Sevice Leadership in the 21st Century means delivering on-purpose and with concentrated intent toward transforming the mental processes and environment where we succeed by serving the whole of the organization and not merely the top ranking minority positions . This new inclusive and authentic leadership dynamic, dramatically shifts perceptions of historically Hierarchical Leadership (Management-strata) to a more advanced equalitarian or what is known as 'Flat Line' Leadership. It means that the power structure within any organization is balanced more evenly for a healthier, productive and certainly, a more abundant life experience.

Service Leadership when faithfully pursued transforms any service or product driven company into an environment of success as respect for the whole of each individual becomes a pipeline of positive, creative and strategically minded teams and this ease of service automatically delivers to its customers, clients and or/guests.

Hierarchical dominated businesses are failing all around us. Enron is just one of many that have been publicized. Far more have imploded on themselves and their failures have betrayed their dependents who believed in their leadership. It’s time for transformation. Many corporations and their smaller counterparts are being led by a failing prototype and yet hold tightly even when it is infectiously destroying the very core value of doing business; progressive success.

Successful leadership in the 21st Century means entering into a new set of negotiation that rely on co-working and collaboration, instead of a few chosen leaders who competitively position themselves on some hierarchal ladder by default-despotism that separates a few from the very substantive whole of the us from one another and creates destructive and debilitating stress due to an autocratic working environment.

People reach their goals and their highest potential mental, emotional and spiritual, by experiencing freedom of choice. Co-working and collaborative relationships invites everyone to have a vested interest in the success of themself and their co-workers. ( including the Owner and/or CEO) This collaborative, self-leading business structure will transform the currently failing business structure and an unequaled bulging bottom line will result. Isn’t this type of shift in business and personal perception the cornerstone to creating a new level of abundant living that we all seek, individually and collectively?

Abundance may come in many different forms. It may enter into your life in the form of a friendship, an intimate relationship, a promotion at work, an award for your expertise, an in-kind gift, creating multiple streams of income and more. Yet, abundance in all its myriad of forms cannot be created in fear. We create abundance in our lives by a disciplined mind that feeds our emotions (power source)and purposeful actions that are expressed in a positive, mutually supportive environment.

The key to abundant living is a shift in our perception to live a life of purposeful service. Holding onto personal agenda's and thinking, feeling and reacting in fear, perpetuates lack in our lives. Service Leaders never think or feel or react due to the feeling of lack. There is no other way to create abundance in our lives but to live in service to one another. Remember the times when you have truly served another, freely and without a personal agenda. How did you feel? Did you receive, in return, more than you gave? Perhaps you didn't receive immediately, yet if you think about it, your service to another has brought into your life a great deal of abundance. It's the Law of Attraction at work. Be grateful. Service plus Gratitude creates abundance.

The word 'servant,' originates from the Latin word, sacrare, meaning consecrated or holy. In other words, sacred. Shifting our perceptions from fear into a life of sacred service is the foundation for becoming a true Leader. Understanding that we are the leaders of our own lives and taking full responsibility for our thoughts, feelings and actions is paramount in becoming a Leader and creating abundant living.

Business Leadership in the 21st Century is beginning to shift the structural tides from achieving success through co-working and cooperating. Consciously building a variety of communities in our lives that serve one another for their highest good and bulging bottom-lines in business is slowly shifting. We can sense it now. Consider the thousands upon thousands who are leaving this unhealthy business structure to work for themselves. They are fed up with the structure of fear-based, competitive hierarchal business structures that set a constant tension that creates overwhelm, confusion and chaos. This unhealthy lifestyle is slowly falling apart; imploding on itself. Whether you are a company Owner, CEO, General Manager, part of a Management Team, Sales Director or front-line personnel. All have an equal responsibility to openly and honestly lead their personal and business life with the highest standard of community integrity that their ever-evolving awareness allows.

Leadership Coaching/Consulting means training power leaders that understand that their success, abundance and healthy lives depends upon what I call Leadership Service. Yet, statistics in 2004 tell us that the lifetime of a CEO in any given Corporation is only 3 to 5 years. Amazed? I was, initially. Yet, if you think about it, our human bodies were not built to withstand this kind of constant, debilitating fear-based tension. Our bodies, minds and emotions have had enough. Our very survival depends upon it. Why do you think that CEO's are now either voluntarily leaving their positions with Corporations or are involuntarily being asked to leave? There are two major reasons why anyone leaves a position at any level or is asked to leave.

Business experience proves that the majority of people that leave a company that are expressing a 'flat-line,' non-autocratic leadership style, voluntarily, is primarily due to their inability to work within a Service Leadership design, where everyone in the organization is equally invested in the success of each individual co-worker, themself and the 'big-picture' or macrocosmic purpose of the organization; to offer the best service and or product available to insure a bulging bottom-line. When people are not self-motivated, self-responsible or have self-respect, then these employees cannot find a comfort zone to remain with the company. In the long-run, their leaving supports the strength that a 'flat line' leadership approach demands. An organization of any kind 'is only as strong as its weakest link.'

These self-defeating employees who left the company, voluntarily, did so because they were unable to shift their perception from being a mere low-status employee to becoming a self-created leader within the organization. Some people refuse to take responsibility for themself, let alone for others on their team. Everyone fails and none reach their highest potential when we do not self-manage and the outcome is inevitably a self-battering life of imbalance and the high cost of overwhelming stress.

Co-working and collaboration is so foreign to their (dare I say) victim attitudes about life that they are incapable of meeting the minimum standards of performance. It matters not, if these standards are self-defined or not. These employees usually create distancing due to resentments within themself as they become more and more frustrated as their self-managing co-workers succeed and they fail. The successful co-workers are far more leadership-driven and meet their responsibilities through mutual cooperative and collaborative agreed upon strategies and clearly defined performance. This methodology is the pivotal point of their evolutionary achievements. Collaborative-Leadership powers both business and personal success.

Employees, at all levels of a flat-line leadership structure are asked to leave, involuntarily, based on two major factors. The first factor being, attitude. The second factor being performance. Naturally, no one will succeed in performance without embracing a positive and co-leadership-driven performance approach.Whether you are a solo-preneur who is dependent on their network, a part of a small business or a member of a large corporation, the structure of Hierarchal Leadership is falling apart. It is imploding on itself. The tension has been held far too long and too tightly to survive much longer. All we have to do is read the newspapers every day or watch the news on television or read Times or Newsweek.

The reasons for companies imploding on themselves, may be cloaked in a disguise of finger-pointing and weightless justification, yet the truth is that the time has arrived to develop a new, healthier, more abundantly equalitarian Service-Leadership structure that is guaranteed to produce a bulging bottom-line so all may benefit.

Copyright: A. James Hillelson–Ultimate Living Transformations–2005; All Rights Reserved

About the Author: Jim Hillelson is a Leadership Coach-Consultant for Business Owners, Power Managers and Team Leaders who co-partner to design customized programs. They develop their strengths and build muscle in areas that need more concentrated focus. Jim delivers. He is results oriented and empowers achievement that is measurable. Contact: Jim for a Free Assessment. ajh7223@juno.com 214-547-8251