The Servant Leadership Model, and Brain Poop

Photo by Jonny Caspari, Isabella and Zsa Fischer, and Christina Rumpf

The headline-grabbing topic of “brain poop” is probably why you clicked. But this week I also share about the “Servant Leadership Model,” and how coffee helped create Brazil’s infrastructure.

Servant Leadership Model

I was searching through job postings and saw an organization say: “we truly value the ‘servant leadership model’ at our organization.” At first, I was scared, thinking it didn’t sound like a good thing for the employees.

So I had to Google it. And glad I did because I learned it actually means:

A leadership philosophy in which the goal of leaders is to serve. Shares power, and puts the needs of employees first.

Traditional leadership models, conversely, focus on leaders’ primary responsibility being the serve the organization over the people. 

“Brain Poop”

These were the actual words I heard on a podcast to describe the way sleep repairs the brain. During the day, while awake, our brains create metabolic waste (poop) that has nowhere to go. When we sleep, fluid in our brain rinses out this waste. 

So our brains poop during the day, and the trash gets taken out at night. This is an analogy I’ll be sharing often.

Coffee Created Brazil’s Infrastructure

Thanks to some lovely people in my life, I get a package of coffee beans delivered to me every month from Atlas Coffee Club. I love everything about it from the convenience to the great packaging. 

And they also send a card with information about my new beans. This month, the beans came from Brazil and I learned the country is responsible for 40% of global coffee exports. More amazingly, in the 1800s and 1900s, the coffee industry spurred the development of Brazil’s railways, banks, and other infrastructure.