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BY TERRI KARTAK 2017 PROFESSIONAL WOMEN IN BUILDING CHAIR, AAA KARTAK GLASS & CLOSET INC. Servant leadership has always been a leadership style that fascinates me and one that I aspire to. In my role as the 2017 Professional Women in Building (PWB) Council chair, I have had the pleasure of witnessing this leadership style in action. Our PWB member leaders regularly exhibit the characteristics of a servant leader. I am drawn to servant leadership because it comes from a place of caring. Servant leaders care greatly for others and have an innate desire to help them become successful. Servant leaders take great satisfaction in seeing others succeed. Servant leaders ask, "What can I do for you?" instead of "What can you do for me?" This has been evident in the many PWB events and activities this year. Many of our experienced council members have asked "How can I help other women be successful in this industry?" To Lead Is to Serve "The servant leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first." —Robert K. Greenleaf, The Servant as Leader I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside the servant leaders in our PWB Council this past year. If you are not a PWB member, I encourage you to join. Let's grow as servant leaders together. Servant leaders come from a place of humility. There is no task too menial. They see something that needs to be done and they do it. They also recognize that they don't have all the answers and look to others to jointly solve problems. As servant leaders, our executive council members utilize a collaborative approach to planning our events and activities. Our goal is to always deliver high-quality and useful content to our members; we are always open to suggestions for topics and speakers. In fact, if you have ideas that would be of interest to our membership, I encourage you to share them with either myself or Kory Sauve, manager of our membership councils. Our last event of 2017 is our December 12 Holiday Soiree. This is another example of our council members caring deeply for others and taking action to help them succeed. We will again be filling stockings with essential hygiene items for single homeless women in support of The Sophia Way, an Eastside service organization dedicated to assisting homeless women. This is our third year providing these stockings and we are honored to be able to serve women in this small but meaningful way. I am very excited to introduce our 2018 PWB Chair, Luellen Smith of Rhino Wine Cellars. Many of you know Luellen as the face of membership at the MBA. She is (or was) the 2017 Membership Council Chair and has been a very successful recruiter. The recipient of the Sandy McAdams Woman of the Year Award for 2016, Luellen truly exemplifies servant leadership. I am eager to see what we can accomplish together and with Luellen as our council chair. Even the best leaders need to take an evening once in a while to play some mini golf. UPCOMING EVENTS PWB HOLIDAY SOIREE DEC. 12 | 6:30–8:30 p.m. Bellevue, presented by Miele SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED FIRST TUESDAY of month starting 2018 | 4–6 p.m. Bonefish Grill in Bothell Learn more at mbaks.com/pwb 38 master builder WINTER 2017 ÊÄ•Æ— ȕĬ ɯ" ǯ±'•