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Retained executive search for engineering, product, and people leadership.
It was 12:55 in the morning on February 3, 1943. The USAT Dorchester was in the North Atlantic, running for Greenland. More than 900 men were aboard, most of them young soldiers headed to their first war.
The water was 34 degrees.
A German U-boat torpedo hit below the waterline. The engines stopped. The lights went out. The ship had about twenty minutes left.
Four Army chaplains were on board. George Fox, a Methodist minister. Alexander Goode, a rabbi. Clark Poling, of the Reformed Church in America. John Washington, a Catholic priest.
They did not run for the rails to save themselves. They opened a storage locker and handed out life jackets, then the jackets ran out. So the four of them gave away theirs.
Four men with a way to live handed it to four men with none. Nobody stopped to ask a man about his beliefs. A rabbi, a priest, and two Protestant ministers on one deck, and not one of them checked a dog tag.
The last anyone saw of them, they were braced against the slanting deck with their arms linked, praying out loud, as the Dorchester went under. Of the more than 900 men aboard, 230 came home.
It was the finest thing I have seen or hope to see this side of heaven.
Congress wanted to give them the Medal of Honor. The rules blocked it because that medal requires heroism under enemy fire. So Congress created a new one, the Four Chaplains' Medal, carrying the same weight, on the same blue ribbon. It has never been awarded to anyone else.
That is the standard.
Now open your LinkedIn profile.
Servant leader. It sits in bios, on values slides, and in intros during the first 10 minutes of the leadership offsite. It costs nothing to type.
Robert Greenleaf coined the phrase in a 1970 essay, "The Servant as Leader." He was not handing out a title. He wrote a test, and passing it is hard.
"Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"
Read it again. Every measure in it happens to somebody else. None of it happens to you.
You do not get to grade your own paper.
The label is free when the water is calm.
Serving your team in a good quarter is easy. You buy lunch, you say your door is open, you give the win away in the all-hands, you let them cut out early on a Friday. None of it costs you a thing.
WHEN THE BILL COMES DUE
The reorg lands. The launch fails. Your best engineer gets an offer.
Do you go first, or hope it lands on someone else? Do you take the blame, or hope the spotlight lands elsewhere? Do you take the reference call that helps her leave, or work to keep her because losing her wrecks your roadmap?
Nobody is asking you to die.
Let me be careful here. No torpedo is coming for your building. Nobody wants you to trade your life for your product manager. But sacrifice scales down.
In the Marine Corps, the chow line runs junior to senior. The youngest Marine eats first. The senior Marine eats last, and if the food runs out, that Marine goes hungry. It is a rule embedded in warrior culture, not a poster in a break room.
Simon Sinek named his book, "Leaders Eat Last," after the custom a Marine general explained to him. Rank buys you the back of the line, not the front.
The chaplains gave away the one thing keeping them alive. You have your own version: your credit, your bonus, your headcount, your job, your boss's favor. Those are among the only things in corporate worth giving away. If you've given one up when it hurts, you know what you're made of. If you never have, you know that too.
So retire the phrase.
Delete "servant leader" from your bio. Stop introducing yourself that way.
You do not get to award this honor to yourself. Somebody else does, later, based on what you did when it cost you something. Ladd never said the words "servant leadership" when he watched the chaplains go under. He said it about somebody else, after they were gone.
THIS WEEK, ONE THING
Name what it cost you. In writing.
The last time leading your team cost you something real: money, scope, a promotion, a fight with your boss that you knew you'd lose. Write the date next to it. If it's older than twelve months, write one sentence explaining why. Then name one person on your team who needs something that could cost you, and go do it.
Earn it in the dark at one in the morning, with nobody taking notes. Stop talking about it. Just go do the work.
Go get 'em! 🚀
—Brenden
#GSD
Hit reply and tell me what it cost you. I read every one, and the sharpest ones become next week's issue.
SEND IT TO ONE PERSON
You already thought of someone. A leader with "servant leader" in their bio who has never actually been tested. One person is the whole ask.
Posting on LinkedIn instead? Steal this line: “Four chaplains gave away the one thing keeping them alive. You do not get to call yourself a servant leader. Somebody else does, later, based on what it cost you.”
ONE QUESTION
When did leading your team last cost you something real?
OPPORTUNITIES
Chief Product Engineer
JumpLights · Germantown, MD · Base, bonus, equity
Vice President, Product Marketing and Communications
JumpLights · Germantown, MD · Base, bonus, equity
Know someone? Hit reply with a name.
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