The Giving Edge: Dan Albaum on Why Servant Leadership Creates Better Leaders

What makes someone a great leader?

For years, leadership was often associated with authority. The leader was the person with the title, the answers, and the responsibility for telling everyone else what to do.

Dan Albaum sees leadership differently.

Dan is a longtime marketing executive, consultant, podcast host, and author who has worked with major brands including Cisco and Honeywell. Throughout his career, he has become a strong advocate for servant leadership and the idea that some of the best leaders aren't the ones trying to prove they're the smartest or most important person in the room. They're the ones helping the people around them become better.

That idea is at the heart of his latest book, The Giving Edge: Why Putting Others First Creates Your Greatest Advantage.

Dan recently joined me on the Books4Guys Podcast to talk about the book, his career, and what decades of working with and interviewing successful leaders have taught him about leadership.

One idea kept coming up throughout our conversation: helping other people succeed doesn't take away from your own success. It can actually become one of your greatest advantages.

What Is Servant Leadership?

The term "servant leadership" can sometimes give people the wrong impression.

Dan has encountered leaders who hear "put others first" and assume that means lowering expectations, being overly nice, or allowing people to avoid accountability. He believes the opposite is true.

Think about a leader who micromanages everything. Eventually, employees learn that the boss is going to step in, make the decisions, correct the work, and tell everyone exactly what to do next. Without realizing it, the leader may actually be teaching the team to become less accountable.

A servant leader takes a different approach. Set clear expectations. Agree on the outcome. Give people responsibility. Then trust them enough to do the work.

Dan believes that when leaders give people that kind of ownership and freedom, they're not eliminating accountability. They're creating more of it.

Servant leadership isn't about being a pushover. It's about helping people grow to the point where they don't need you looking over their shoulder all day.

Sometimes Bad Leaders Teach Us the Most

One of the more interesting parts of my conversation with Dan was hearing how his own leadership philosophy developed.

Early in his career, he wanted the same thing most young professionals want. He wanted leaders who would mentor him, teach him, and help him grow. Instead, some of his earliest experiences showed him what he didn't want to become.

Dan described working for leaders who were heavily focused on their own careers and willing to use the team's work primarily to advance themselves. In one case, he experienced what he describes as toxic negativity.

It wasn't enjoyable at the time, but it gave him something valuable. It helped him decide what kind of leader he wanted to become.

Dan made a commitment to put others first, empower people, and, as he puts it, "inflate rather than deflate." That philosophy has stayed with him throughout the rest of his career.

I could relate to that. I've had leaders throughout my career who genuinely wanted to help me get better. They shared what they knew, gave me opportunities, and understood that helping me grow didn't somehow threaten their own success.

I've also experienced the opposite.

Both can teach you something. Sometimes the best leadership education is experiencing a leader you never want to become.

Leadership Isn't a Title

This may be one of the biggest misconceptions about leadership.

We tend to connect leadership with rank. Manager. Director. Vice President. CEO.

But getting promoted doesn't automatically make someone a leader.

Dan believes leadership becomes much more powerful when we stop viewing it as something we achieve and start viewing it as an opportunity to grow other people.

If your definition of leadership is based primarily on your title, it's easy for ego to become part of the equation. If your definition is based on helping a team reach its potential, the focus changes.

You begin thinking less about your next promotion and more about the people you're developing. That's the difference between viewing leadership as a transaction and viewing it as a legacy.

The Giving Edge: 37 Stories About Putting Others First

One of the things I enjoyed about The Giving Edge is that Dan doesn't try to make his argument through theory alone.

The book shares stories from 37 different people, each bringing a different experience but connected by what Dan calls a giving mindset.

One of those people is Terry Healy. At 21 years old, Terry was diagnosed with a severe sarcoma that ultimately resulted in nearly 30 reconstructive surgeries to his face.

He faced an unimaginable choice. He could allow what happened to define the rest of his life, or he could use the experience to help other people. He chose the latter.

Dan shares how Terry devoted himself to encouraging others facing cancer and showing them that physical hardship didn't have to prevent them from building a meaningful life.

Another story is Regina Jones, cofounder of SOUL newspaper, which helped provide visibility to Black artists and musicians during the 1960s. Her own life included professional success, personal hardship, rebuilding her career, and eventually helping raise millions of dollars for a childcare center in Los Angeles.

Different people. Different circumstances. But the stories raise a similar question: what happens when we stop making everything about ourselves?

Great Leaders Don't Need to Be the Smartest Person in the Room

Dan has now recorded hundreds of conversations with leaders through his Market Impact Insights podcast.

I was curious what all of those conversations had taught him. His answer caught my attention because it lines up with something I've noticed through hosting the Books4Guys Podcast.

Many highly successful people are surprisingly comfortable admitting they don't know everything. They make mistakes, fail, change their minds, and keep learning.

Dan said many of the exceptional leaders he's interviewed don't waste their energy trying to prove they're the smartest person in every room. Instead, they intentionally hire talented people who know more than they do in specific areas.

Being surrounded by people who know more than you isn't a leadership failure. It can be evidence that you've built something special.

Leadership doesn't require having every answer. Sometimes leadership is having enough confidence to admit you don't know the answer and enough humility to listen to the person who does.

Why the Next Generation of Leaders Gives Dan Hope

We also talked about something I've been thinking about quite a bit lately: the next generation entering the workforce.

It's easy to complain about younger generations. Every generation seems to eventually do it.

Dan takes a much more optimistic view.

He sees younger professionals bringing curiosity into the workplace and being more willing to challenge the idea that something should continue being done simply because "that's how we've always done it."

Technology is changing too quickly for organizations to operate that way anymore.

Dan also sees younger workers asking companies harder questions about ethics, social responsibility, and purpose. They want to understand the why, not simply receive the what.

I see some of the same things.

Asking "why?" can annoy people. It can also expose processes that no longer make sense. Good leaders shouldn't be afraid of questions. They should build organizations where people feel comfortable asking them.

Sometimes You Have to Go Slow to Go Fast

This might have been my favorite practical idea from the conversation.

Dan shared a phrase from Len Jessup, who wrote the foreword to The Giving Edge:

Go slow to go fast.

We're constantly encouraged to move faster. Produce more. Grow faster. Answer immediately. Start the next project. Keep moving.

But speed isn't particularly useful when you're running in the wrong direction.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is slow down long enough to evaluate what you're doing, ask better questions, make adjustments, and then accelerate again.

That one hit home for me because a mentor had recently given me almost the exact same advice. There are times when working harder is the answer. There are also times when you need to sharpen the axe.

Knowing the difference matters.

Two Books From Dan Albaum

If Dan's approach to leadership resonates with you, he currently has two books worth checking out.

The Giving Edge: Why Putting Others First Creates Your Greatest Advantage

Dan's newest book explores how a giving mindset can become an advantage in leadership, work, and life. Through the experiences of 37 individuals, he looks at what happens when people choose contribution, service, resilience, and helping others over making everything about themselves.

The Impact Makers

Dan's earlier book also explores leadership and impact, including some of the experiences that shaped his own philosophy. Early encounters with negative leadership helped crystallize Dan's commitment to lead differently and build a career around creating a positive impact on others.

Together, the two books offer a pretty clear picture of what Dan believes: leadership is ultimately about the impact you have on other people.

Final Thought

The older I get, the less impressed I am by titles. I'm much more interested in what happens to the people around someone.

Do they get better? Do they become more confident? Are they given opportunities? Do they learn? Do they eventually become leaders themselves?

Dan told me that success for him means helping more leaders embrace servant leadership and, in turn, helping those leaders develop the next generation. He wants his books, podcast, consulting work, and relationships to contribute to a legacy of more positive and empowering leadership.

I think that's a pretty good definition of success.

The best leaders don't need to be the hero of every story. Sometimes their greatest accomplishment is helping someone else become one.