The Strength Behind Servant Leadership

By Christine Sakdalan

My father was a lawyer in New York City. He built his own practice from nothing, the way immigrants do. Through discipline, reputation, a little grit, and an almost stubborn insistence on doing right by people. He had clients who couldn't afford to pay him. He helped them anyway. When he died, more than 700 people came each day to pay their respects. They came from every walk of life. Nurses, doctors, clergy, people he'd helped navigate a country that hadn't been built with them in mind. Many of them I'd never met. Most of them never forgot him.

That is the image I carry with me into every leadership role I've ever held. Not the prestige. Not the credentials. The 700 people.

My mother was an administrator at the Veterans Hospital. She gave people a chance to start over in America. Immigrants who needed someone in a position of authority to believe in them before they could believe in themselves. Together, my parents modeled something I didn't have a name for then, but I recognize clearly now: servant leadership. The idea that your measure as a leader isn't what you accumulate, but what you enable in others.

What Servant Leadership Actually Means

I want to clear something up, because I encounter this misconception constantly. Servant leadership is not passive. It is not endlessly deferring, or softening every expectation, or avoiding hard decisions because you want people to like you.  That's not leadership at all, servant or otherwise.

Servant leadership means you put people first because you understand that results follow people, not the other way around. It means you invest in the person across from you not because it's the nice thing to do, but because it's the most strategically sound thing you can do as a leader. A team that feels seen, developed, and trusted will outperform a team that is managed through fear or indifference every single time.

Caring deeply about your people and driving toward excellence often get treated as opposites. They're actually inseparable. You cannot build a high-performing culture without psychological safety. And psychological safety doesn't come from lowering standards. It comes from raising trust. I experienced it and learned it firsthand from my parents, and I now, and have always continued what was instilled in me.

What It Looks Like In Practice

Early in my career, I faced a situation that tested exactly this. A large-scale organizational restructuring was underway. The kind that happens in big companies, often for reasons that have nothing to do with individual performance. As a leader, I had to be in the room for some very difficult conversations, including people being displaced.

What I remember most from that period is that I didn’t focus on the decisions that were made above me. I chose to focus on what I could control. I knew I had a choice about how to show up for the people going through it. Where I could advocate, I did.  Where I couldn't change the outcome, I focused on making sure I tried to help every single person land somewhere, whether that was within the organization or somewhere else entirely. That became the job. Not the restructuring itself, but the people inside it.

Years later, I'm still in touch with many of those individuals. Some I've helped find new roles. Some have gone on to build remarkable careers. What I've come to understand is that people don't forget how they were treated during the hard moments. They remember who saw them as a person, not a headcount. And that memory, that trust, is what makes servant leadership a long-term strategy.

The Part No One Talks About

The thing about servant leadership that makes some leaders uncomfortable is you have to be willing to develop people beyond yourself. I've looked at individuals on my team and said, flat out, "You're going to be a CEO. And someday, I'm going to work for you." I meant it.

I received a message not long ago from one of the people I managed who I'd pushed toward a bigger vision of themself than they had at the time. They’ve since gone on to lead at the executive level. Their note said simply: "You never forget the boss who keeps cheering you on long after you've left their team."

I didn't share that to take credit. I shared it because this is what it’s really about. The return on servant leadership isn't always immediate or visible. But the investment accrues. And it shows up in the most beautiful ways, often long after you've moved on.

The Takeaways

If you want to practice servant leadership in a way that actually drives results, start here:

• First, invest in people before they've proven they deserve it. My parents gave opportunities to people who hadn't earned them yet. That belief is what allows people to grow into something they couldn't have reached on their own.
• Second, set clear guardrails and hold them. Servant leadership doesn't mean an absence of accountability. It means building the kind of environment where people know what's expected, feel safe to take risks, and understand that high standards and high support go together.
• Third, measure yourself by what happens to the people who've worked for you. Not just while they're on your team, but years later. That's the real scorecard.

My father never kept score. But the 700 people who showed up every day at his wake, they kept it for him. That's the kind of leader I'm trying to be.

About The Author:

Christine Sakdalan is a people-first executive with over 25 years of leadership experience across life sciences and biopharma. Known for building patient-centric organizations and driving billion-dollar brand launches, she has held senior roles at Boehringer Ingelheim, Otsuka, Janssen, Amgen, and Novo Nordisk. She currently serves as the U.S. Head of Market Excellence and Market Development at Boehringer Ingelheim.