What’s the distinction between Self-Leadership and Servant Leadership?

This was the topic of the EMBA Geneva Talent Synergizer I joined last Thursday.
We had nine roundtables bringing together about 60 EMBA students and 30 companies. I was representing Vicario Consulting SA, where I work as an external senior HR consultant.

One of Vicario Consulting’s areas of expertise is assessing leadership skills through tailor-made assessment days, where we observe and analyze how leaders actually show up in real-life situations. So being part of an event where we discuss leadership felt completely aligned with the heart of our work.

What unfolded was a really interesting series of honest conversations, real-life situations, personal reflections and insights. A space where people could speak, ask questions, disagree and still listen to each other.

As a life and leadership coach, self-leadership is one of my favourite topics, and a subject I also had the pleasure of teaching at Geneva Business School in 2023.

Here are the definitions I proposed:

✦ Servant Leadership (as I understand and live it)
A leadership style grounded in the deep desire to SERVE first. It’s not about position or power, it’s about elevating others, listening deeply, and acting from a place of care and responsibility for the collective.

It’s the shift from asking: “How can I get more out of people?” to:
“What does this team need from me to thrive?”

✦ Self-Leadership (as I understand and live it)
It’s about being the leader of your own life, taking full ownership of your choices, your energy, your impact. It’s your inner stance. How you show up when no one is watching. How you respond under pressure. How aligned you stay when things get chaotic or uncertain.

✨ Do I pause before reacting?
✨ Are my actions aligned with what I value the most?
✨ Am I leading myself the way I want to lead others?

With these definitions, Servant Leadership and Self-Leadership are both interdependent and interconnected, because:

→ You can’t serve others meaningfully if you’re disconnected from your own center.

→ And you can’t lead yourself meaningfully if it’s not in service of something greater than yourself.

This EMBA Geneva Talent Synergizer was an excellent, high-quality event, and what I appreciated most was these meaningful conversations seeing how open, curious, and reflective people became when asked the right questions. And, let me ask you now:

– Who are you being when you lead?
– What are you truly serving: your ego, your role, or something much greater ?
– How do you self-regulate in challenging moments in order to stay aligned?

Thank you The Geneva EMBA by the University of Geneva Jean-Yves Mercier Vicario Consulting SA Melissa Pitotti Karine Curti Robert Tanner, Alona Zezenko, Antonio Páez Moriana and many others.

#leadership #selfleadership #servantleadership #executivecoaching #GenevaEMBA #FutureLeaders