When I became a high school principal I discovered a perk of the job was my own personalized parking spot. It was in a prime location in front of the school complete with its own signage. I parked there until the time it was raining at my arrival and I noticed some of the staff coming in from the distant faculty lot.
Within a few days I gave the spot to the reigning Teacher of the Year.
If you have a personal parking spot , I encourage you to give it up.
If you need some time to remove the sign, figure out who deserves the coveted place, or plan a big ceremony over the "Giving of the Spot", that is fine, but stop parking there.
After you give up the spot, think of any other things that might be standing in the way of your staff perceiving you as a servant leader.
Give up those things also.
Then think about what you can do to daily serve your staff and then concentrate on those practices:
- Be available for meetings when they need to speak to you
- Visit them in their classes
- Write them encouraging notes
- Praise them privately and publicly in front of other staff and the students
- Involve them in decisions that affect them when possible
- Communicate decisions in advance of implementation
- Solicit feedback often