leadership is a favorite phrase in the military, but it’s a practice, not a proclamation. The best leaders most of us had didn’t earn respect by constantly serving us. They earned it by integrating us into systems that delivered results. They helped guarantee that we won. There’s a difference. You may care deeply about your team. But leadership still means deciding, directing, and being accountable for outcomes.
Let others call you a servant leader. There’s no need to announce it on day one.
