Servant Leadership: Leading by Showing Up for Others
Updated: Aug 6
Kyle and I talk about this a lot — the kind of leadership we want The Siotha Project to stand for. Not leadership from a podium, but leadership that shows up in the small, unglamorous moments: setting up chairs before an event, listening a little longer than feels convenient, rucking with someone on a hard day. It's something we try to practice in our own lives and work, and the philosophy behind it has a name — servant leadership.
What Servant Leadership Actually Means
The term was coined back in 1970 by Robert K. Greenleaf, who flipped the traditional idea of leadership upside down. Instead of asking "how can my team help me succeed," servant leadership asks the opposite question: "how can I help the people around me succeed?"
It's a shift from leading through authority to leading through service. The leader isn't at the top of a pyramid — they're in the trenches, removing obstacles, listening first, and putting the group's growth ahead of their own recognition.
Greenleaf started the 10 pillars of Servant Leadership, later expanded by Larry Spears:
Listening — seeking to understand first, not just waiting to respond
Empathy — genuinely understanding others' perspectives and feelings
Healing — helping people work through struggles, conflict, or setbacks
Awareness — self-awareness and awareness of the broader situation
Persuasion — influencing through reason and buy-in, not authority or coercion
Conceptualization — holding a bigger-picture vision beyond day-to-day tasks
Foresight — anticipating likely outcomes based on past and present
Stewardship — holding resources/responsibility in trust for others, not ownership
Commitment to growth of people — investing in others' development for its own sake
Building community — fostering genuine connection among people who work together
Why It Fits The Siotha Project
None of this is theoretical Servant leadership is embedded into military culture already — looking out for the person next to you, putting the mission and the team above yourself. It's the same instinct that shows up when a veteran shows up to a ruck or yoga class not because they have to, but because someone else needs the company.
Leading by Showing Up
We don't expect everyone to think of themselves as a "leader." But if you've ever shown up for someone else in this community — checked in on a fellow veteran, encouraged someone at a class, shared what helped you get through a hard stretch — you've already practiced it.
That's the kind of leadership we want to keep building, not the loudest voice, but the most reliable hand.
