Several years ago, my partners at Foundry Group had an intervention with me where they asked me, as politely as they could, to stop using the word “I” when I referred to Foundry Group. I asked them why. Their response was simple – we were a team and every time I talked in public and said “I” instead of “we” it was demotivating. While we each have our own distinct personalities and behavior, Foundry Group is a team effort (Becky, Dave, Jason, Jill, Kelly, Ken, Melissa, Ross, Ryan, Seth, Tracie, and me) and by saying “I” my speech and actions were undermining this.
I agree completely. The CEO works for each and every one of his employees, not the other way around.
This is how servant leadership works. When times are good, true leaders deflect praise onto their team. In lean times, they take all of the blame so that everybody else can focus on doing their jobs.
As Greenleaf puts it, leaders should be "humble stewards of their organization's resources." Clearly this is a rare trait, otherwise CEOs wouldn't be paid so much, and successful ones wouldn't be so rare.
