The greatest opportunities for leadership are those that are almost imperceptible. They seem so small and inconsequential, you could easily pass them by. No one watching is likely to chalk up marks for your leadership abilities. When your moves become more noticeable, you may be judged and criticized. Either way, when you take these tiny opportunities, you will actually be making a difference.

For example, you might greet someone you see every day and take an extra moment to tune into that person, to appreciate them within yourself, to be present with them. You may notice something in doing this – seeing them as people rather than as their role – that you hadn’t before. You may inquire – or not. Leaders aren’t assessed by how many “hi, how are you?s” they say each day, but on whether others experience them as present and most specifically, whether they felt really seen.

Or again, you may realize in a negotiating situation that you have much more power than the other person or organization. The power to stop something temporarily isn’t the power to move forward. So what if you were to take that person or organization and their needs into full account? What if instead of looking for a victory over them you began to look for something that could serve the larger whole, including them? It’s easy to get polarized in our own perspective and in this way to miss huge opportunities.

Many years ago the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) began operating in the San Francisco Bay Area after many years of effort. Against the weight of opinion and advice, it’s cars offered luxurious interiors, the seats covered in fabric, not plastic, summoning drivers out of their cars, inviting riders to be more comfortable and inspiring them to be more respectful. It worked. The whole story of tenacious leadership is found here. The story supports the view that what goes around, comes around. What you put out, you get back. It just may be coming from a different direction and in a different form. Isn’t it a part of the resourcefulness of the servant leader – to be uncommonly contextual?

Or perhaps again, it is common in your industry to take advantage of staff – or contractors. “That’s business,” everyone says. Well, for you, maybe not. For you, it might become unacceptable to have policies and practices that are hurtful to others – for example, that have men working long hours day after day and then giving them only a few days off to see their families and keep up with their real lives. It might become particularly unacceptable when you are located in a remote area and the men are left to drive hundreds of miles on a Highway of Death to get back to their communities in all too short a time. In a culture of exploitation, does the leader of a community-conscious organization just go along with what is common? Or does that leader inspire the organization to find new ground – setting new standards that include the well-being of those that are part of the whole enterprise?

What is leadership really about? What I know is this: real leaders don’t stop with the easy answers. And when they have answers, they hold them lightly so that new information and perspectives can be taken into account. They don’t take onboard consensus reality, but rather ask “why?” and “how better?”