About: Background | ModernServantLeader.com | Benjamin Lichtenwalner
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Welcome to The Modern Servant Leader. This site’s mission is to spread servant leadership awareness, adoption and action. Content on the site supports this mission. If you are interested in these topics and would like free updates, please subscribe via email here or RSS feed here.
Featured Resources
- Servant Leadership Companies: 100+ Companies practicing, promoting or otherwise valuing servant leadership
- Servant Leader Assessment Quiz: Are you a servant leader? Is your boss? Try this assessment to find out
- Servant Leadership Quotes: 100+ Leadership quotes, sorted by category
Featured Posts
- Project Tailgaters & Brake Checkers: Project Management tips for leaders
- A Day in the Life of Your Staff: Do you remember what it’s like to be an individual contributor?
- Servant Leadership Stripped Down: The most simple explanation of servant leadership
- Leadership as a Product: Would your employees pay for your leadership if it were a product?
- Reasons Leaders Should Not Fear Social Media: Struggling to convince someone or still on the fence?
Benjamin Lichtenwalner
Hello, I’m Ben, founder of MSL. I use this site to promote Servant Leadership awareness, adoption and action. I’m also an advisor to Philanthropist.org and the Senior Manager of Internet and eCommerce at Whirlpool Corporation. In the past, I’ve held senior leadership roles and overseen technology teams across other Fortune 500, Inc. 500 and non-profit corporations. Having learned from both positive and negative leadership styles, I now share my experiences and lessons learned to promote greater awareness of Servant Leadership.
I hold an M.B.A. with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from Lehigh University and a B.S. in Management Science and Information Systems from the Smeal College of Business at The Pennsylvania State University.
I also enjoy spending time with my family, reading (The Good Book, business and technology publications), and riding my motorcycle. I spend my time between Westchester County, New York and Southwest Michigan.
Profile and Images
Resume: Doc | Pdf
Background
Sitting in the CxO’s office, I was stunned. He just asked me to covertly backup another person’s data before he fired them. This was the fourth senior level manager he would fire, less than a year after hiring them. The cycle was now complete for a third time, as his entire department had turned over three times in just under two years. As the technology leader for the organization, one of my unfortunate responsibilities was supporting these practices. This leadership style, or lack thereof, was in stark contrast to other methods I experienced to achieve success. That moment was the start of a long, winding path leading to the creation of The Modern Servant Leader website.
After experiencing success under many different circumstances and leadership styles, I recognized a key differentiation between leadership styles I supported and those I did not – sustainability. Although I did not yet know the name for it, I recognized servant leaders achieved the greatest success with an ability to sustain that success. In contrast, non-serving leaders used fear and borrowed from the future to obtain success in the short-term, often resulting in low morale, high turnover and limited sustainability.
No longer could I support these practices. No saint myself, I had allowed my skills and expertise to be used in support of leadership practices that offended me and it was time for change. With this background, I committed to researching leadership practices, naming my own beliefs and ultimately promoting the awareness and adoption of these practices. As a result, I was thrilled when I read about servant leadership. I found that servant leadership captured the source of true leadership, delivered sustainable results and aligned with my own values and beliefs.
After years of studying servant leadership, comparing it to my own experiences – both good and bad, I wanted to share what I learned with others. Thus, The Modern Servant Leader (ModernServantLeader.com) was born. This site is dedicated to spreading the awareness, adoption and support of servant leadership practices with an emphasis on modern trends, challenges and technology. If you have any questions, suggestions or other feedback, please, let me know.
Thank you for visiting the site. I hope you find something here that helps you in the development of leadership practices for yourself and your organization.
ModernServantLeader.com, ServeForLeading.com & Lichtenwalner.net are personal sites and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employers.
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