The Servant-Leadership Ballot Test: 7 Questions to Ask Before You Vote

[Ben Lichtenwalner]

The Servant-Leadership Ballot Test: 7 Questions to Ask Before You Vote​

In a few weeks, you’ll make one of the most important hiring decisions of your life. Most of us will spend less time on it than we spend picking a new phone.


That’s what an election is: a hiring decision. You’re the hiring manager. The candidate is the applicant. And you, your family, and your neighbors are the stakeholders who live with the results.


This is not a post about which party to vote for. I won’t tell you who to vote for. Instead, I’ll ask you to hold every candidate (including the ones you already like) to the same standard. It’s the standard the greatest leaders in history have met, and the one our nation’s founders modeled at great personal cost.

All Great Leadership Is Servant-Leadership​

Here’s the core of everything we teach at Modern Servant Leader: if you’re not serving others, you are self-serving, and that is not leadership.


Leadership is not an achievement to be reached. It is a commitment to serve. Nowhere is that clearer than in public office. We literally call these people public servants. It’s in the job title.


But a title doesn’t make anyone a leader. Your title makes you a manager. Your role makes you a leader. Winning an election hands someone a position. Only serving earns them the role of leader.


And servant-leaders serve all their stakeholders, not just one group. An elected official serves every constituent, including those who voted against them. When a leader serves only their base, their donors, or their party, they’ve narrowed to a single stakeholder group. We’ve seen what happens when corporate executives do that. It’s no prettier in government.


The good news? We don’t have to guess what servant-leadership in public office looks like. The founders showed us.

The Ballot Test: 7 SERVANT Principles the Founders Modeled​

The Acronym Model of SERVANT-Leadership® distills dozens of leadership models into seven principles. Each one shows up in the founding of our nation. Each one also gives you a question to ask before you fill in that oval.

S: Selflessness. Washington Walks Away from Power.​

On December 23, 1783, George Washington did something almost unheard of in history. He resigned his military commission and went home to Mount Vernon. He could have kept the army. He could have kept the power. He gave both back to the people.

The painter Benjamin West later reported that King George III, told Washington might retire, said that if he did, “he would be the greatest man in the world.” Then, in 1796, Washington did it again. He declined a third term as President and set the precedent of a peaceful handoff of power.​

Servant-leaders pull in the blame and push out the praise. They hold power loosely, because they know it was never theirs.


Ask yourself:

• Has this candidate ever given up power, money, or status to serve others?
• Do they share credit and own blame?

E: Empathy. Franklin Walks In Their Muddy Boots, Then Acts.​

We often say, “walk a mile in their shoes.” I prefer muddy boots: understand people on their hardest days, not their best ones. Benjamin Franklin learned this late, but he learned it.


Franklin once enslaved people himself. In 1763, he visited a school for Black children in Philadelphia. Afterward, he wrote that he had “conceivd a higher opinion of the natural capacities of the black race” than he ever held before, admitting, “I will not undertake to justify all my Prejudices.”


He didn’t stop at feeling differently. He became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. His last public act, two months before his death in 1790, was signing a petition urging Congress to end slavery. Empathy without action is just observation. Franklin listened, felt, and acted.


Ask yourself:

• Has this candidate shown they can learn from people unlike themselves, and change their mind when they do?
• Do they understand constituents’ hardest days, or only the photo ops?

R: Resolve. "Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor."​

The 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence committed treason against the most powerful empire on earth. They knew it could mean the gallows.

You may have seen the viral stories of their fates. Some are exaggerated. The real history doesn’t need embellishing. Richard Stockton was captured and imprisoned. Two of Abraham Clark’s sons were held on a British prison ship. John Witherspoon’s son was killed at the Battle of Germantown. They pledged everything, and some paid dearly.


Ask yourself:

• Has this candidate held to a principle when it cost them politically, or do their convictions shift with the polls?

V: Virtuousness. John Adams Defends the Enemy.​

In 1770, British soldiers fired into a Boston crowd, killing five colonists. Boston wanted blood. John Adams, a rising patriot, agreed to defend the soldiers in court. He believed every person deserves a fair trial, even the hated ones.


It was deeply unpopular. Adams later wrote that it was “one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country.” In leadership, a lack of ethics is a lack of competence. Adams chose what was right over what was popular.


Ask yourself:

• Is this candidate’s record honest?
• Have they done the right thing even when it upset their own supporters?

A: Authenticity. John Dickinson Says No, Then Serves Anyway.​

In July 1776, John Dickinson was one of the most respected men in Congress. He also believed declaring independence was premature until the colonies secured a foreign ally. He said so, publicly, knowing what it would cost. He abstained from the vote and refused to sign, lamenting it would be the “finishing blow” to his “diminished popularity.”


He didn’t pretend to agree to protect his reputation. And when he lost the argument, he didn’t sulk or switch sides. He joined the militia as a brigadier general and led troops in New Jersey. He later helped draft the Articles of Confederation and supported the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson, who disagreed with him in 1776, later wrote, “A more estimable man, or truer patriot, could not have left us.”


Ask yourself:

• Does this candidate say the same thing to every audience, even when it’s unpopular with that audience?
• When they’ve lost a fight, did they keep serving or begin sulking?

N: Nonpartisanship. Washington Warns Against "the Spirit of Party."​

In his 1796 Farewell Address, Washington warned that the spirit of party “serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration.” He wasn’t warning against one party. He was warning against factionalism itself.


Nonpartisan servant-leaders are open to new ideas from anyone, anywhere, almost any time. They care more about the mission than about their side winning the room.


Ask yourself:

• Has this candidate ever credited a good idea from the other side, or worked across the aisle to get something done?
• Or do they treat opponents as enemies?

T: Thoroughness. The founders Built a System for Imperfect Leaders.​

The founders knew something we forget: no leader is perfect. So they built a government designed to work anyway. In Federalist No. 51, James Madison wrote, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary,” and “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”


Separation of powers. Checks and balances. A way to amend the Constitution. All of it was built to outlast its authors and to protect the people when leaders fall short. That is thoroughness: prioritizing long-term results over short-term wins. Great leaders respect that structure. Self-serving leaders treat it as an obstacle.


Ask yourself:

• Does this candidate think in generations or news cycles?
• Do they respect the guardrails the founders built, even when those guardrails slow down their own side?

An Honest Note About the Founders​

The founders were not saints. Many enslaved human beings, and their “all men are created equal” excluded most Americans of their day. We don’t honor them as perfect men. We honor the principles they set down, principles later leaders like Frederick Douglass and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used to hold this nation to its promise. That’s the point: you don’t need a perfect candidate. You need one who practices these principles more than they abandon them.

The Servant-Leadership Ballot Test (Quick Reference)​

Save this. Screenshot it. Run every candidate on your ballot through it, especially the ones you already like.

Save or share the Servant-Leadership Ballot Test

1. Selflessness: Have they given up power, money, or status to serve others?
2. Empathy: Have they learned from people unlike themselves, and changed when they did?
3. Resolve: Have they held to a principle when it cost them politically?
4. Virtuousness: Is their record honest, even when honesty upset their supporters?
5. Authenticity: Do they say the same thing to every audience, and keep serving when they lose?
6. Nonpartisanship: Have they credited good ideas from the other side?
7. Thoroughness: Do they think in generations, and respect the guardrails even when it slows their side?

Nobody scores seven out of seven. You’re not comparing candidates to perfection. You’re comparing them to each other. Ask: who serves more, and self-serves less?

Before You Go: Make Sure You Can Vote​

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026. It’s a midterm election, with all 435 U.S. House seats, 33 U.S. Senate seats, and 36 governorships on the ballot, plus thousands of state and local races.

• Check your registration and find your polling place: Can I Vote, from the National Association of Secretaries of State, a bipartisan association of state election officials.
• Register or update your registration: Vote.gov, the official U.S. government voter registration site.
• Contact your state or local election office: USA.gov election office finder.

Some states’ registration deadlines have already passed, and others are days away. Check yours today.

Vote Like a Servant-Leader​

In 1783, the most powerful man in America went home. He believed the power belonged to the people, not to him. That’s what servant-leadership looks like in public office.


Before you cast your ballot, ask one simple question about every name on it: does this person believe that?


If you’re not serving others, you’re self-serving. That’s true in business, in nonprofits, in churches, and in government. On November 3, hire servant-leaders.


Question: Which SERVANT principle matters most to you in an elected leader, and why?


Until next time, keep serving.


Sources

• Library of Congress: George Washington, “The Greatest Man in the World”
• Benjamin Franklin to John Waring, December 17, 1763 (Founders Online)
• National Archives: Franklin’s Petition to Congress, 1790
• Snopes: The Price They Paid
• John Adams Diary, March 5, 1773 (Famous Trials)
• AP via WCAX: The Declaration’s Forgotten (Non)Signer, John Dickinson
• American Battlefield Trust: John Dickinson
• Federalist No. 51 (Bill of Rights Institute)
• Washington Examiner: Dates to Know for the 2026 Midterm Elections
• USA.gov: Confirm Your Voter Registration
• John Trumbull, General George Washington Resigning His Commission (Architect of the Capitol, via Wikimedia Commons)

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