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People aren't vessels for goals
Caring for the person
Fidji Simo, the CEO of Instacart, cares deeply about the company succeeding. She still cares about people enough that, if something is good for them, she can set herself aside and talk to them about it. People aren't vessels by which she accomplishes her goals.
She holds to that even in moments of real stress. In the long term it creates more followership and more motivation, because she genuinely cares about the person.
Care and high standards
People can feel the difference between being a vessel for someone's goals and being cared about. A leader who makes clear that they care about the person and their goals, hope to do it together, and care regardless, can also be demanding, because people know the care is real.
Where does servant leadership come from?
Robert Greenleaf, a longtime AT&T executive, introduced the idea in his 1970 essay The Servant as Leader. He argued that a leader should begin with the wish to serve and let the wish to lead follow. The essay drew on Hermann Hesse's novel Journey to the East.
How did Kant frame treating people as ends?
In the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, published in 1785, Immanuel Kant argued that people must never be treated merely as means to someone's goals. He wrote that humanity must be treated always at the same time as an end. Philosophers call this the formula of humanity, one of several versions of his categorical imperative.
Can caring and demanding coexist?
Kim Scott's 2017 book Radical Candor describes two dimensions: caring personally and challenging directly. Scott developed the framework from her time at Google and Apple. Her framework labels leaders who challenge without caring as obnoxiously aggressive.
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