Priceless Perspectives — Issue 1 Rehumanizing Leadership in Washington, D.C.

Scott Doggett
Oct 29, 2025
4 min read

Welcome to Priceless Perspectives!

Every person you will ever lead is priceless. Yet in today’s workplaces and communities, it’s easy to forget that. This weekly series is here to help us remember. Each week, we’ll explore what happens when leaders choose service over status, connection over control, and love over fear. We’ll talk about the real challenges leaders face and the hope that rises when we bring humanity back to leadership. You’re invited to join the movement. Read. Reflect. Try something new. Watch what changes when people feel seen, valued, and loved. And because we learn in different ways, we’ll tell each story twice…

Why Two Stories?

Every week, Priceless Perspectives gives you two ways to explore the same theme:

💡 The Leadership Lens: A practical reflection on leadership today: what’s working, what’s broken, and how we can lead differently.

❤️ The Adventures of Noah Hart: A story-first journey following a young, emerging leader who is learning to live out servant leadership in the real world. Because we learn in different ways…and leadership isn’t just a concept, it’s a life we live.

Whether you start with the insight or the story, both paths lead to the same place: seeing people differently and leading people better. Choose the path that speaks to you today. Follow the other next and watch how the two perspectives connect.

💡 The Leadership Lens: When Leadership Loses Its Humanity

Washington, D.C. is more than our nation’s capital. It’s a mirror. And lately, that mirror has been hard to look into. Government shutdowns. Political gridlock. A culture of blame. What we’re witnessing isn’t just a political crisis…it’s a leadership crisis.

The Leadership Breakdown: When power replaces purpose, leadership collapses under its own weight. Research across sectors tells the same story: the most common cause of failure isn’t strategy…it’s the loss of empathy, accountability, and service. We’ve built systems that reward visibility over value, speed over substance, and results over relationships. That’s not sustainable, because leadership divorced from humanity eventually loses both.

A Better Model: Servant leadership isn’t soft leadership. It’s strategic humility...the courage to prioritize people and long-term impact over personal gain. The Servant Leadership School of Washington, D.C., founded in 1983, has modeled this quietly for decades. Their work equips leaders to grow through service and community transformation...proving that true influence begins with inward transformation, not outward authority.

The 70–20–10 Imperative: At the National Academy of Leadership Development, we often reference the 70–20–10 model:

10% of growth comes from formal learning
20% from coaches and mentors
70% from real-world experience

It’s a reminder that a class or book is only the seed. The real growth happens when we live what we learn.

Rehumanizing Leadership: Whether in politics, business, or education, the path forward is the same: rehumanize leadership. Start by asking three questions:

Who am I really serving?
How am I measuring success?
Am I leading from love or from fear?

Leaders who can answer with integrity will rebuild trust...not just in Washington, but in every workplace longing for purpose.

The Takeaway: Servant leadership isn’t about taking sides. It’s about taking responsibility.

The future won’t belong to those who shout the loudest, but to those who listen the deepest. Because when leaders see people differently, they lead people better.

❤️ The Adventures of Noah Hart: Planting Seeds Across the Nation

This week, I had the privilege of meeting a young man named Noah Hart. We met in Washington, D.C., just after a conference where I had spoken about the Priceless Leadership Movement. He had that unmistakable spark...the look of someone who wants to make a difference. In his hands was a brand-new copy of my book, Priceless! See People Differently. Lead People Better.

“I think this is exactly what I’ve been looking for,” he said. “Once I read it, I’ll finally know how to become a servant leader.”

I smiled. “That’s a great place to start,” I told him. “But remember…the book isn’t the destination. It’s just the seed.”

The Climate We’re In: It struck me that our meeting happened in D.C....a city currently struggling to remember what service really means. The government had been shut down for two weeks. Millions protested in the streets. Political parties stopped even talking to each other. Every headline felt like another argument. Every speech sounded like a wall, not a bridge. And standing there with Noah, full of optimism and possibility, I thought: This is why we need a new generation of servant leaders.

The Spark: We found a quiet bench near the Capitol and talked about what it truly means to lead with heart. I shared the 70–20–10 principle...that:

10% of growth comes from knowledge
20% from mentors
70% from living it out

He paused. Then smiled.

“So if I want to grow as a servant leader…I need to get out there and live it?”

“Exactly,” I said.

I handed him one of my signature black smiley-face T-shirts.

“To lead with joy?” he laughed.

“To lead with joy,” I nodded. “And to remember every time you wear it that leadership starts with how you see people.”

The Seed in the Soil: As the sun dipped behind the Capitol dome, we walked to the lawn where generations have marched, protested, and celebrated. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small packet labeled: Service & Community.

“Let’s plant this together,” I said.

He knelt down, planted a seed, brushed the dirt gently.

“It’s not much,” he whispered.

“No,” I said. “But every movement begins with one small seed.”

Before we parted ways, I told him about the Servant Leadership School of Washington, D.C.

“No politics. No spotlight,” I said. “Just leaders choosing to serve first.”

He wrote in his journal:

“True leadership starts when you commit not just to leading, but to serving first.”

He slung his backpack over his shoulder, looked down the long path stretching from the Capitol.

“I guess this is where the journey starts.”

“The first step of a thousand miles,” I replied. “And every one of them matters.”

And just like that, The Adventures of Noah Hart began.

Follow the Journey

Noah Hart will travel across the nation...one state, one story, one seed at a time...meeting people who live out servant leadership where it’s needed most. Follow both The Adventures of Noah Hart and The Leadership Lens each week at NationalALD.com

Two ways to learn. One heart to lead.