On Leadership Service

“Disrespect doesn’t just demotivate. It also disrupts focus, causing costly mistakes. In a medical simulation, professionals in neonatal intensive care teams had to diagnose a potentially life-threatening condition and then respond rapidly with the correct procedures. Right beforehand, some of them were randomly assigned to hear a visiting expert disparage their work, saying they wouldn’t last a week in his department. Briefly insulting physicians and nurses was enough to reduce the accuracy of their diagnoses by nearly 17 percent and the effectiveness of their procedures by 15 percent... It’s a pattern I’ve seen time and again in my research: Givers add more value than takers. Studies show that tech companies are more profitable when servant leaders are at the helm. The competitive advantage comes from treating people better than they expect and earning their trust, which makes it easier to attract, motivate and retain talent. That doesn’t mean being soft on people. Servant leaders aren’t shy about dishing out tough love. But they put their mission above their ego, and they care about people as much as performance.”

Adam Grant - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/opinion/elon-musk-leadership-business-education.html?smid=url-share. In academia, administrative roles are often referred to as leadership service. More recently, that language has shifted a bit, and some now refer to it as engagement. However, in light of the literature noted above, it seems service is the right moniker. There is reason to think that a posture of servant leadership that aims to give can actually increase an organization’s productivity over the long term. Emphasis is on the long term in my view. On the one hand, it is important to align our aims with an evidence-based approach to leadership. On the other hand, accuracy only comes through day-to-day practice of what can feel like a Sisyphean task amidst all the challenges facing higher education today.