Six thoughts on how to be a servant leader as a small business owner

Servant leadership is defined as “a non-traditional leadership philosophy, embedded in a set of behaviors and practices that place the primary emphasis on the well-being of those being served.” To further drill down the definition, servant leadership puts the needs of others around you first, before your own needs. As a small business owner, it can sometimes be difficult to put the needs of your customers before your own; you’re often depending entirely on your customers to provide for your needs, wants, and for your ability to take care of your family. That can oftentimes be a stressful endeavor. The psychological burden that this brings about is great, but there is a better way to run your business, that has the opportunity to be just as profitable.

The benefits of learning how to be a servant leader

Greater sense of peace and security

In releasing the anxiety that comes from prioritizing first your own needs as a small business, you’ll find more peace in your heart and in your mind. As you’ll see in the next section, the returns of putting the needs of others before yourself have the potential to be great, and you will know in your heart that you have done good things for others by prioritizing their needs first.

Increase in reputation and brand awareness

When you do good things for others, they often want to share about their great experience with others. When your customers organically share about their great experience with others, this increases awareness of your brand amongst unknown communities, and increases the trust that your community has with your business. Though it’s difficult to track organic referrals, if even a few people are speaking positively about your business in your local community, the benefits begin to compound rather quickly. This has the potential to be more valuable than any advertisement you ever run. At this point, your marketing and advertising becomes about spreading awareness of the good that you’re doing for your community through your products and services, further compounding these benefits.

Increase in opportunities for growth and expansion

As more people hear about your business and try your products and services, the effects of servant leadership will begin to compound. This provides more opportunities for growth and expansion for your business, and you can focus even more on creating a great customer experience and being generous with your talents, knowing that your needs are being provided for by the positive reputation of your business, and the organic outreach of past/recurring customers.

How to be a servant leader in 2025:

1. Know the needs of your employees, coworkers, or clients. Have a deep understanding of what they need from you, so that you can know the extent to which you can help them.

2. Know your strengths, ensuring that what you provide them is a high quality product. If they need something from you, but you can’t provide them with the highest quality product in a certain aspect of a project, outsource or delegate to someone who can.

3. Focus on the quality of your work over the quantity of your work. This will show your clients or customers that they truly matter to you more than a profit, more than success recognition. In turn, having a great experience with your business will make them want to share about their positive experience with others, whether that be online or with family and friends. This establishes a positive reputation for your business, increases the trust of your community in the legitimacy of your business, and provides future leads that may convert, that you might not even know about yet.

4. Have humility. Know that the success of the business does not rely solely on your shoulders. Rather, it rests on trusting that prioritizing meaningful interactions and work with customers will generate more valuable sales in the future.

5. Be generous. Offer discounts and free work for those who cannot afford your goods/services. Keeping in mind that you should be careful and not just work for everyone for free, being charitable by providing discounts or doing free work for others helps others to see how valuable your business truly is. When there is not a price tag attached to your work or goods, and they can see the fullness of the positive impact your business has on their life, they may become a recurring customer and will likely want to refer customers to you.

6. Grow in generosity as your business grows. Servant leadership is not an end, it’s a means to having a meaningful career as a business owner. It’s a journey that can be followed throughout your entire career. As your business takes off, increase the degree to which you are generous in your business practices. This shows gratitude to your community, and also provides for further growth opportunities, the more that you do good for others.

It may seem daunting to begin the journey of servant leadership. I encourage you to start small. Apply one principle to an aspect of your business. Don’t be afraid to apply it to your personal life too; you’ll see great fruits from doing that as well. The most rewarding part of servant leadership is not the revenue that you make, the records that you break, or the awards you win. It’s about the loving person that you become through undertaking the journey of servant leadership. You’ll become a better human being, a better spouse, a better parent, and a better child, on top of becoming a great business owner.