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EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 7/29/2020 5:24 PM via COLUMBIA SOUTHERN EDUCATION GROUP AN: 1620609 ; Ken Blanchard, Renee Broadwell.; Servant Leadership in Action : How You Can Achieve Great Relationships and Results Account: s3921192

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Contributors (in alphabetical order)

Cheryl Bachelder— former CEO of Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, speaker, and author of the bestselling book Dare to Serve

Tony Baron — professor at Azusa Pacific University, speaker, and author of The Art of Servant Leadership and The Cross and the Towel

Colleen Barrett— president emeritus of Southwest Airlines and coauthor of Lead with LUV

Art Barter— CEO/president of Datron World Communications, found er/ CEO of the Servant Leadership Institute, and author of Farmer Able and The Servant Leadership Journal

Richard Blackaby— president of Blackaby Ministries International, minister, speaker, and author or coauthor of numerous books, including Experienc- ing God and The Seasons of God

James H. Blanchard — former CEO of Synovus Financial, the first com pany to be inducted into Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For Hall of Fame

Ken Blanchard— chief spiritual officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies®, cofounder of the Lead Like Jesus ministry, and coauthor of The New One Minute Man ag er® and more than sixty other books

Margie Blanchard — speaker, leadership con sul tant, coauthor of The One Minute Man ag er Balances Work and Life, and cofound er/former president of The Ken Blanchard Companies

Robin Blanchard — Colonel (retired), Washington Army National Guard, speaker, facilitator/trainer, strategy con sul tant, and CEO of Blanchard Consulting

Renee Broadwell— se nior editor on numerous book proj ects for Ken Blanchard and editor of communications and social media for The Ken Blanchard Companies

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Brené Brown — researcher/storyteller, author of the bestsellers Braving the Wilderness, Rising Strong, and Daring Greatly, and widely recognized for her TED Talk on “The Power of Vulnerability”

John Hope Bryant— author of The Memo, How the Poor Can Save Capitalism, and Love Leadership, and found er/chairman/CEO of Operation HOPE, Inc., and Bryant Group Ventures

Shirley Bullard — chief administrative officer of The Ken Blanchard Compa nies and human resources expert

Michael C. Bush — CEO of Great Place to Work®, speaker, professor of entrepreneurship, and author of A Great Place to Work for All

Tamika Catchings— four time All American for University of Tennessee women’s basketball, ten time WNBA All Star and 2011 MVP, four time Olympic gold medalist, owner of Tea’s Me Café, and author of Catch a Star

Henry Cloud — psychologist, leadership coach/con sul tant, and bestselling author of more than twenty books, including Bound aries and The Power of the Other

Stephen M. R. Covey— author of The Speed of Trust and Smart Trust and cofounder of CoveyLink and the FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust Practice

Holly Culhane — CEO/founder of Presence Point, Inc., a nonprofit organ ization focused on helping people live into their calling as shepherd leaders, and leadership coach/con sul tant

Jim Dittmar— president/CEO of 3Rivers Leadership Institute, leadership con sul tant, trainer, and coauthor of A Leadership Carol

James Ferrell— managing partner of Arbinger Institute and author or coauthor of its bestselling books Leadership and Self Deception, The Anatomy of Peace, and The Outward Mindset

Mark A . Floyd — speaker, entrepreneur, venture partner at TDF Ventures, and chairman at Ciber, Inc.

Jeffrey W. Foley— Brigadier General, U.S. Army (retired), president of Loral Mountain Solutions, LLC, speaker, leadership coach, con sul tant, and coauthor of Rules and Tools for Leaders

Marshall Goldsmith — the world’s leading executive coach and bestsell ing author of Triggers, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, and Mojo

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Jon Gordon — husband, father, speaker, leadership con sul tant, and bestselling author of more than fifteen books, including The Energy Bus, The Carpen- ter, and The Power of Positive Leadership

Craig Groeschel— founder/senior pastor of Life.Church and bestselling author of numerous books, including #Struggles and Divine Direction

Phyllis Hennecy Hendry— CEO of the Lead Like Jesus ministry, speaker, and coauthor of Lead Like Jesus Revisited

Chris Hodges— founder/senior pastor of Church of the Highlands, found er/ chancellor of Highlands College, and bestselling author of Fresh Air, Four Cups, and The Daniel Dilemma

Phil Hodges— former Xerox executive, cofounder of the Lead Like Jesus ministry, and coauthor of Lead Like Jesus Revisited, Lead Like Jesus for Churches, and The Servant Leader

Laurie Beth Jones— business and life coach, speaker, and author of multiple bestselling books, including Jesus CEO and The Path

James M. Kouzes— coauthor of the bestselling book The Leadership Challenge and more than a dozen other books on leadership, and dean’s executive fellow of leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

Patrick Lencioni— bestselling author of numerous books, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Advantage, and The Ideal Team Player, and found er/CEO of The Table Group

Rico Maranto — guardian of the culture and servant leadership evangelist at Waste Connections, Inc.

John C. Maxwell (foreword) — author of many bestselling books including The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and founder of EQUIP Leader ship, Inc.

Erwin Raphael Mc Manus— founder and lead pastor at Mosaic, speaker, and bestselling author of several books, including The Barbarian Way, The Artisan Soul, and The Last Arrow

Miles McPherson — founder and se nior pastor of Rock Church, speaker, and author of Do Something! and God in the Mirror

Mark Miller— vice president of high per for mance leadership at Chick fil A, Inc., bestselling coauthor of The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do, and author of Leaders Made Here and many other books

Tom Mullins— founding pastor of Christ Fellowship Church, speaker, and author of Passing the Leadership Baton and The Leadership Game

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Neal Nybo — ordained pastor, faith based leadership con sul tant, coach, and author of Move Forward, Shut Tight, and Discovering Your Organ ization’s Next Step

Barry Z . Posner— endowed professor of leadership and former dean at Santa Clara University, scholar, renowned workshop facilitator, and coauthor of the award winning book The Leadership Challenge and many others

Dave Ramsey— popu lar radio personality, money management expert, and bestselling author of books that include The Total Money Make over and EntreLeadership

Garry Ridge — CEO/president of WD40 Com pany, speaker, and coauthor of bestselling book Helping People Win at Work

Mark Sanborn — leadership con sul tant, speaker, and author of The Fred Factor, You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader, and The Potential Princi ple

Simon Sinek— optimist and New York Times bestselling author of Start with Why, Leaders Eat Last, Together Is Better, and Find Your Why

Raj Sisodia — global thought leader of the Conscious Capitalism movement, speaker, and coauthor of Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business

Larry C. Spears— president of Larry C. Spears Center for Servant Leadership, author, editor, and premiere student and interpreter of the writings of Robert K. Greenleaf

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SERVANT LEADERSHIP inACTION

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SERVANT LEADERSHIP inACTION How You Can Achieve Great

Relationships and Results

Edited by Ken Blanchard & Renee Broadwell

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Servant Leadership in Action Copyright © 2018 by Polvera Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electron- ic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

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First Edition Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-9396-0 PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9397-7 IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9398-4

2018-1

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®. Scripture quotations marked MSG are from The Message. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

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This book is dedicated to all those who choose to serve rather than to be served.

Keep up the good work!

All author royalties for Servant Leadership in Action will be donated to the Foundation for Servant Leadership, a nonprofit organ ization dedicated to spreading the mes sage of servant leadership throughout the world. The board of directors for the Foundation for Servant Lead ership includes James H. Blanchard, Ken Blanchard, Henry Cloud, Mark A. Floyd, and Erwin Raphael Mc Manus— all contributors to this book and impor t ant encouragers throughout its development.

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Contents

Foreword by John C. Maxwell xi

Introduction: Serve First and Lead Second Ken Blanchard and Renee Broadwell 1

P a r t O n e

Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

1. What Is Servant Leadership? Ken Blanchard 7

2. Characteristics of Servant Leaders Larry C. Spears 14

3. Servant Leadership Is Conscious Leadership Raj Sisodia 19

4. Servant Leadership at the Speed of Trust Stephen M. R. Covey 26

5. Great Leaders SERVE Mark Miller 34

6. Servant Leadership: What Does It Really Mean? Mark A. Floyd 38

7. Servant Leaders Create a Great Place to Work for All Michael C. Bush 44

8. The Leader as Shepherd Holly Culhane 50

9. The Evolution of Servant Leadership Simon Sinek 56

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viii • Contents

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P a r t T w o

Ele ments of Servant Leadership

10. One Question Every Servant Leader Should Ask Marshall Goldsmith 65

11. In the Ser vice of Others: When Leaders Dare to Rehumanize Work Brené Brown 71

12. Servant Leaders Celebrate Others Tom Mullins 77

13. The Servant Leader’s Focus James Ferrell 82

14. What You See Determines How You Serve Chris Hodges 87

15. Compassion: The Heart of Servant Leadership Craig Groeschel 91

16. How to Spot Ideal Team Players Patrick Lencioni 95

17. The Servant Leader Identity Laurie Beth Jones 98

18. The Four Corners of the Leader’s Universe Henry Cloud 102

P a r t T h r e e

Lessons in Servant Leadership

19. Finding Your Voice James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner 109

20. A Lesson from My Father: Washing Feet Phyllis Hennecy Hendry 115

21. The Puddle Is Not the Prob lem Neal Nybo 118

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Contents • ix

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22. Five Army- Tested Lessons of Servant Leadership Jeffrey W. Foley 122

23. A Baptism of Leadership Erwin Raphael Mc Manus 128

24. Little Things and Big Things Jon Gordon 133

25. In Praise of Followership Margie Blanchard 136

P a r t F o u r

Exemplars of Servant Leadership

26. Jesus: The Greatest Example of a Servant Leader Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges 145

27. Andrew Young: Partner in Servant Leadership to Martin Luther King Jr. John Hope Bryant 152

28. Pat Summitt: Steely Eyes, Servant Heart Tamika Catchings 156

29. Dallas Willard: The Smartest Man I Ever Met Tony Baron 162

30. Henry Blackaby: A Lifelong Servant Leader Richard Blackaby 167

31. Frances Hesselbein: To Serve Is to Live Jim Dittmar 171

32. Charlie “Tremendous” Jones: A Sermon Seen Mark Sanborn 177

P a r t F i v e

Putting Servant Leadership to Work

33. Treat Your People as Family Colleen Barrett 183

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x • Contents

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34. Developing and Using Servant Leadership in the Military Robin Blanchard 189

35. Leading Is Serving Dave Ramsey 195

36. Serving from an HR Perspective Shirley Bullard 199

37. It’s How You Treat People James H. Blanchard 204

38. How Servant Leadership Has Shaped Our Church Culture Miles McPherson 212

P a r t S i x

Servant Leadership Turnarounds

39. Out of the Flames, into the Light Art Barter 219

40. Serve the People Cheryl Bachelder 225

41. Waste Connections: A Servant Leadership Success Story Rico Maranto 231

42. Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A Garry Ridge 239

Final Comments: The Power of Love, Not the Love of Power Ken Blanchard and Renee Broadwell 247

Acknowl edgments 249

Index 251

About the Editors 261

Ser vices Available 263

Join Us Online 265

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Foreword by John C. Maxwell

When Ken Blanchard asked me to write the foreword for this wonderful collection of essays about servant leadership, I was thrilled for several rea sons. First of all, Ken and I are soul mates. We both have been studying, teaching, and writing about leadership for years. In the pro cess, we have come to the conclusion that the only way to create great relationships and results is through servant leadership. It’s all about putting other people first.

I get a kick when I hear people say “It’s lonely at the top.” To me, if it’s lonely at the top, it means nobody is following you. If that’s true, you’d better get off the top and go where the people are— and then, in my terms, bring them to the top with you.

Ken and I have laughed about how immature people are who think about themselves first. It’s a selfish way to lead. That’s okay when you are a small child; however, it’s not okay when you’re 35, 45, or 55, and you haven’t yet figured out that it’s not about you. We keep on reiterating that when you become a leader, you give up your right to think of yourself first. Servant leadership is about always putting others first.

This is a long winded way of saying I love this book. Besides my admiration for Ken, another reason I’m excited has to do

with the quality of contributors he has gathered here. I can’t think of many people I admire in our field whom Ken hasn’t talked into participating. While they all have diff er ent perspectives, the result is some common themes that truly highlight the tenets of servant leadership in action— not just the princi ples of what servant leadership is. I must admit that a number of the essays grabbed at my heart and didn’t let go. I know you’ll also find several that particularly resonate with you.

I think you’ll appreciate the way the book is or ga nized into six parts, starting with the fundamentals and ele ments of servant leadership and end ing with first person accounts of putting servant leadership to work and how

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xii • Foreword

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it has dramatically changed organ izations for the better. You’ll also love Ken’s personal introductions for each of the authors.

I’m so glad you have picked up this book. Read it, study it, read it again, and apply the wonderful lessons about the power of lifting others up— and, in the pro cess, helping every one win.

John C. Maxwell Bestselling author and leadership expert www.johnmaxwell . com

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http://www.johnmaxwell

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SERVANT LEADERSHIP inACTION

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Introduction Serve First and Lead Second

K e n B l a n c h a r d a n d R e n e e B r o a d w e l l

The world is in desperate need of a dif er ent leadership role model. We all have seen the negative impact of self- serving leaders in every sector of our so- ciety. Why is that? Because these leaders have been conditioned to think of leadership only in terms of power and control. We think there is a better choice: to lead at a higher level. When people lead at a higher level, they make the world a better place because in addition to results and relationships, their goals are focused on the greater good. This requires a special kind of leader: a servant leader.

Our desire to develop servant leaders who are world changers has driven us to produce this book— a carefully curated collection of essays. Here to share their passion about servant leadership are some of Ken’s very favorite people who are not only outstanding prac ti tion ers of servant leadership but also writ- ers in the field. In addition to this introduction, throughout the book Ken will give short personal introductions to each of his colleagues’ essays.

Robert K. Greenleaf coined the term servant leadership in his essay titled “The Servant as Leader.”1 He published widely on the concept for the next twenty years.2 And yet it is an old concept. Two thousand years ago, servant leadership was central to the philosophy of Jesus, who exemplified the fully committed and efective servant leader. Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela are well-known modern examples of leaders who have exemplified this philosophy.

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2 • Introduction

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The book is or ga nized into six parts. Part One, “Fundamentals of Ser- vant Leadership,” includes essays that describe basic aspects of servant lead- ership. Part Two, “Ele ments of Servant Leadership,” highlights some of the dif er ent points of view of servant leaders. Part Three, “Lessons in Servant Leadership,” focuses on what people have learned on a personal level from observing servant leadership in action. Part Four, “Exemplars of Servant Lead- ership,” features people who have been identified as classic servant leaders. Part Five, “Putting Servant Leadership to Work,” ofers firsthand accounts of people who have made servant leadership come alive in their organ- izations. Part Six, “Servant Leadership Turnarounds,” illustrates how servant leadership can dramatically impact both results and human satisfaction in organ izations.

An impor tant note: In the opening essay of Part Four, “Exemplars of Ser- vant Leadership,” Ken and Phil Hodges identify Jesus as the greatest servant leadership role model of all time, an identification they first wrote about in their book Lead Like Jesus.3 A number of Ken’s colleagues in their essays also refer to Jesus’s servant leadership example and to the Bible as an impor tant leadership reference book. Why? Because it’s hard to deny Jesus’s influence, as a servant leader, on the world. Rest assured that our intention is not to try to convert anyone. In fact, a major goal of this book is to prove that servant leadership has application in both secular and spiritual leadership in every kind of organ ization, including businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, and places of worship.

Although we or ga nize this book around six parts describing vari ous as- pects of servant leadership, we don’t want you to get discouraged or over- whelmed. Rather, we encourage you, as you read this book, to find four or five essays that really speak to your heart and motivate you to say “As a leader I want to serve rather than be served.”

The audience for this book is wide. It’s for anyone in a leadership position— from a frontline supervisor to the CEO of a com pany. In fact, every person who serves as a leader in a secular or nonsecular capacity could benefit from reading and practicing the leadership concepts from the essays in this book.

Our dream is that someday, everywhere, every one will be impacted by someone who is a servant leader. Self- serving leaders will be a thing of the past. Leaders throughout the world will be people who, in Robert K. Green- leaf ’s terms, “serve first and lead second.” We have created this book to help make that dream a real ity. It’s our hope and desire that reading Servant Leadership in Action will either confirm what you already are doing or be the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in your personal leadership journey.

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Introduction • 3

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We want this to be the book you refer to when you are interested in how to actually practice servant leadership in your life and work— how to get beyond the theory and philosophy to daily action. We believe you, too, can be a ser- vant leader who makes a positive diference in the world.

Join us in our quest. We are counting on you.

Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The New One Minute Man ag er, Leading at a Higher Level, and Lead Like Jesus Revisited and cofounder of The Ken Blanchard Companies and Lead Like Jesus

Renee Broadwell, se nior editor, The Ken Blanchard Companies

Notes

1. Robert K. Greenleaf, “The Servant as Leader” (Atlanta: The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, 1970).

2. A collection of Greenleaf ’s most mature writings on the subject can be found in The Power of Servant Leadership (San Francisco: Berrett- Koehler, 1998). The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (www.greenleaf . org) is a resource for all of Greenleaf ’s work.

3. Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges, Lead Like Jesus: Lessons from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005).

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P a r t O n e

Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

Descriptions of Basic Aspects of Servant Leadership

• Ken Blanchard covers his leadership philosophy in “What Is Servant Leadership?” by emphasizing the two parts of servant leadership: the leadership/strategic aspect and the servant/operational aspect.

• Larry C. Spears, inspired by his mentor and pioneer in the field of servant leadership Robert K. Greenleaf, discusses “Characteristics of Servant Leaders.”

• Raj Sisodia, cofounder of the Conscious Capitalism movement, shows in “Servant Leadership Is Conscious Leadership” how the qualities of servant leaders overlap considerably with those of conscious leaders.

• Stephen M. R. Covey, in “Servant Leadership at the Speed of Trust,” reflects on how trust is inextricably linked to the practice of servant leadership.

• Mark Miller, in “ Great Leaders SERVE,” relates how the SERVE acronym developed at Chick- fil- A can help you become a servant leader.

• Mark A. Floyd ofers advice to new servant leaders in his essay “Servant Leadership: What Does It Really Mean?”

• Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Places to Work For All, shows that the most extraordinary organ izations are led by servant leaders in “Servant Leaders Create a Great Place to Work for All.”

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6 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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• Holly Culhane, in “The Leader as Shepherd,” pres ents a compelling argument that the shepherd is one of the best examples of a servant leader.

• Simon Sinek, in “The Evolution of Servant Leader- ship,” shares his thoughts about the roots of servant leadership— and why it matters.

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C h a p t e r 1

What Is Servant Leadership?

K e n B l a n c h a r d

Okay, let’s get started. As Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of

Music, “Let’s start at the very beginning. . . .” What is servant

leadership all about? In this essay, I’ll give you my thoughts. — KB

When people hear the phrase servant leadership, they are often confused. Their assumption is that it means man ag ers should be working for their people, who would decide what to do, when to do it, where to do it, and how to do it. If that’s what servant leadership is all about, it doesn’t sound like leader- ship to them at all. It sounds more like the inmates running the prison, or trying to please every one.

The prob lem is that these folks don’t understand leadership— much less servant leadership.1 They think you can’t lead and serve at the same time. Yet you can, if you understand that there are two parts to servant leadership:

• a visionary/direction, or strategic, role— the leadership aspect of servant leadership; and

• an implementation, or operational, role— the servant aspect of servant leadership.

Some people say that leadership is really the visionary/direction role— doing the right thing— and management is the implementation role— doing things right. Rather than getting caught in the leadership vs. management debate, let’s think of these both as leadership roles.

In this book, we focus on leadership as an influence pro cess in which you try to help people accomplish goals. All good leadership starts with a vision- ary role, as Jesse Stoner and I explain in our book Full Steam Ahead! 2 This involves not only goal setting, but also establishing a compelling vision that

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8 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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tells you who you are (your purpose), where you’re going (your picture of the future), and what will guide your journey (your values). In other words, lead- ership starts with a sense of direction.

I love the saying “a river without banks is a large puddle.”3 The banks permit the river to flow; they give direction to the river. Leadership is about going somewhere; it’s not about wandering around aimlessly. If people don’t have a compelling vision to serve, the only thing they have to serve is their own self- interest.

Walt Disney started his theme parks with a clear purpose. He said, “ We’re in the happiness business.” That is very dif er ent from being in the theme park business. Being in the happiness business helps cast members (employees) un- derstand their primary role in the com pany.

When it comes to a purpose statement, too many organ izations, if they have one, make it too complicated. I’ll never forget talking to all of the key man ag ers of a major bank. Prior to my speech, I asked them to send me their purpose statement if they had one, which they did. When I got up in front of the group, I told them how much I appreciated their sending me their pur- pose statement. “Ever since I got it, I’ve slept so much better. Why? Because I put it next to my bed and if I couldn’t sleep at night I would read it.” The purpose statement droned on and on. I said, “If I were working with you, I would hope you would say ‘We are in the financial peace of mind business— if people give us money, we will protect it and even grow it.’ ” Every one laughed because they knew that would be something that all their people could easily share and follow.

Once you have a clear purpose that tells you who you are, you need to develop a picture of the future so that every one knows where you are going. Walt Disney’s picture of the future was expressed in the charge he gave every cast member: “Keep the same smile on people’s faces when they leave the park as when they entered.” Disney didn’t care whether a guest was in the park two hours or ten hours. He just wanted to keep them smiling. After all, they were in the happiness business. Your picture of the future should focus on the end results.

The final aspect of a compelling vision involves your values, which are there to guide your journey. Values provide guidelines for how you should proceed as you pursue your purpose and picture of the future. They answer the questions “What do I want to live by?” and “How?” They need to be clearly described so that you know exactly what be hav iors demonstrate those values as being lived.

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What Is Servant Leadership? • 9

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The Disney theme parks have four rank- ordered values: safety, courtesy, the show, and efficiency. Why is safety the highest ranked value? Walt Disney knew that if a guest were to be carried out of one of his parks on a stretcher, that person would not have the same smile on their face leaving the park that they had when they entered.

The second- ranked value, courtesy, is all about the friendly attitude you expect at a Disney theme park. Why is it impor tant to know that it’s the number- two value? Suppose one of the Disney cast members is answering a guest question in a friendly, courteous manner, and he hears a scream that’s not coming from a roller coaster. If that cast member wants to act according to the park’s rank- ordered values, he will excuse himself as quickly and po- litely as pos si ble and race toward the scream. Why? Because the number- one value just called. If the values were not rank- ordered and the cast member was enjoying the interaction with the guest, he might say, “ They’re always yell- ing at the park,” and not move in the direction of the scream. Later, some- body could come to that cast member and say, “You were the closest to the scream. Why didn’t you move?” The response could be, “I was dealing with our courtesy value.”

Life is a series of value conflicts. There will be times when you can’t act on two values at the same time. I have a hunch that’s why Walt Disney put efficiency— running a profitable business— as the fourth- ranked value. He wanted to make clear they would do nothing to save money that would put people in danger, nor do a major downsizing in the park that impacted in a negative way their courtesy value.

Once an organ ization has a compelling vision, they can set goals and de- fine strategic initiatives that suggest what people should be focusing on right now. With a compelling vision, these goals and strategic initiatives take on more meaning and therefore are not seen as a threat, but as part of the bigger picture.

The traditional hierarchical pyramid (see Figure 1.1) is efective for the leadership aspect of servant leadership. Kids look to their parents, players look to their coaches, and people look to their orga nizational leaders for vision and direction. While these leaders should involve experienced people in shaping direction, the ultimate responsibility remains with the leaders themselves and cannot be delegated to others.

Once people are clear on where they are going, the leader’s role shifts to a ser vice mindset for the task of implementation— the second aspect of ser- vant leadership. The question now is: How do we live according to the vision

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10 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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and accomplish the established goals? Implementation is where the servant as- pect of servant leadership comes into play.

Most organ izations and leaders get into trou ble in the implementation phase of the leadership pro cess. With self- serving leaders at the helm, the tra- ditional hierarchical pyramid is kept alive and well. When that happens, who do people think they work for? The people above them. The minute you think you work for the person above you for implementation, you are assum- ing that person— your boss—is responsible and your job is being responsive to that boss and to his or her whims or wishes. Now “boss watching” becomes a popu lar sport and people get promoted on their upward- influencing skills. As a result, all the energy of the organ ization is moving up the hierarchy, away from customers and the frontline folks who are closest to the action. What you get is a duck pond. When there is a conflict between what the customers want and what the boss wants, the boss wins. You have people quacking like ducks: “It’s our policy.” “I just work here.” “Would you like me to get my su- pervisor?” Servant leaders know how to correct this situation by philosophi- cally turning the traditional hierarchical pyramid upside down when it comes to implementation (see Figure 1.2).

When that happens, who is at the top of the organ ization? The customer contact people. Who is really at the top of the organ ization? The customers. Who is at the bottom now? The “top” management. As a result, who works for whom when it comes to implementation? You, the leader, work for your people. This one change, although it seems minor, makes a major diference. The diference is between who is responsible and who is responsive.

When you turn the orga nizational pyramid upside down, rather than your people being responsive to you, they become responsible— able to

Figure 1.1 Visionary/leadership role

RESPONSIVE

RESPONSIBLE

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respond— and your job as the leader/manager is to be responsive to your people. This creates a very dif er ent environment for implementation. If you work for your people as servant leaders do, what is the purpose of being a man- ag er? To help your people become ea gles rather than ducks and soar above the crowd— accomplishing goals, solving prob lems, and living according to the vision.4

As a customer, you can always tell an organ ization that is run by a self- serving leader. Why? Because if you have a prob lem and go to a frontline cus- tomer contact person to solve it, you are talking to a duck. They say, “It’s our policy,” quack quack; “I didn’t make the rules,” quack quack; “Do you want to talk to my supervisor?” quack quack.

Several years ago, a friend of mine had an experience in a department store that illustrates this point well. While shopping, he realized he needed to talk to his wife but he had left his cell phone at home. He asked a sales- person in the men’s department if he could use the telephone.

“No,” the salesperson said. My friend replied, “You have to be kidding me. I can always use the phone

at Nordstrom.” The salesperson said, “Look, buddy, they don’t let me use the phone here.

Why should I let you?” That certainly isn’t what servant leadership is all about. Who do you think

that salesperson worked for— a duck or an ea gle? Obviously, a supervisory duck. Who does that duck work for? Another duck, who works for another duck. And who sits at the top of the organ ization? The head mallard— a great big duck. If the salesperson had worked for an ea gle, both he and the cus- tomer would have been able to use the phone!

RESPONSIVE

RESPONSIBLE

Figure 1.2 Implementation/servant role

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12 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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Now contrast that with the ea gle experience one of my colleagues had when he went to Nordstrom one day to get some perfume for his wife. The woman behind the counter said, “I’m sorry; we don’t sell that perfume in our store. But I know where I can get it in the mall. How long will you be in our store?”

“About 30 minutes,” my colleague said. “Fine. I’ll go get it, bring it back, gift wrap it, and have it ready for you

when you leave.” This woman left Nordstrom, went to another store, got the perfume my

colleague wanted, came back to Nordstrom, and gift wrapped it. You know what she charged him? The same price she had paid at the other store. So Nor- dstrom didn’t make any money on the deal, but what did they make? A rav- ing fan customer.

To me, servant leadership is the only way to guarantee great relationships and results. That became even clearer to me when I realized that the two lead- ership approaches I am best known for around the world— The One Minute Man ag er® and Situational Leadership® II (SLII®)— are both examples of ser- vant leadership in action.

After all, what’s the First Secret of The One Minute Man ag er? One Min- ute Goals. All good per for mance starts with clear goals— which is clearly part of the leadership aspect of servant leadership. Once people are clear on goals, an efective One Minute Man ag er wanders around and tries to catch people doing something right so that they can deliver a One Minute Praising— the Second Secret. If the person is doing something wrong or not performing as well as agreed upon, a One Minute Re- Direct is appropriate— the Third Secret. When efective One Minute Man ag ers deliver praisings and re- directs, they are engaging in the servant aspect of servant leadership— they are working for their people to help them win— accomplish their goals.5

Situational Leadership® II6 also has three aspects that generate both great relationships and results: goal setting, diagnosis, and matching. Once clear goals are set, an efective SLII leader works with their direct report to diag- nose the direct report’s development level— competence and commitment— on each specific goal. Together they then determine the appropriate leadership style— the amount of directive and supportive be hav ior— that will match the person’s development level on each goal so that the man ag er can help them accomplish their goals. The key here, in the servant aspect of servant leader- ship, is for man ag ers to remember they must use dif er ent strokes for dif er- ent folks and also dif er ent strokes for the same folks, depending on the goal and the person’s development level.

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Why are the concepts of The One Minute Man ag er and SLII so widely used around the world? I think it’s because they are clear examples of servant leadership in action. Both concepts recognize that vision and direction— the leadership aspect of servant leadership—is the responsibility of the traditional hierarchy. The servant aspect of servant leadership is all about turning the hi- erarchy upside down and helping every one throughout the organ ization de- velop great relationships, get great results, and, eventually, delight their customers. That’s what servant leadership is all about.

Notes

1. Ken Blanchard et al., Leading at a Higher Level (Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press, 2006, 2010). See chapter 14 for a more extensive discussion of what servant leadership is all about.

2. See Ken Blanchard and Jesse Stoner, Full Steam Ahead: Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Com pany and Your Life (San Francisco: Berrett- Koehler, 2003, 2011) for more about the visionary role of leadership.

3. This expression was coined by Alan Randolph. See Ken Blanchard, John Carlos, and Alan Randolph, Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute (San Francisco: Berrett- Koehler, 1996).

4. Ken first heard this distinction between ducks and ea gles from author and legendary personal growth guru Wayne Dyer.

5. Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, The One Minute Man ag er (New York: William Morrow, 1982, 2003). See also their The New One Minute Man ag er (New York: William Morrow, 2015).

6. Ken Blanchard first developed Situational Leadership® with Paul Hersey in the late 1960s. It was in the early 1980s that Ken and founding associates of The Ken Blanchard Companies— Margie Blanchard, Don Carew, Eunice Parisi- Carew, Fred Finch, Laurie Hawkins, Drea Zigarmi, and Patricia Zigarmi— created Situational Leadership® II. The best description of this thinking can be found in Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi, and Drea Zigarmi, Leadership and the One Minute Man ag er (New York: William Morrow, 1985, 2013).

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C h a p t e r 2

Characteristics of Servant Leaders

L a r r y C . S p e a r s

In the late 1960s, I had the privilege of spending the weekend with

Robert K. Greenleaf shortly after he retired from AT&T and began

writing about servant leadership. I was on the faculty of Ohio

University in Athens, Ohio, at the time. Several years later I got to

know Larry Spears, who, during his time as director of the

Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, became the

premier student of Greenleaf’s writings. When you read Larry’s

essay about the ten characteristics of a servant leader, you will see

why his participation in this book was a must. — KB

The words servant and leader are usually thought of as being opposites. In deliberately bringing those words together in a meaningful way in 1970, Robert K. Greenleaf, a retired AT&T executive, gave birth to the paradoxi- cal term servant leadership. In doing so, he launched a quiet revolution in the way in which we view and practice leadership. In the de cades since then, many of today’s most efective man ag ers and top thought leaders are writing and speaking about servant leadership, as exemplified in this book.

What is servant leadership? Let’s take a look at Greenleaf ’s big picture definition:

The servant leader is servant first. It begins with the natu ral feeling that one wants to serve. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The best test is: do those served grow as persons: do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the efect

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Characteristics of Servant Leaders • 15

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on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived?1

Ten Characteristics of a Servant Leader

Back in 1992, I extracted from Robert K. Greenleaf ’s writings a set of ten characteristics of the servant leader, which I view as being of critical impor- tance and central to the development of servant leaders. In the de cades since that time, part of my own work in servant leadership has focused on encour- aging a deepening understanding of the following characteristics and how they contribute to the meaningful practices of servant leaders. These ten charac- teristics are:

1. Listening. Leaders traditionally have been valued for their commu- nication and decision- making skills. Although these are also impor tant skills for the servant leader, they need to be reinforced by a deep commitment to listening intently to others. The servant leader seeks to identify the will of a group and helps to clarify that will. He or she listens receptively to what is being said and not said. Listening also encompasses hearing one’s own inner voice. Listen- ing, coupled with periods of reflection, is essential to the growth and well- being of the servant leader.

2. Empathy. The servant leader strives to understand and empathize with others. People deserve to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique spirits. One assumes the good intentions of coworkers and colleagues and does not reject them as people, even when one may be forced to refuse to accept certain be hav iors or per for mance. The most successful servant leaders are those who have become skilled empathetic listeners.

3. Healing. The healing of relationships is a power ful force for trans- formation and integration. One of the great strengths of servant leadership is the potential for healing one’s self and one’s relation- ship to others. Many people have broken spirits and have sufered from a variety of emotional hurts. Although this is a part of being human, servant leaders recognize that they have an opportunity to help make whole those with whom they come in contact. In his essay “The Servant as Leader,” Greenleaf writes, “ There is something subtle communicated to one who is being served and led if, implicit

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in the compact between servant leader and led, is the understand- ing that the search for wholeness is something they share.”2

4. Awareness. General awareness, and especially self- awareness, strengthens the servant leader. Awareness helps one in understand- ing issues involving ethics, power, and values. It lends itself to being able to view most situations from a more integrated, holistic posi- tion. As Greenleaf observes, “Awareness is not a giver of solace—it is just the opposite. It is a disturber and an awakener. Able leaders are usually sharply awake and reasonably disturbed. They are not seekers after solace. They have their own inner serenity.”3

5. Persuasion. Another characteristic of servant leaders is reliance on persuasion, rather than on one’s positional authority, in making decisions within an organ ization. The servant leader seeks to convince others, rather than coerce compliance. This par tic u lar ele ment ofers one of the clearest distinctions between the tradi- tional authoritarian model and that of servant leadership. The servant leader is efective at building consensus within groups. This emphasis on persuasion over coercion finds its roots in the beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)— the denominational body to which Robert K. Greenleaf belonged.

6. Conceptualization. Servant leaders seek to nurture their abilities to dream great dreams. The ability to look at a prob lem or an organ- ization from a conceptualizing perspective means that one must think beyond day- to- day realities. For many leaders, this is a characteristic that requires discipline and practice. The traditional leader is consumed by the need to achieve short- term operational goals. The leader who wishes also to be a servant leader must stretch his or her thinking to encompass broader- based conceptual thinking. Within organ izations, conceptualization is, by its very nature, a key role of boards of trustees or directors. Unfortu- nately, boards can sometimes become involved in the day- to- day operations— something that should always be discouraged— and thus fail to provide the visionary concept for an institution. Trustees need to be mostly conceptual in their orientation; stafs need to be mostly operational in their perspective; and the most efective executive leaders prob ably need to develop both perspec- tives within themselves. Servant leaders are called to seek a delicate balance between conceptual thinking and a day- to- day operational approach.

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Characteristics of Servant Leaders • 17

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7. Foresight. Closely related to conceptualization, the ability to foresee the likely outcome of a situation is hard to define but easier to identify. One knows foresight when one experiences it. Foresight is a characteristic that enables the servant leader to understand the lessons from the past, the realities of the pres ent, and the likely consequence of a decision for the future. It is also deeply rooted within the intuitive mind. Foresight remains a largely unexplored area in leadership studies, but it is one most deserving of careful attention.

8. Stewardship. Peter Block, author of Stewardship and The Empowered Man ag er,4 defines stewardship as “holding something in trust for another.” Robert K. Greenleaf ’s view of all institutions was one in which CEOs, stafs, and trustees all played significant roles in holding their institutions in trust for the greater good of society. Servant leadership, like stewardship, assumes a commitment to serving the needs of others. It also emphasizes the use of openness and persuasion rather than control.

9. Commitment to the growth of people. Servant leaders believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contributions as workers. As such, the servant leader is deeply committed to the growth of each individual within his or her organ ization. The servant leader recognizes the tremendous responsibility to do every thing in his or her power to nurture the personal and professional growth of employees and colleagues. In practice, this can include concrete actions such as making funds available for personal and professional development, taking a personal interest in the ideas and suggestions from every one, encouraging worker involvement in decision making, and actively assisting laid- of employees to find other positions.

10. Building community. The servant leader senses that much has been lost in recent human history as a result of the shift from local communities to large institutions as the primary shaper of human lives. This awareness causes the servant leader to seek to identify some means for building community among those who work within a given institution. Servant leadership suggests that true community can be created among those who work in businesses and other institutions. Greenleaf said, “All that is needed to rebuild community as a viable life form for large numbers of people is for enough servant leaders to show the way, not by mass movements, but by each servant leader demonstrating his or her unlimited liability for a quite specific community- related group.”5

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These ten characteristics of servant leadership are by no means exhaustive. However, they do serve to communicate the power and promise that this con- cept ofers to those who are open to its invitation and challenge.

We are experiencing a rapid shift in many businesses and not- for- profit organ izations— away from the more traditional autocratic and hierarchical models of leadership and toward servant leadership as a way of being in rela- tionship with others. Interest in the meaning and practice of servant leader- ship continues to grow. Many books, articles, and papers on the subject have now been published. Workshops, courses, and degrees in servant leadership are now available. Many of the companies named to Fortune magazine’s an- nual listing of “The 100 Best Companies to Work For” espouse servant lead- ership and have integrated it into their corporate cultures. My own work in servant leadership over the past quarter century has brought me into direct or indirect contact with millions of people who embrace servant leadership, and who are now working to create servant- led organ izations of all kinds.

Servant leadership characteristics often occur naturally within many in- dividuals and, like many natu ral tendencies, they can be enhanced through learning and practice. Servant leadership ofers great hope for the future in creating better, more caring, institutions.

Larry C. Spears, a noted author and speaker on servant leadership, is president and CEO of the Spears Center for Servant Leadership (www.spearscenter . org) and also serves as servant leadership scholar at Gonzaga University. From 1990 to 2007, Larry was president and CEO of the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Ser- vant Leadership. He is the editor and contributing author of more than a dozen books on servant leadership including Insights on Leadership, as well as editor of five books of Greenleaf ’s writings.

Notes

1. Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1977).

2. Robert K. Greenleaf, “The Servant as Leader” (Atlanta: The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, 1970).

3. Ibid. 4. Peter Block, The Empowered Man ag er: Positive Po liti cal Skills at Work (San

Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 1987), and Stewardship: Choosing Ser vice over Self Interest (San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 1993).

5. Greenleaf, “The Servant as Leader.”

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http://www.spearscenter.org

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C h a p t e r 3

Servant Leadership Is Conscious Leadership

R a j S i s o d i a

When I shared the platform a few years ago with Raj Sisodia,

I was amazed how complementary his thinking about Conscious

Capitalism was with my beliefs about servant leadership—in

essence, that profit is the applause you get for creating a

motivating environment for your people so that they will take care

of your customers. Read this essay and see how well Conscious

Capitalism fits in with the beliefs on servant leadership that Larry

Spears and I have shared. — KB

The institution of business, as practiced in a system of free market capi- talism, has been the prime driver in elevating human prosperity and flour- ishing to unpre ce dented heights for more than two hundred years. These huge gains in material prosperity have come at a cost, however. People are experiencing extremely high levels of stress, depression, and chronic dis- eases.

How is this state of afairs acceptable? We are more intelligent, more ed- ucated, better informed, more connected, more caring, less violent, and more conscious than ever before. Yet our work continues to be a source of deep suf- fering for most of us. In large mea sure, we can place the blame on poor leadership.

Leaders are products of the systems that give rise to them. The existing system has elevated people into positions of leadership who lack the qualities needed to lead in today’s world. These people do what ever it takes to deliver the numbers without regard to human cost or long- term consequences for orga nizational health.

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The consciousness with which a business operates is a direct function of the consciousness of its leader. A leader whose consciousness is rooted in fear, scarcity, and survival will create an organ ization that is all about those qual- ities.

But there is a new way of doing business that is radically dif er ent. Actu- ally, it is not new at all— companies have been operating this way for over a century. These conscious cap i tal ist organ izations have four defining character- istics:

1. They operate with a purpose other than profit maximization as their reason for being.

2. They seek to create value for all their stakeholders, not just share- holders.

3. Their leaders are motivated by ser vice to the com pany’s purpose and its people, not by power or personal enrichment.

4. They strive to build cultures infused with trust, openness, and caring instead of fear and stress.

In the long run, our research shows that such companies generate far more financial wealth than do traditional profit- centered firms— outperforming the S&P 500 index by 14 to 1 and the companies featured in Jim Collins’s Good to Great by 6 to 1 over a 15- year period.1 Conscious businesses know that it is pos si ble to do business with a spectrum of positive efects. And if it is pos- si ble, why would we choose not to?

You cannot have a conscious business without a conscious leader, and you cannot be a conscious leader without being a conscious human being. The qualities of servant leaders overlap considerably with those of conscious lead- ers. For the purposes of this essay, please consider the two terms interchange- able as we explore the characteristics of servant leaders/conscious leaders and how they can be cultivated.

Conscious Leaders are SELFLESS

Only three things happen naturally in organ izations: friction, confusion, and underper for mance. Every thing else takes leadership. — Peter Drucker

The essential ele ments of what it means to be a conscious leader can be cap- tured in this single word, which also serves as an acronym: SELFLESS—

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Servant Leadership Is Conscious Leadership • 21

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defined as placing the interests of others before your own. True leaders transcend the self. A leader who operates with a primary emphasis on self- interest naturally views other people as a means to that end. You cannot be a true leader if you operate at that level of consciousness.

Selfless does not mean eradicating the ego; that is nearly impossible. It is about harnessing the ego in healthy ways. As the Dalai Lama has said, “We cannot and need not eradicate our ego; rather, we must make sure it is a serv- ing ego and not a deserving ego.”

As an acronym, SELFLESS refers to the qualities of conscious leaders: Strength, Enthusiasm, Love, Flexibility, Long- Term Orientation, Emotional Intelligence, Systems Intelligence, and Spiritual Intelligence. The servant leader is a whole person, not a fragmented being. SELFLESS reflects a harmo- nious blend of mature masculine and mature feminine qualities. Too many leaders today manifest only immature hypermasculine qualities such as dom- ination, aggression, hypercompetitiveness, winning at all costs, etc. They view every leadership challenge through the lens of war— a mindset that is at best win- lose, and usually lose- lose. Let’s take a closer look at what each letter of the SELFLESS acronym stands for.

Strength

We start with strength because conscious leaders are strong, resolute, and re- silient. They have to have moral fiber, self- confidence, and the courage of their convictions. They are unshakable in standing up to doubters or obstruc- tionists with self- serving agendas. They are confident without being arrogant. The key is that their strength is deployed in the ser vice of noble ends: the flourishing of all the lives they lead and touch. This strength is sourced from within as well as from outside.

Conscious leaders draw on the strength of their teams without depleting the power of those teams. They tap into the moral power of the universe— which is available to anyone engaged in genuinely “right” action. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Leaders who try to bend that arc in other directions will find their eforts ultimately stymied, while those who engage in right ac- tions and pursue noble goals can access unlimited righ teous power. It is power with, not power over, those they seek to lead. For leaders to be power ful, fol- lowers don’t have to be rendered powerless. Collectively, they have access to all the power they need by being connected to the source of infinite power.

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Enthusiasm

Conscious leaders are connected to an infinite source of power because of their commitment to a higher purpose and a righ teous path. This power gives them great energy and enthusiasm. This doesn’t mean that they have to be gregari- ous extroverts. Introverts make exceptional leaders, as many studies have found. But when you’re aligned with your purpose, you can’t help but be en- thusiastic. That is hard to fake if you don’t have it.

Love

A fundamental leadership quality is the ability to operate from love and care. Throughout human history, the great leaders who transformed society for the better— Emperor Ashoka, Lincoln, Gandhi, Mandela, and King— all possessed tremendous strength along with a power ful capacity for car- ing. They were able to expand their circle of caring to encompass more and more of humanity— often including their own so- called enemies. They truly, deeply cared about human beings and had a clear sense of right and wrong. Truly great leaders are those who take the world to a better place. They manifest love that is rooted in a foundation of caring. When a leader comes from a place of genuine caring and possesses great strength, they be- come a peaceful warrior, able to battle steep odds for a just and righ teous cause.

The opposite of love is fear. An organ ization sufused with fear is inher- ently incapable of genuine creativity and innovation. Its people are condemned to daily lives of intense stress, unhappiness, ill health, and dysfunctional families. Conscious leaders seek to drive fear out of their organ izations. As Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why and Leaders Eat Last,2 says, they cre- ate a “circle of safety” within which every one in the orga nizational family can grow and thrive.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the capacity to switch modes seamlessly and to bend without breaking as the situation or the context requires. Conscious leaders are like golfers with a full set of clubs; they know how to select and implement the right approach for each situation. These leaders are able to bend but not break, adapting to circumstances in a principled way without sacrificing their core values.

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Servant Leadership Is Conscious Leadership • 23

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A phrase that captures the idea of flexibility states that conscious leaders are “wise fools of tough love.” They si mul ta neously embody wisdom and play- fulness, strength and tenderness. They cultivate a sensitive sonar that enables them to gauge the approach needed in each leadership moment.

Long- Term Orientation

Conscious leaders operate on a time horizon that goes beyond not only their tenure as leaders but also their own lifetimes. The Founding Fathers of the United States led with an eye toward eternity, seeking to put in place ideas and princi ples that would endure for centuries if not millennia. Organ izations have the potential to be immortal. Whether they endure depends on the ac- tions of their leaders.

The success of a leader is best gauged by what happens after they are gone. Does the organ ization continue to operate with high princi ples and moral clar- ity? Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, in their book Built to Last,3 wrote about leaders who are “clock builders” vs. those who are “time tellers.” Clock build- ers create organ izations that will endure when they are gone, because no one is reliant on them to tell the time. Conscious leaders ensure that the essential ele ments of what makes the business special become part of the DNA of the organ ization. They often accomplish this by creating documents akin to the U.S. Declaration of In de pen dence— who we are and what we stand for; and the Constitution— how we do things.

Emotional Intelligence

For leaders, a high level of analytical intelligence (IQ ) is a given. In the past, most companies only valued that. Today, other forms of intelligence are even more impor tant—in par tic u lar, emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and systems intelligence. The great news is that while our analytical intelli- gence is fixed at birth and can only decline, other kinds of intelligence can be cultivated and enhanced.

Emotional intelligence (EQ ) combines self- awareness (understanding oneself ) and empathy (the ability to feel and understand what others are feel- ing). High EQ is increasingly being recognized as impor tant in organ izations because of the growing complexity of society and the variety of stakeholders that must be communicated with efectively. Unfortunately, research shows that the higher the position in the organ ization, the lower the level of EQ, with the CEO typically having the lowest level.4

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Growing our self- awareness is a continuous pro cess that lasts a lifetime— an entire universe is within us, waiting to be discovered. We learn about our- selves by becoming aware of our emotions and understanding why we’re experiencing them. Each emotion is a win dow into who we are and what we care about, often at a subconscious level. As Carl Jung said, “ Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

Systems Intelligence

Systems intelligence (SYQ ) is an intelligence many socie ties don’t yet recog- nize, understand, or cultivate. Yet in the twenty- first century, as organ izations become more complex and the world becomes increasingly interdependent, it’s hard to overstate how valuable this type of intelligence is.

Systems thinking focuses on the way that a system’s constituent parts in- terrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems. Systems thinking contrasts sharply with symptomatic thinking, which causes us to constantly react to surface- level symptoms rather than un- derstand the under lying pro cesses that are giving rise to those symptoms.

Conscious leaders work to become natu ral systems thinkers. They under- stand the roots of prob lems and how the prob lems relate to orga nizational design and culture, and they devise fundamental solutions instead of apply- ing symptomatic quick fixes. As Winston Churchill said, “We shape our build- ings, and then our buildings shape us.” The same can be said of systems.

Spiritual Intelligence

According to Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, “Spiritual intelligence (SQ ) is the intelligence with which we access our deepest meanings, values, purposes, and higher motivations. It is . . . our moral intelligence, giving us an innate ability to distinguish right from wrong. It is the intelligence with which we exercise goodness, truth, beauty, and compassion in our lives.”5 SQ helps us to discover our higher purpose in our work and our lives. Leaders with high SQ have a remarkable ability to align their organ izations with a higher pur- pose. They also have uncanny discernment to sense when things are begin- ning to go of track.

Servant leadership matters now more than ever. The human seed has never been more potent, power ful, or filled with promise. But even the best seed,

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Servant Leadership Is Conscious Leadership • 25

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in order to flourish, needs the right soil: conditions that enable us to realize our extraordinary, almost divine, potential. In the orga nizational context, that means having the right kind of leadership that gives rise to a culture in which people can flourish. But if met with toxic leadership that seeks only to use and exploit precious human lives, that same seed can wither away, or worse, mu- tate into a malignant force and spread further pain and sufering in the world. Our great collective calling in the world today is to enhance joy. That takes leaders with great hearts and great courage who seek only to serve, to imagine a better future, and to devise ways in which we can realize it together.

A global thought leader of the Conscious Capitalism movement, Raj Sisodia (www. rajsisodia . com) is the Franklin Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Whole Foods Market Research Scholar in Conscious Capitalism at Babson College. He is also cofounder and cochairman of Conscious Capitalism, Inc. Raj has an MBA from the Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Bombay and a PhD in marketing from Columbia University. He is coauthor of the bestselling book Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business.

Notes

1. Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t (New York: HarperBusiness, 2001).

2. Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Every one to Take Action (New York: Penguin, 2009). See also his Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t (New York: Penguin, 2014).

3. Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (New York: HarperBusiness, 1994).

4. Travis Bradberry and Jeanne Greaves, “Heartless Bosses?,” Harvard Business Review (December 2005).

5. Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, Spiritual Capital: Wealth We Can Live By (San Francisco: Berrett- Koehler, 2004).

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http://www.rajsisodia.com

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C h a p t e r 4

Servant Leadership at the Speed of Trust

S t e p h e n M . R . C o v e y

I met Stephen R. Covey in 1976. Over time, we spoke at many of

the same sessions and became great supporters of each other’s

work. When Steve passed away a few years ago, I was sad our field

had lost such an impor tant voice. Little did I know then that his

son, Stephen M. R. Covey, with whom I have shared the platform

many times since, would take up the banner and even go beyond

where his father had journeyed. You’ll understand what I’m saying

after you read this wonderful essay about the role of trust in being

an effective servant leader. — KB

T here is an intuition that I’ve had for a long time now. As a student of Robert K. Greenleaf ’s princi ples of servant leadership, I felt that intuition grow as I developed my original manuscript for The Speed of Trust,1 and grow ever stronger as Greg Link and I followed it with Smart Trust.2 I became in- creasingly convinced that the practices of servant leadership and trust are inextricably linked. Today I find it difficult to talk about serving without also talking about trust— and vice versa.

Consider this contrast: both servant leadership and trust- based leader- ship stand in opposition to traditional positional leadership, which is steeped in the language of control: “You have to do what I say because I’m the boss.”

On the other hand, servant leaders and trust- based leaders alike draw from a deeper well of meaning. They serve first and they extend trust first. Leadership is the by- product and positional authority is, at best, an after- thought.

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Servant Leadership at the Speed of Trust • 27

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Given the link between servant leadership and trust, which comes first? Is one driven by the other? For the leader who seeks to lead their organ ization into the stratosphere of success, how should these two disciplines be balanced? Here are five key insights that have become clear to me.

1. The defining outcome for the servant leader is trust. How do you know if you are a servant leader? The answer is trust.

Trust is the litmus test. Trust is to servant leadership what profit is to a business. It’s the outcome. It’s the core mea sure. The scoreboard.

It’s a simple assessment you can conduct right now. Pause for a moment to think about the people you lead. What is the level— and quality—of trust? If you are an au then tic servant leader, you have enormous trust. But if you are surrounded by low or damaged trust, then you may safely conclude that your servant orientation is in some way compromised or diluted.

If you lead as a servant, you’ll know it— because you will be surrounded by high- trust relationships and a high- trust team. And your com pany will reap the dividends of a high- trust organ ization. It’s that simple.

2. The clear intent of the servant leader is to serve others. Trust and servant leadership share another similarity in that

both are built on intent. Intent— your motive, your agenda— may be intangible and invisible. But don’t think for a moment that it is hidden. People sense your intent in every thing you say and do.

Think about positional leaders. What is the intent of leaders who drive change purely through the force of their position in the orga nizational hierarchy? To generate business outcomes first. If they can do so while also creating a win for other people, that’s certainly a nice bonus. But when tempted with a forced choice, they will go straight for the results even if it means that people get bruised in the pro cess. I’ve worked with plenty of those leaders. At the end of the day, positional leaders are self- serving.

Servant leaders are dif er ent. Their intent is purely and simply to serve others— coworkers, customers, partners, communities. Servant leaders are motivated by caring and the agenda they seek is mutual benefit: “I want to win— but it is even more impor tant to me that you win.” I have worked with plenty of those leaders

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28 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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as well. When their intent was pure, I knew it. I never needed to second- guess their agenda or motive. And, significantly, I wanted to give them my best in terms of quality work and personal loyalty. They truly inspired me to perform better and they absolutely brought out the best in me.

But why wait for people to infer your intent? You can accelerate trust by declaring your intent. John Mackey, the beloved CEO of Whole Foods Market, did this in dramatic fashion eight years ago when he wrote a letter to all employees of the organ ization. Here is an excerpt from that remarkable— and now legendary— com pany communication:

The tremendous success of Whole Foods Market has provided me with far more money than I ever dreamed I’d have and far more than is necessary for either my financial security or personal happiness. . . . I am now 53 years old and I have reached a place in my life where I no longer want to work for money, but simply for the joy of the work itself and to better answer the call to ser vice that I feel so clearly in my own heart. Beginning on January 1, 2007, my salary will be reduced to $1, and I will no longer take any other cash compensation. . . . The intention of the board of directors is for Whole Foods Market to donate all of the future stock options I would be eligible to receive to our two com pany foundations.

What do you imagine was the cultural impact of that state- ment? If you were an employee at Whole Foods Market, do you think this might have reawakened your own aspirations and commitment to the mission? And might it have increased Mackey’s credibility as he led this fast- growing organ ization? It did both of those things, in abundance.

There are more tangible outcomes as well. Over time, a servant leader’s au then tic intent will eventually materialize in behavioral norms, and then ultimately in systems and structures. Today, Mackey’s intent is manifest in Whole Foods’ servant leadership culture. Intent shapes the organ ization. And it becomes real.

3. The deliberate be hav ior of the servant leader is au then tic, trust- building be hav ior.

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Servant Leadership at the Speed of Trust • 29

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Be hav ior is ground zero for the servant leader. It is the place where conviction becomes real; where intent becomes a potent force for value- creating change; and where the leader can make inten- tional moves for the purpose of establishing a servant leadership culture.

For the servant leader, be hav ior isn’t just what gets done but how it gets done. This princi ple shows up in the norms of many servant leader cultures. The former chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble, Bob McDonald, put it this way: “How we achieve growth is as impor tant as the results themselves.” Similarly, at Marriott they say, “How we do business is as impor tant as the business we do.” Expressed another way: for the servant leader, the means preexist in the ends.

This stands in contrast to the positional leader, for whom the results take pre ce dence over pro cess; the what supersedes the how; and the end justifies the means. In dramatic cases this may show up as visibly unethical or illegal be hav ior. But most positional leaders I know are not overtly nefarious. Indeed, their be hav iors may appear on the surface to build trust. But when they lack the servant leader intent, closer examination reveals a subtly counterfeit quality to the be hav iors.

In The Speed of Trust, I identify be hav iors that powerfully build trust. Each of those be hav iors has an accompanying opposite and, perhaps more significantly, an accompanying counterfeit, which reflect how a positional leader more typically behaves. For example, one of the be hav iors is to demonstrate re spect. A positional leader may practice the counterfeit of demonstrating re spect only to some— such as those who can do something for him; and not to others— those who can’t.

Similarly, another trust- building be hav ior is to talk straight. The counterfeit would be to appear to deliver straight talk while in real ity withholding or spinning some parts of the message.

You can see the subtle temptations that make these counterfeit be hav iors appealing. I find that without self- reflection, many leaders actually believe their counterfeit be hav iors come from a place of integrity. But they don’t stand up to scrutiny. These be hav iors may generate results for a while, but they’re not sustainable— and worse, they diminish trust. Sooner or later, people always infer your real intent.

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30 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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4. The strong bias of the servant leader is to extend trust to others. Extending trust to others doesn’t have to be an exercise in

blind gullibility. It is an intentional action I call Smart Trust. It begins with a willingness to trust others— what I refer to as a person’s propensity to trust. It is balanced with an analy sis of the stakes and risks of extending that trust, which includes an assess- ment of the credibility of those being trusted. But the clear and deci ded bias is to start with trust. That starting point is what opens up boundless possibilities.

The positional leader seeks to control. The servant leader seeks to unleash talent and creativity by extending trust to others. Why? Because the servant leader fundamentally believes deeply in others— and in their potential.

I truly do empathize with the positional leader! It is a risk to extend trust to others. Many leaders I know have advanced in their careers by minimizing risk. They say, “I want it done right, so I do it myself.” Some are even celebrated for this approach. But this orientation is exhausting, unsustainable, and incapable of deliver- ing the endless innovation, energy, and engagement of an organ- ization that has been electrified by trust.

Muhammed Yunus extended Smart Trust to the masses, and it won him the Nobel Peace Prize. Yunus was a university professor in Bangladesh who was grieved by the vicious cycle of poverty he saw around him. He believed his community would have the capacity to lift itself out of poverty through entrepreneurship if it only had access to capital. A person wouldn’t need a lot of money— just $25, for example, to purchase inventory for a vending cart. Out of this need, and ultimately out of millions of extensions of trust, Yunus founded the global microcredit movement.

Early in the pro cess of making these small loans available to individual people, Yunus encountered a challenge. “The people said they couldn’t provide collateral,” Yunus reflected. “I said I will provide the collateral for them.” And Grameen Bank was born.

Listen to Yunus’s declaration of intent in describing the microcredit movement: “We are going to make a diference and draw people out of poverty. We are going to extend trust and people will thrive in it.” Yunus understood a basic yet power ful princi ple of trust, which is that people want to be trusted. It’s the most compelling form of human motivation. Grameen Bank has

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Servant Leadership at the Speed of Trust • 31

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the results to prove this princi ple: the microcredit movement has helped to lift literally tens of millions of people out of poverty. And the more than 98 percent rate of payback on loans demonstrates the world- changing results that can be achieved when a servant leader extends trust. Compare that to the 88 percent payback rate of traditional small business loans!

5. The purpose of the servant leader is contribution—to make a diference; to give back.

The positional leader serves the bottom line, or the self. The servant leader serves something greater, inspiring trust not only in the leader, but potentially in all of society as well.

Pedro Medina was a businessperson in the Republic of Colom- bia who helped to establish McDonald’s restaurants there in 1999. He was painfully aware of the volatility of the neighborhoods where he lived and did business. His country was plagued with social instability. Kidnappings and terrorist acts dominated the daily headlines.

While teaching at a local university, he asked his students how many of the talented young people he was investing in intended to leave Colombia after graduation. Most of them raised their hands.

This pained him. “Why do you want to leave?” he asked. They told him, “We have lost hope. Can you tell us why we should stay?”

The question haunted him. So he founded an organ ization called Yo Creo en Colombia (I Believe in Colombia). A grassroots initiative, the organ ization’s primary purpose was— and still is—to increase trust and confidence in Colombia, first at home and then abroad. It reaches out to Colombians to advocate for the achieve- ments, potential, and resources of the country, and to leverage them “in order to build a fair, competitive, and inclusive nation.” Since its inception, the foundation has touched hundreds of thousands of Colombians in 157 cities and 26 countries.

Medina created a power ful social movement and did it without positional authority. His eforts have not only taken root at the grassroots level, but also spawned institutional and structural changes at the national level. Three years after Medina began this initiative, a man named Alvaro Uribe, motivated by the impact of Yo Creo en Colombia and the numerous like- minded initiatives it inspired, was elected president on the very platform of restaurando

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32 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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la confianza (“restoring trust”) that Medina had identified. Not only was Uribe able to succeed, he was the first Colombian to be reelected president in over a century. Today there is still great work to do, but the country has made massive strides in restoring trust in security, investment, and social cohesion.

Medina was just an ordinary businessperson with the heart of a servant leader, a vision and purpose bigger than himself, and the courage to take action. That was enough to change his entire country.

Though closely related, trust and servant leadership are not synonymous. But they do share some impor tant commonalities. Both find their genesis in choice. And both are born in the intent of the leader. They are simple disciplines, but they are not easy. In fact, they are hard. Both trust and servant leadership require the full engagement of the leader as well as the courage to set aside self- serving pursuits in the ser vice of other people and higher outcomes.

In fact, you can choose to accelerate your practice of trusting servant lead- ership right now, at this very moment. It begins with a self- audit and a com- mitment. Ask yourself:

• What is the level of trust I share with my relationships, my team, my stakeholders?

• What is my real intent? Is it truly to serve others, or is it to serve myself?

• What are some opportunities for declaring my real intent to others? • What are some ways in which I can deliberately demonstrate my intent

to serve through my be hav iors?

Yes, there are risks involved when you set aside your own self- interests and extend trust to those around you. But I believe the greater risk is to withhold trust.

By both inspiring and extending trust, you enable yourself to create a mighty culture of servant leadership that speaks to the highest aspirations of the people you lead. I am confident that within just a few hours of reading this chapter, you will encounter an opportunity to demonstrate your servant leadership intent through trust- building be hav iors.

Are you ready to seize that moment?

Stephen M. R. Covey (www.speedoftrust . com) is cofounder of CoveyLink and the FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust Practice. He is bestselling author of The

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Servant Leadership at the Speed of Trust • 33

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Speed of Trust, coauthor of Smart Trust, and a sought- after keynote speaker and adviser on trust, leadership, ethics, sales, and high per for mance. You can follow Covey on Twitter @StephenMRCovey.

Notes

1. Stephen M. R. Covey, The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Every thing (New York: Free Press, 2006).

2. Stephen M. R. Covey and Greg Link, Smart Trust: Creating Prosperity, Energy, and Joy in a Low- Trust World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011).

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C h a p t e r 5

Great Leaders SERVE

M a r k M i l l e r

I met Mark Miller several years ago when I went to Atlanta to speak

to all the Chick- fil- A man ag ers. I was instantly blown away by his

creative thinking about servant leadership. As a result, he became

one of my favorite coauthors, on both The Secret and Great

Leaders Grow. When you read this essay, you’ll see what I mean.

— KB

Almost twenty years ago, our team at Chick- fil- A, Inc., began work on a proj ect to accelerate leadership development across the organ ization. Our first conclusion: we needed a common definition of leadership. Any attempts to scale the pro cess of helping leaders grow would be frustrating, if not futile, without a clear picture of success.

After a lot of research, discussion, and debate, we thought we might have an idea worth pursuing. However, we had what I would call a crisis of confi- dence as we looked at a simple outline representing our point of view. I clearly remember one of the group members saying, “What if this isn’t right?”

Although collectively we had read a couple of hundred books on leader- ship, we knew a lot more about chicken than we did creating a leadership cul- ture. We knew the stakes were high: we were about to declare our very definition of leadership. Such a simple and definitive statement would drive countless hours of development, tens of millions of dollars of investment, and, perhaps most impor tant, this definition would shape the caliber of our lead- ers for de cades to come.

Then someone said, “I have an idea . . . What if we seek some outside per- spective?” Well, you can chalk it up to coincidence or divine intervention, but I was scheduled to be with Ken Blanchard the next day! I ofered to share our outline with him, and the team was in full agreement.

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Great Leaders SERVE • 35

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I’ll never forget that encounter with Ken. I handed him a single sheet of paper and quickly explained how we were trying to accelerate leadership de- velopment. And then I said, “Do you think our model is true? Have we missed anything? Will it stand the test of time?”

Ken’s response was strong and immediate: “This has got to be a book!” As you may or may not know, that conversation led to my first book with

Ken, The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do.1 He and I took a simple outline and transformed it into a parable that today is being shared around the world in more than twenty- five languages.

Why has the book been so successful? Besides Ken’s power ful global brand, I think the book has struck a chord in the hearts and minds of leaders around the planet because of the truth contained within its pages. The secret is out!

Here’s a quick overview of five strategic ways great leaders SERVE:

See and shape the future. Leadership always begins with a picture of the future. Leaders who cannot paint a compelling picture of a preferred future are in jeopardy of forfeiting their leadership. People want to know: Where are we going? What are we trying to accomplish? What are we trying to become? And why does it matter? We encourage leaders not to give away their influence by failing to answer these critical questions. If you don’t know the answers, start figuring them out. Clarity will often come in the midst of activity. If you are stuck, get moving. Who wants to follow a leader who doesn’t know where they are trying to go? When the vision is clear and compelling, it will create life, energy, and momentum.

Engage and develop others. Ken and I were writing about engagement before it was cool— but make no mistake, it has always been critical. Engagement is about creating the context for people to thrive. The annual engagement survey of American workers, year after year, paints a grim picture of staggeringly low engagement. This is not an indictment of the workers; it is the leaders who need to make a change. The reason development is called out is because of its critical importance. Yes, it could be considered a strategy for raising engage- ment levels. However, it could also be missed. We believe leaders who are not proactively developing others are missing a vital aspect of their role.

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36 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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Reinvent continuously. This fundamental of great leaders is a big idea. Most leaders have heard the expression “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.” To make pro gress, to move forward, to accomplish bigger and better, something has to change! To help leaders break it down into manageable pieces we talk about three arenas, each having its own diagnostic questions. Self: How are you reinventing yourself? Systems: Which work pro cesses need to change to generate better results? Structure: What structural changes could you make to better enable the accomplishment of your goals? There are many more questions, but these will usually start a productive conver- sation.

Value results and relationships. This is the tenet that generates the most angst for many leaders. Having taught this content around the globe for almost twenty years, there is no doubt in my mind this is the most challenging ele ment of our model. Would you agree? I bet you would. The reason: virtually every leader has a natu ral bias. Our wiring pulls us toward one or the other. This is not necessarily bad— but if we aren’t careful, it can severely limit our efectiveness. Having a default setting won’t destroy your leadership if you can successfully compensate for your bias. The best leaders value both! There is a princi ple at play here: the tremendous power in the tension. Our challenge as leaders is to manage the tension. Only then can we productively channel its power.

Embody the values. People always watch the leader— whether we want them to or not! They are generally looking for clues regarding what’s impor tant to the leader. They are also trying to determine if the leader is trustworthy. So what’s the link between embodying the values and trustworthiness? If a leader says something is impor tant, people expect that person to live like it’s impor tant. The gap between what we say and do as leaders can be lethal. People generally don’t follow a leader they don’t trust. Worse yet, if someone doesn’t trust the leader but stays on the payroll, you don’t have an advocate for your organ ization and your culture, you have an adversary. Leaders must do every thing humanly pos si ble to walk the talk!

Are you ready to become a serving leader? I hope so! I have one closing thought for you. If you are looking for the latest tech-

niques in coercing people to do your bidding, you can continue your search.

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Great Leaders SERVE • 37

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Servant leadership is not for you. It’s not a strategy or shortcut to success. However, if you are willing to begin the long journey of adding value to others, putting their interests ahead of your own, helping them win, and mastering the five fundamentals we just reviewed, you will enjoy new levels of success, satisfaction, and impact.

Great leaders SERVE!

In more than thirty years with Chick- fil- A, Mark Miller has served in numerous leadership capacities including restaurant operations, quality and customer satis- faction, and corporate communications. He travels extensively, teaching on a va- riety of topics including teams, servant leadership, and training. He is the author of Chess Not Checkers, The Secret of Teams, The Heart of Leadership, and his latest, Leaders Made Here: Building a Leadership Culture. He is also coauthor with Ken Blanchard of Great Leaders Grow and the international bestseller The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do. Follow Mark Miller on Twitter: @LeadersServe.

Note

1. Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller, The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do (San Francisco: Berrett- Koehler, 2009, 2014).

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C h a p t e r 6

Servant Leadership

What Does It Really Mean?

M a r k A . F l o y d

I’ve come to admire Mark Floyd from our work together at

conferences designed to spread the word about servant leader-

ship. He’s not only a successful entrepreneur, but also an extraor-

dinary thinker about what it takes to be a servant leader. Mark and

I both believe that every one is a potential servant leader. Regard-

less of whether we have an orga nizational position, we are all

potential servant leaders as we interact with others on a day- to-

day basis, as Mark emphasizes in this essay. — KB

Servant leadership is about helping people succeed both professionally and individually. It’s all about serving those you are responsible for and those you are responsible to.

Who was the greatest servant leader of all time? There is no doubt in my mind it was Jesus. He demonstrated it in His time and continues to demon- strate it today. It’s in His nature. We mortals think we have to work at being servant leaders, but it’s not impossible. In fact, it’s amazing— for me, the harder I tried to be a servant leader, the tougher it was. But the more I prayed about it and let it just enter me, the easier and better it was.

Who are potential servant leaders? We all are. Whether you’re a CEO, a self- employed professional, a stock room clerk, a receptionist, a stay- at- home parent, or a good friend to someone— whatever you do, at times you are a leader. What you do every day— what people see you do—is a reflection on yourself, your faith, your life, and every thing else. So what I’m talking about in this essay is you as a leader. I hope my thoughts will help.

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Servant Leadership • 39

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Don’t Let Other People Set Your Leadership Style for You

I remember my first job out of college when I went to work for a Fortune 500 com pany. I had great re spect for the CEO and for the com pany. It had a great culture that had been developed by the founder. My first couple of weeks there, I listened to tapes that helped me define the com pany and its style and val- ues. Shortly afterward, though, a new CEO came on board with a dif er ent leadership style— one I didn’t particularly care for. I was a young, naïve guy, but I noticed that the whole organ ization was changing. People were chang- ing their leadership styles to adapt to this person— the new CEO. He was very terse, demeaning, and demanding. From my vantage point he wasn’t a very good leader—he was the antithesis of what servant leadership is all about. As time went on, I found that most of the organ ization was moving in his direction. I told myself I couldn’t go there—it wasn’t my leadership style. The CEO eventually left the com pany and a new leader came in and turned things back around. Today it is a very successful com pany. So hold true to your lead- ership style. Don’t let influences change you. You change the influences.

Servant Leadership Works in Any Type of Organ ization

A business should be functional. If you ever see an orga nizational chart for your com pany, pick out your name. If you have at least one name below you that has a line to you, you’re considered a man ag er.

Now notice all the people at the bottom of the chart: the sales people, clerks, accounting people, receptionists, and others who don’t have any- one reporting to them. Those are the people who talk to the customers. I believe that to reflect real ity you need to take the chart and turn it upside down. That way, the CEO and the management teams serve the employees who serve the customers. Ken Blanchard said it right: “How can you serve your customers with excellence when your people are serving the CEO?”

In Mark 9:35, after the disciples have talked among themselves about which of them was the greatest, Jesus says, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” That’s what servant leadership is about.

The Importance of Your Orga nizational Culture

Some companies are known for great products, great designs, and the way they take care of their people. Southwest Airlines, for example, is an amazing

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organ ization. Southwest’s founder and former president, Herb Kelleher, once had a dispute with a gentleman in North Carolina about the use of a name. Lawsuits were being threatened and they needed to figure out a way to settle the dispute. Fi nally, Herb said, “Look, I’m just going to fly out to where you are and I’ll arm wrestle you for it.” He actually did this— and he lost. So he relinquished the name. I think that was pretty classy.

My wife likes Nordstrom. It is my understanding that they have a shoe department that is five times bigger than most department stores. Anyway, they do great things. She tells me if you buy something and don’t like it, you can take it back— they just refund your money. If you go down a list of these or other great companies such as Apple, Google, and Whole Foods Market, you’ll find the orga nizational culture— what they value and live by—is de- fined and understood by every one from the management team all the way through the employee base. Your culture can’t help but manifest itself in the position you have in the industry. I’ll guarantee you: it’s not the product that makes the diference. It’s the people involved who sell it, ser vice it, manage it, talk to customers, help them find what they need, and do all the little ex- tra things. That’s why customers come back.

Let me tell you about the opposite of a great com pany. One night I came home from work, flipped on my tele vi sion, and got a blank screen. Nothing was happening. So I called the cable com pany and talked to about five dif er- ent machines before I got a person. We talked for several minutes and fi nally she deci ded she needed to send a ser vice rep out. Four days later, a guy came to my door and fixed the cable. When I asked what had happened, he said, “We were installing a ser vice next door to you and our own guy cut your cable by mistake.”

When I received my bill, I naïvely thought those four days without ser- vice would be deducted from the bill. But they weren’t. I thought It wasn’t that much money, don’t worry about it. But then I deci ded that these people need to learn that they can’t let something like this happen. So I called them and after a few recordings, I reached a live person who couldn’t help me. I thought about contacting their CEO— but I looked at the stock mar- ket listings and found that this com pany’s stock was at the bottom of its industry. So I figured that this CEO prob ably had more impor tant things on his plate and didn’t need to hear about the four extra days on my bill. So I left it alone.

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Servant Leadership • 41

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Leadership Teams Are Impor tant

When you put together a team, two dif er ent dynamics are working: the ver- tical and the horizontal. The vertical is your position. I had a VP of sales, a VP of marketing, a VP of human resources, a VP of engineering, and a CEO. That’s the management team. The horizontal is the com pany goals, mission, and vision statement. This is what we’re doing— what we’re all about.

What happens in a lot of companies is that the vertical starts taking over the horizontal. Too many people start forgetting about the big picture— the reason for existence— and start worrying about their vertical position. The VP of engineering is too worried about his department to help out. The VP of finance is worried about her bud gets getting in on time. Each department has its prob lems and responsibilities and no one other than the sales person is focused on the customer. But the whole idea of the enterprise is to grow the employees and take care of your customers—so what is the answer?

I went to a staf meeting in my organ ization and issued every body on my team new business cards. Except for the person’s name, they were all the same— including the title. The title under each person’s name was “Vice Pres- ident.” It didn’t say of engineering, sales, manufacturing, or any other de- partment. It just said “Vice President.” The point is that when you are a servant leader, what ever you do has to support the mission you are trying to accom- plish. The more you communicate with and serve your employees, the more naturally this happens. But if you have your organ ization set up where you are dictating down, I guarantee that your people will get into their vertical mode and forget about the horizontal. That’s why a lot of companies don’t do well.

One day, a young leader— whom I thought of highly and had mentored— came to me and said, “Mark, I have a very impor tant issue I really want to talk to you about.” He was on his own, running his own little department. He said, “I really need a vice president title.”

I said, “ Really? Vice president of what?” “You know, vice president of my department. I can’t get things done

because people disregard me sometimes. If I had that title, I would have the power to be the leader every one wants. I would be respected. I could get things done.”

I told him, “ You’re only a leader if you turn around and people are fol- lowing you. Titles don’t mean anything.”

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Servant Leaders Are Self- Aware

I think one of the hardest things for people to do is to be self- aware. I’m not good at it. Every one has strengths and weaknesses. I recently had a meeting where someone asked me what my strengths and weaknesses are. I started thinking—my strengths? I couldn’t think of anything. Weaknesses? Also nothing. I later took time to reflect on my leadership and came to the con- clusion that there’s only one person who has ever walked this earth who was perfect, and I’m certainly not in that category. But it made me realize I have to be more self- aware as a leader because it is a valuable part of servant lead- ership. We all have blind spots. When you figure out your blind spots, you can serve people much better.

Do the Right Thing

I was once asked to talk to a board of directors and chairman of a com pany who wanted to replace their CEO. The chairman said to me, “Mark, I want a take- charge executive with a take- no- prisoners attitude.” I thought that sounded pretty in ter est ing. I knew what he thought he wanted, and I clearly understood what he said, but I didn’t think he had a clue what he was asking for— and neither did the board. When an organ ization goes sideways, some- times boards and management want to swing the pendulum all the way to the other side. If a com pany has a leader who is in efec tive for building teams or closing big deals, the board wants to go get a high- powered sales man ag er to come in and stay with the com pany to close big deals. But the person they would choose may not have the interpersonal skills to run inside the organ- ization— because they want a gunslinger.

I deci ded to translate what I thought he was looking for. I said, “ Here’s what I think you want. You want a strong leader who is capable of leading your organ ization toward positive change. What you really need is a servant leader.”

He looked at me kind of funny and said, “No, no, no. I need someone who is going to take charge and right this ship.”

People hear the phrase servant leader and think it means someone who is always congenial and nice, and handles every thing with kid gloves. But look at Jesus. He threw out the money lenders in the temple with tough love. Ser- vant leadership means you do the right thing. Every CEO knows what deci- sions need to be made and what the right answer is. They might not know all the details but I think they know the right direction to go.

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Servant Leadership • 43

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So I told the board, “You need a servant leader to come in here and take care of the two largest constituencies you have in this enterprise: your cus- tomers and your employees. How well they do that will directly afect how well or how poorly the com pany will perform.”

Their response was, “We’ve got to think about profitability.” But companies that focus on running their com pany only for the numbers

get in trou ble. I can list many, many companies that got into trou ble because they quit focusing on their customers and employees and just focused on the numbers. The impor tant thing is how well you run your business— not the numbers themselves.

I’m telling you, business is really not that difficult. Just do the right thing. Whether you run a dry cleaning business or a multimillion- dollar com pany— you know the right thing to do. Just do it.

Servant leaders are not always perfect, but they stay true to their leader- ship style. They stay humble by turning the orga nizational chart upside down and serving others. They communicate to their teams the goals and values that form their culture so that every one stays in focus. They are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses— through feedback and by following the great- est servant leader of all time. And they continually strive to do the right thing.

God Bless!

Mark A. Floyd is a venture partner at TDF Ventures and chairman of the board at Ciber, Inc. He was the recipient of the 2001 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Southwest region. He holds a BBA in finance from the University of Texas at Austin and an honorary doctorate of science in business from Southeastern University.

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C h a p t e r 7

Servant Leaders Create a Great Place to Work for All

M i c h a e l C . B u s h

I’m a great believer in catching people doing things right. The first

time I heard Michael Bush speak at a conference, I knew he was a

great believer in catching organ izations doing things right. As a

result, he took the helm at Great Place to Work and has been

traveling around the country looking for organ izations that have

a servant leadership culture. I think you’ll be fascinated by the

common characteristics these great companies have when you

read Michael’s essay. — KB

My organ ization, consulting and research firm Great Place to Work, has spent more than two de cades studying and celebrating the best workplaces around the world. Since 1998 we have produced the annual Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list as well as other best workplaces lists. We operate in more than 50 countries and each year our Trust Index© survey captures the views of roughly 10 million employees globally. We, along with other scholars, have documented the way the 100 Best have outperformed peers in terms of profitability, revenue growth, stock per for mance, and other key busi- ness mea sures.

But we also see a shift to a new era— a new frontier in business. This largely uncharted territory is about developing every ounce of human poten- tial so that businesses can reach their full potential. To do those things, the best workplaces know they have to create an outstanding culture for every- one, no matter who they are or what they do for the organ ization. The best workplaces have to build what we call a Great Place to Work For All. These companies have employees across the board who consistently trust their lead-

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Servant Leaders Create a Great Place to Work for All • 45

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ers, take pride in their work, and enjoy their colleagues— the three core ele- ments of a great workplace.

These emerging organ izations develop and support leaders toward a servant mindset and approach— that is, they cultivate servant leaders who create cultures where all people feel trusted, empowered, supported, and treated fairly.

In these companies, leaders relinquish the autocratic, command- and- control ways that dominated business cultures in the twentieth century. Thanks to a shift to servant leadership, lower- ranked employees experience more passion about work, collaborate more, and engage in innovation be hav- iors that propel the business. These leaders also reject what’s been common management practice for de cades: claiming people are your greatest asset but really valuing only about 10 percent or so of the souls in the upper echelons of the com pany. That elitist approach to business leaves human potential on the table, ultimately letting down individuals who work there as well as the business itself.

By contrast, the leaders of companies identified as Great Places to Work For All appreciate and develop the talents of every one at every level of the organ ization— from the basement boiler room to the pent house C- suite.

What does servant leadership look like at a com pany identified as a Great Place to Work For All? Five features stand out:

• Trust at the top. Leaders at Great Places to Work For All establish trusting relationships on their executive team. They know servant leadership is only efective and sustainable when the executive can fully trust the people they work with. If a high level of trust is not pres ent, the leader cannot humbly serve and selflessly support people. The trusting mindset servant leaders need to maintain is pos si ble only when the leader is surrounded by people they see as highly credible, consistently respectful, and fair to every one they meet. The leader, of course, must be seen in an identical way. Trust at the top is the first step in becoming a servant leader. We find the hard work related to this step often is avoided due to the “but that person is an outstanding individual performer” excuse. But when this first step is avoided, it leads to a servant leader being a servant leader to some but not all.

• A generous trust mindset. Leaders at Great Places to Work For All trust people in general. They see others in the organ ization as glasses half full rather than half empty. They extend trust widely to a large number of

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people, including those on the front lines and those who may look dif er ent from them. And they extend trust deeply, giving each person the benefit of the doubt. That’s not to say these leaders are naïve— they will not tolerate the same mistakes endlessly. But their default position when a teammate fails is curiosity rather than condemnation. They have an abiding faith that people can grow and that they generally want to do the right thing. It’s a mindset summed up by Jim Goodnight, CEO of software firm SAS Institute, a longtime Fortune 100 Best com pany: “If you treat your employees like they make a diference, they will.”

• Decentralized power. Leaders at Great Places to Work For All free people to work autonomously and include others in decision making. They know people need significant control over their jobs to reach their full potential. There’s no room for micromanagement. Beyond provid- ing employees with autonomy in their day- to- day tasks, leaders at these companies actively seek their people’s input and feedback on matters ranging from team proj ects to orga nizational strategy. Leaders in these settings do not abdicate their power. In fact, the re spect they show to employees— their vulnerability in sharing authority— increases their own influence even as others have a voice. Construction firm TDIndus- tries, a Fortune 100 Best mainstay, captures the wisdom of employee empowerment with its princi ples around communication: “No rank in the room,” “Every one participates—no one dominates,” and “Listen as an ally.”

• Caring support. Leaders at companies identified as a Great Place to Work For All care for their people. They support them as holistic human beings, encouraging their well- being both in and out of work. This starts with getting to know employees as people, extends to training and development opportunities, and includes benefits such as health insurance. While servant leaders in the past may have been motivated by a sense of duty, today a raft of science justifies a big heart. Google, for example, has found that psychological safety is the key factor in its most efective teams. Our own research, meanwhile, has found that a caring community is one of the strongest drivers of revenue growth at small and medium workplaces with high- trust cultures. We have also discovered that a key disparity at work between whites and ethnic minorities is whether employees perceive a caring climate.

• Intentional fairness. Leaders at Great Places to Work For All work deliberately to treat all people fairly. They know that fairness is at the heart of the employee experience. It is central to trusting relationships,

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Servant Leaders Create a Great Place to Work for All • 47

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serves as a foundation for empowering employees to make decisions, and is crucial to people feeling genuinely cared for. Fairness is a simple concept. But it is not easy for leaders to achieve— especially in large, complex organ izations. Fair treatment in pay and other matters isn’t necessarily equal treatment, given dif er ent job levels and responsibili- ties. Per sis tence, courage, and creativity are required to change a socioeconomic system that historically has been unfair. But the Best Workplaces have made significant pro gress over the past twenty years, according to results from our Trust Index Employee Survey. Employee ratings of fairness have improved 22 percent at the 100 Best from 1998 to 2017, outpacing the other four workplace dimensions we mea sure (re spect, credibility, pride, and camaraderie).

Serving People, Serving Business

Leaders at Great Places to Work For All who establish high- trust executive teams, who trust people, share power, care for employees, and strive for fair- ness serve their people well. They also serve their business. Our research into the 100 Best shows that companies identified as Great Places to Work For All grow faster than their less inclusive competitors. In studying the 100 Best alongside the nonwinning contender companies for 2017, we discovered that the more consistent an organ ization is regarding key factors related to inno- vation, leadership efectiveness, and trust in the workplace, the more likely it will outperform peers when it comes to revenue growth.

The Great Place to Work For All Score (see Figure 7.1) is a composite mea- sure of how consistently employees rate their workplace on metrics related to innovation, leadership efectiveness, and trust, regardless of who they are and what they do within their organ ization. Companies in the top quartile on these metrics enjoy three times the revenue growth of companies in the bot- tom quartile.

To see how servant leadership focused on fairness pays of for all parties, consider the $3 million investment that Salesforce.com CEO Marc Beniof and his team made to address gender pay inequities in 2015. Along with a host of other equality eforts at the software firm to make all employees feel fully valued and included, this move has reaped results:

• Better for business. Salesforce is becoming a beacon for talented women in technology and is enjoying the fruits of a more fully engaged workforce. The percentage of women employees who say they want to

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48 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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93 percent in 2016. Also, 92 percent of female employees in 2016 said people look forward to work at Salesforce, up from 85 percent in 2014. Not surprisingly, the com pany has been growing faster than its rivals.

• Better for people. In the wake of the pay equity push, women at Sales- force have a better work experience and all stafers feel more pride about their employer. In 2014, 84 percent of women at Salesforce felt pay was fair at the com pany, compared to 91 percent of men. By 2016, the share of women perceiving their pay as fair had climbed to 90 percent. The focus on leveling up women didn’t make men feel overlooked—91 percent of men continued to believe people get paid fairly. And for both sexes, levels of pride climbed such that in 2016, a whopping 97 percent of both men and women reported feeling proud when telling others they work at Salesforce.

• Better for the world. Happy Salesforce employees go home to be better parents, friends, and neighbors, even as the com pany— like many other best workplaces— gives generously to the community. Against the backdrop of the pay equity initiative and a major focus on mindfulness as a way to prevent stress, the share of employees who rate Salesforce a “psychologically and emotionally healthy place to work” rose from 83 percent in 2014 to 89 percent in 2016. Also, Salesforce operates a 1-1-1 integrated philanthropy model, through which it contributes 1 percent of its equity, product, and employee time back into the community. As part of that giving back efort, the com pany has donated more than $137 million in grants since it was founded in 1999.

Median Year-Over-Year Growth

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Figure 7.1 Great Places to Work For All race ahead

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Servant Leaders Create a Great Place to Work for All • 49

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Work as Church

Salesforce, as well as most of the organ izations we work with, is secular by nature. But the leaders of companies building Great Places to Work For All act in keeping with the great faith traditions, regardless of personal religion or spiritual beliefs. They demonstrate humility, elevate the least power ful, and treat all people with dignity. In fact, these leaders turn work into a kind of church. Great Places to Work For All bring out the best in people as indi- viduals and as members of the human community. We have documented, for example, how employees at the 100 Best have felt increasing levels of solidar- ity and connection with colleagues over the past two de cades.

The world desperately needs more of these companies— companies that can help heal the economic, social, and po liti cal divides that have emerged in recent de cades. Great Places to Work For All can act as servant institutions, as conceived by author Robert K. Greenleaf: “If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very per for mance as servant of existing major insti- tutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”1

At Great Place to Work, we have a vision similar to Greenleaf ’s. Our mis- sion is “to build a better world by helping organ izations become Great Places to Work For All.” Servant leaders are needed in these organ izations. Given that Great Places to Work For All are the way forward for business, we are hopeful that more and more leaders will see themselves as servants first; that these leaders will establish the trust on their teams that is the crucial first step; and that these leaders will put themselves in ser vice of a better future.

Michael C. Bush is CEO of the SaaS- enabled research and consulting firm Great Place to Work (www.greatplacetowork . com). Michael is a founding board mem- ber of Fund Good Jobs, a private equity seed fund, and was a member of President Barack Obama’s White House Business Council. He is the author of A Great Place to Work For All: Better for Business, Better for People, Better for the World.

Note

1. Robert K. Greenleaf, “The Institution as Servant” (Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, 1972).

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C h a p t e r 8

The Leader as Shepherd

H o l l y C u l h a n e

I met Holly Culhane seventeen years ago when she became an

in de pen dent con sul tant for The Ken Blanchard Companies to help

us spread the word about our training programs. We became

better acquainted a few years later through our Lead Like Jesus

ministry, where she is one of our certified trainers. What I love

most about Holly is that she continually challenges her own

thinking and explores new ideas. I think you’ll admire that aspect

of her, too, when you read her essay. — KB

A while back, in reference to a self- serving leadership scandal I had experi- enced, a wise and dear friend remarked, “A shepherd is supposed to lay down his life for his sheep.” The analogy hit me hard. The self- serving leaders in- volved hadn’t considered the needs of their followers a priority— but were first only concerned about their own well- being.

I had heard the term shepherding in a leadership context from time to time in speeches, books, and the media. Earnest leaders spend much time discussing the values of servant leadership. But was there a skill or tool or philosophy of shepherds that would bring even more depth and meaning to those lessons of leadership?

What did the word “shepherd” mean beyond Webster’s definitions: “a per- son who herds, tends or guards sheep” and “a person who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group of people”?

Fascinated by this concept, I did internet searches, read books about shep- herding, and conducted interviews with modern- day shepherds. I learned about methodologies and medical techniques, philosophies and opinions, pro- cesses and procedures. It became clear that the term shepherd needed consid- eration from a servant leadership perspective.1

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The Leader as Shepherd • 51

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After researching multiple interviews, articles, and even readings of an- cient prophets, a premise emerged: shepherding is a universal— and I would say godly— leadership princi ple. It applies to supervising and managing at work in for- profit and nonprofit organ izations and the government sector, par- enting and partnering at home, and friendships and work relationships across cultures, socioeconomic levels, ethnicities, and generations. Every one who is interested in becoming a servant leader can connect with the message of shep- herding. After all, a shepherd is the ultimate example of a servant leader, of- ten laying down their life for the sheep.

It became clear that it was time for me to develop this remarkably simple yet uniquely profound concept.

True Shepherding

The responsibilities of a shepherd are to ensure that the sheep are in good health on a consistent basis, well fed, and shielded from predators. The needs of sheep are remarkably similar to the needs of people. Sheep need:

• a calming presence to rest; • discipline to stay on task with the flock; • a leader who knows their condition and responds accordingly; and • special attention when they are young, new to a flock, or struggling.

Sheep have no desire for change. In fact, it takes some time for them to produce wool again after their lifestyle has been altered in any way. They can be the most beneficial of all livestock when well managed— and they can be destructive, causing ruin almost beyond remedy, when mismanaged.

Sound familiar? If you’re a parent, a pastor, a coach, or a supervisor, you’ll immediately see the analogy for what people and sheep need to perform well.

The Leader’s Shield: Provision, Protection, and Presence

The skills that make up the job description of a responsible shepherd are the same as those of an efective servant leader. Every responsibility of a shepherd and, ultimately, of a servant leader, can be captured in three words: provision, protection, and presence. Efective shepherding is grounded in these three pivotal ele ments of leadership. It’s only when provision, protection, and presence are intertwined that shepherds can truly fulfill their calling as leaders.

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52 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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Good shepherds care for sheep, providing nourishment and ensuring the availability of clean water. Similarly, efective servant leaders care for team members or family, providing a suitable space for them to work or live and resources to sustain them. Pastors and priests provide nourishment through their teaching for those under their care.

Good shepherds delight in the flock, shelter them from storms, protect them from enemies, and keep them healthy. Efective servant leaders take plea- sure in the successes of their team or family, protect them from danger, and as much as pos si ble ensure their physical and emotional health.

Good shepherds ensure their sheep are free from stress and conflict with other sheep. They bring a calming presence and make sure those that stray are quickly brought back to the flock. Efective servant leaders address prob lems between employees or family members when they arise and strive to assist those who are struggling, while ofering a reassuring and comforting presence.

Good shepherds guide, train, and discipline the sheep when necessary. Efective servant leaders praise employees, congregants, or family members when things are going well, redirect when be hav ior dictates, and provide train- ing, development, coaching, and opportunities for growth.

Efective shepherds and servant leaders provide, protect, and are pres ent at a variety of levels. We use these definitions for the three terms:

Provision: To take care of or to furnish or supply the need of another.

Protection: The act of safeguarding, shielding from harm, or guarding against danger.

Presence: At hand— physically and/or emotionally available and en- gaged.

These three pivotal ele ments form the Leader’s Shield— not to protect the leader from those they lead but, in fact, to act as a shield for those they lead.

What would employee engagement statistics look like if leaders at work cared for their people at a level that encompassed provision, protection, and presence? What would the future of the world’s children be if parents and care- givers shepherded them with an emphasis on all three ele ments? Would prison overcrowding become a concern of the past? Would the turnover rate of volun- teers drop if nonprofits, churches, synagogues, and mosques truly shepherded those who gave of their time, talents, and trea sure to further the mission of their organ izations?

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The Leader as Shepherd • 53

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Provision, Protection, and Presence in Action

There’s no formulaic equation to determine how the three responsibilities in the Leader’s Shield are demonstrated. Every work, home, and volunteer envi- ronment, as well as dif er ent cultures of countries or organ izations, will dic- tate how leaders live out provision, protection, and presence.

The shepherd’s rod has always provided discipline to help sheep make the right choices. The shepherd’s staf represents protection and is on hand to pull the sheep to safety or to help them avoid slipping into a ravine or crevice. The shepherd’s presence allows both of these tools to be available when needed and provides a trust and peace the sheep need to live well and produce ef- fectively.

For an entrepreneur, supervisor, or man ag er in a first world country, pro- vision may be a necessary piece of equipment or a fair wage. Protection may be ergonomically designed chairs and desks or a facilitated conflict resolution meeting when a team is struggling. Presence may be responding to emails in a timely manner or electronic face- to- face chats when the leader isn’t person- ally available. In a third world environment, provision may be paying trans- portation fees for employees. Protection may include ensuring that employees leave their work environment in time to arrive at home before dark, or assist- ing them in techniques of how to address potential bribery by vendors. Pres- ence may look similar in many settings. It may include the leader being available for conversations, seeking people’s input with prob lem solving, and helping address concerns with coworkers.

In the case of a parent, provision may include providing basic food and shelter for a child or assisting with funding a college education. Protection may be an emotionally safe environment where family members can learn and thrive as they share life together. Presence may take the form of electronics- free family time, date nights between partners, attending children’s impor- tant events, or listening attentively to a teenager’s angst over friendships or high school.

Leaders of volunteers may demonstrate provision by assuring that people know how their tasks are to be performed. They may demonstrate protection by assuring that conflict among volunteers is addressed, and presence by can- did, face- to- face communication, holding meetings on a consistent basis, or seeking volunteers’ feedback in their areas of expertise.

It’s impor tant to add two additional points of interest with regard to these responsibilities. First, whether a be hav ior is defined as provision, pro- tection, or presence is not imperative. What is imperative is for the leader to

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54 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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be conscientious in carry ing out these responsibilities. Second, presence is not about simply attending an event or an online conference call—it is about focused attention. People want their leaders to be engaged in what they do. Engaged presence is a significant be hav ior that separates a shepherd from every other kind of leader.

The Real ity

We humans are complicated beings— difficult to understand, at times a strug- gle to lead, and imperfect in our actions and responses. It’s often easier to love the child who challenges and stretches our leadership than the coworker, team member, or volunteer who pushes our limits. But remember: we don’t have the option of discriminating between those we shepherd well and those we leave in need.

As I studied biblical writings describing the shepherd, it was clear the re- sponsibilities within this leadership concept are to be applied for the benefit of every one servant leaders work to influence— even in lateral relationships such as peers and friends. Servant leaders are called to shepherd well when they take on any influence or leadership role. And the Leader’s Shield is a tool to be implemented at all times— not just in comfortable circumstances. The real ity is that our responsibility as servant leaders is to shepherd well all of those in our care.

Intention and Informed Purpose

A number of organ izations are seeing remarkable results in how their teams work together and perform when servant leaders ramp up their attention to provision, protection, and presence. The same is true of families who focus on all three areas of responsibility.

It is crucial that every person who wants to be a servant leader is inten- tional in the provision, protection, and presence provided to people in their life. As shepherds we must be purposefully informed and able to answer the question of why we do what we do. Intention and informed purpose must support each action, decision, and step we take as a shepherd on the servant leadership journey. The people in our lives are too impor tant for us to ofer them less.

Holly Culhane is CEO and founder of Presence Point, Inc. (www.presencepoint. com), a nonprofit organ ization focused on helping people live into their calling as

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The Leader as Shepherd • 55

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shepherd leaders. She is also con sul tant emeritus with P·A·S Associates, an HR consulting firm she founded in 1987. She is a leadership coach and con sul tant who facilitates leadership development workshops with The Ken Blanchard Com- panies and Lead Like Jesus. She also serves a variety of nonprofit organ izations through board involvement.

Note

1. Dr. Owen Phelps, in The Catholic Vision for Leading like Jesus (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2009), captures this concept when he boldly states that an efective leader is a combination of servant, steward, and shepherd.

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C h a p t e r 9

The Evolution of Servant Leadership

S i m o n S i n e k

Simon Sinek and I met at a conference where I first heard him talk

about his “Start with Why” philosophy. The clarity of his thinking

really impressed me. Then when I read his book Leaders Eat Last,

I knew we were soul mates. I am elated that he agreed to partici-

pate in this book. I knew what ever he chose to write would be

creative and would stimulate new thinking. This essay did that

for me, and I’m sure it will do the same for you. — KB

Leadership is hard. So why should an aspiring leader add the extra burden of ser vice to their role? A strong argument can be made that the additional work is worth it based on the results servant leadership can achieve. The prob- lem is, any authority who eschews the servant part of the leadership role can line up case studies to prove their point of view that they can achieve strong results without it. The real answer to why we should make an efort to prac- tice servant leadership requires an understanding of where servant leadership comes from and why it matters. The reason servant leadership matters is, in fact, firmly grounded in our anthropology.

Homo sapiens have roamed this planet for about fifty thousand years. During the Paleolithic era, the world was full of uncertainty and great danger. Whether it was lack of food or resources, extreme weather, or wild animals, around every corner were unpredictable and often violent forces that could— and often did— kill us. As we were neither the strongest nor the fastest animals on the planet, there was only one way we were going to sur- vive and thrive: together.

It wasn’t just our big brains that gave us an edge in those dangerous times; it was also our ability to cooperate. And trust was the name of the game. The

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The Evolution of Servant Leadership • 57

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more we trusted those with whom we lived and worked, the more likely we were to coordinate our eforts, align around common interests, and work to- gether to take care of the tribe. If someone fell asleep at night, for example, they could trust that other members of the tribe would wake them and alert them to danger. That’s a good system for survival of individuals and the group as a whole. If they hadn’t been able to trust each other, no one would ever have gone to sleep at night. That’s a bad system for survival.

Nothing has changed in our modern world. Though the dangers are dif- fer ent, our brain chemistry and how we work together remain the same. A lack of food and wild animals, for example, may have been replaced by the uncertainty of the stock market or the unpredictability of economies and world events, but our ability to survive and thrive in our modern world is still based on how well we cooperate. And that depends on how much we trust those in our tribe.

But there is a prob lem. Trust isn’t an instruction. We can’t just tell people to trust us. Leaders can’t simply order their employees to trust them. It doesn’t work that way. Trust is a feeling. And that feeling is a biological reaction to the environments in which we live and work. That’s why we have leaders in the first place: leaders shape the environment.

As social animals, we respond to the environments we are in. If we take a good person and put them in a bad environment, the odds increase that that person will do bad things. If we take a person who is considered untrust- worthy, who may even have performed bad acts, and put them in a good environment, they are capable of turning their lives around and becoming a valuable and trusted member of the group. When a leader gets the environ- ment right, the normal human response is trust and cooperation. When they get it wrong, cynicism, paranoia, mistrust, and self- interest prevail.

In a toxic work environment, trust is replaced by fear or anxiety. When we fear making mistakes or fear losing our jobs if we miss our numbers, for example, the natu ral human reaction is to put ourselves before anyone or any- thing else— including ethics and sometimes the law. This is what happened at United Airlines on April 9, 2017. The airline had oversold the flight, a com- mon practice. After they boarded all their ticketed passengers, the crew asked for volunteers to give up their seats for four United employees who needed to travel to work other flights. No passengers volunteered, so the crew did what the rule book said to do: they randomly selected passengers and demanded that they leave the aircraft. One of those passengers was Dr. David Dao, who was flying home to Louisville, Kentucky. A paying customer, Dr. Dao refused to leave his seat. And again the crew did what the rule book stated: they called

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58 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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security guards to forcibly remove him. In the ensuing melee, Dr. Dao lost two teeth, sufered a significant concussion, and got a broken nose at the hands of four security personnel. Other passengers captured the incident on video, which went viral online, forcing United Airlines to admit their failure and change their policies.

Policies, however, were only part of the prob lem. Other airlines have sim- ilar policies but don’t end up assaulting paying customers in the course of following those policies. The bigger prob lem at United Airlines was the cul- ture. It was a fear- based environment in which employees were more afraid to break a rule than to do the right thing. I can almost guarantee that no crew members on that flight thought what they were doing was a good idea or even fair practice. But given the culture in which they worked, I expect many defended their actions with “I was just following the rules” or “I was doing what the com pany told me to do.”

Only when people feel trusted by and are able to trust their leadership; only when people feel they can make mistakes without fear of dismissal; and only when people feel they can break a rule because it’s the right thing to do without fear of humiliation or retribution will a com pany ever inspire their people to work at their natu ral best— our most productive, innovative and co- operative selves. In a strong leadership environment, leaders don’t trust their people to follow the rules— they trust them to know when to break the rules. Rules are there for when things run normally. But sometimes, when things go wrong, following the rules to the letter can actually make things worse.

In weak leadership environments, all the decision- making power is fo- cused at the top. Leaders in these environments expect information to be pushed up to those in authority positions. Servant leaders do the opposite. They push authority down to those with the information. And in that kind of environment, people feel accountable for and trusted to do the job for which they’ve been trained without leaders putting undue pressure or stress on them or using fear to drive them.

If giving people authority makes an organ ization run better, then why not get rid of the leaders altogether? It seems like a logical conclusion. But leaders exist for a reason. For 40,000 of the 50,000 years our species has in- habited this planet, we lived in populations of about 150 people. And given the times in which we were living, there were some obvious challenges. If hunters and gatherers brought food back to the tribe, for example, who would get to eat first? I mean, if you were built like a professional wrestler, you could shove your way to the front of the line. However, if you were the “artist” of the family, you were one of those who got shoved to the side. But odds are, if

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The Evolution of Servant Leadership • 59

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you elbowed someone in the face that after noon, they prob ably wouldn’t wake you and alert you to danger that night. That’s a bad system if we are stronger as a cooperative group than we are as individuals.

To avoid this real ity and better equip us for cooperation, we evolved into hierarchical animals. We constantly assessed and judged those around us to figure out who was more dominant or se nior. We tried to figure out who was alpha. Instead of fighting to be the first to eat, we would defer to the hierar- chy. If we assessed that others were more se nior in the social hierarchy, we would voluntarily step back and allow our alphas to eat first. And though we may not have had first choice of meat, we would have been guaranteed food and we wouldn’t get an elbow in the face. This is a much better system to promote cooperation in the tribe.

Though the standards may be dif er ent in our modern day and age, we are still constantly assessing and judging each other, trying to figure out where we sit on the social hierarchy. Sometimes the standards are informal. Among scientists, for example, greater re spect may be shown to the scientist who has been published more, won more awards, or made a more notable discovery than their peers. Among movie stars, the alpha treatment may be given to the actor with more awards or greater box office success. In most organ izations, how- ever, that hierarchy is more formal. We have titles— and even when we don’t, there is still a hierarchy based on experience or levels of responsibility. For example, we all know a vice president is more se nior than an intern.

This is why few people turn down promotions. Rising through the hier- archy often comes with perks— more money, a bigger office, or a better park- ing space. We show deference for the most se nior people in organ izations. Often, we are willing to do basic tasks for them simply because of their high status. If you’re se nior and you leave your coat in the other room, for example, someone will prob ably volunteer to get it for you. If you’re ju nior and you leave your coat in the other room . . . you get your own coat. As Mel Brooks aptly pointed out in his film History of the World, Part I, “It’s good to be the king.”

However, these perks do not come for free. A deep- seated social contract is hardwired into all human beings. There is an expectation that when dan- ger threatens, the alpha— the person who is often smarter, stronger, or more confident— will rush toward the danger to protect the tribe. It is this anthro- pological requirement that defines the essence of servant leadership. Leader- ship, it turns out, is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge. The closest thing I can equate to servant leader- ship is the responsibility of a parent. We all know Mom and Dad are in charge.

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60 • Fundamentals of Servant Leadership

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We all know they have all the authority. They set rules and enforce them. However, parents also have a responsibility to their children. Any decent parent would gladly sacrifice for them. Money, time, the kind of car they buy, the kind of vacation they take— the list goes on— are all ele ments of sacrifice: putting one’s interests aside to benefit the life of another human being.

Just as we are morally ofended by a parent who would put themselves before their child— leaving the child in a car while the parent goes gambling, for example—so, too, are we morally ofended when people in leadership positions are willing to sacrifice the lives of their people to advance their personal interests. Trust cannot exist in a culture in which people fear—or know— that their leaders would sooner announce a round of layofs to pro- tect the numbers than sacrifice the numbers to protect the people. This is the reason why so many people are viscerally ofended by some banking CEOs. It is not their huge bonuses or salaries that upset us—we are okay with our alphas getting paid more than we do. It’s the knowledge that they would sac- rifice their people to protect their salaries and bonuses that is so inconsistent with the anthropological requirements of leadership. Few if any of us would be ofended if we heard Nelson Mandela was given a $50 million bonus. Few if any of us would be ofended to learn that Mother Teresa was given a $100 million bonus. It’s not the money that matters. It’s the knowledge that our leader would, and does, sacrifice to protect us.

Our species started farming around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Only then could we sustain populations that were larger than about 150. Living and working at this scale, a scale for which we were not designed, produced a whole new set of leadership challenges that we continue to face today. These challenges make servant leadership not just more impor tant but also the only viable, long- term solution.

All good leaders practice servant leadership. It is a teachable, learnable, and practicable skill. And the more the servant leader practices that skill— the more they create an environment in which people can feel vulnerable at work— the more trust, loyalty, and cooperation thrive. Where weak leaders demand trust be given to them, servant leaders inspire it.

Creating a space in which people can feel vulnerable means a person can walk into their boss’s office to admit a mistake without fear of losing their job. It means someone can raise their hand and ask for help, admit they have been given a responsibility they don’t feel prepared or knowledgeable enough to complete, or admit they are scared without any fear of humiliation or ret- ribution. We trust that the servant leader will come running to our aid. This is what happens inside great organ izations. In contrast, in a work environ-

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ment that lacks good servant leaders, people will go out of their way to follow the rules at all costs, cover up mistakes, and deny accountability. Remember United Airlines?

The daily practice of servant leadership is less grand than people tend to think. It is based not on a series of transactions, but on the promise of be- ing there when someone needs you most. Individuals don’t fall in love because one is rich and the other stands to benefit. The same is true in an organ ization. A leader who ofers money or the potential for future riches is not earning loyalty. They are setting up a transactional relationship that is likely to promote self- interest. Individuals don’t fall in love simply because someone remembered their birthday or bought them flowers on Valentine’s Day. The same is true in an organ ization. A few scattered, well- intentioned actions by a leader can’t hurt, but they won’t breed loyalty. They won’t be enough to earn trust. Just like any relationship in which trust is the basis, it is the accumulation of a lot of little things that makes all the diference.

Servant leaders practice putting their interests aside in order to enhance the lives of those around them. For example, if you’re standing in an elevator, running slightly late for a meeting, and just as the doors start closing you see someone running toward the elevator, what do you do? The act of holding the doors for someone even if you’re running late is an act of servant leadership. If you pour yourself the last cup of cofee at work and instead of putting the empty pot back you spend a few minutes making another pot of cofee, that is an act of servant leadership. If one of your people has missed their numbers three quarters in a row and instead of walking into their office and saying, “You have to make your fourth quarter numbers other wise I don’t know what’s going to happen,” you walk into their office and say, “Are you okay? You missed your numbers again. I’m worried about you,” that level of empathy— concern for the person before the numbers—is an act of servant leadership.

As I said before, servant leadership is not a rank or an event. It is a prac- tice, and the servant leader will remain a student for their entire life. They will always want to learn more about the practice, talk about it, read about it, and hear what others have to say about it. They will constantly be on the hunt for new tactics, new perspectives, new ways to hone their skills. Every parent, partner, spouse, and servant leader knows that the act of caring for another is very hard work, the results of which are impossible to predict according to a timeline. The impact of servant leadership isn’t con ve niently parsed into quarters. It is a human experience.

Like going to the gym or eating healthily, servant leadership is a lifestyle. We can get into shape if we go to the gym regularly and improve our diets.

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And we can turn an unhealthy culture into a thriving one, filled with trust and cooperation. But we have to commit to the lifestyle. Once we achieve our goals, to stay fit we have to keep working out and eating smart. And to maintain a servant leadership culture we must keep caring, serving, trusting, and earning trust.

Though someone may choose servant leadership for the results, the rea- son we continue to practice the discipline is for the joy of the journey.

Simon Sinek (www.startwithwhy . com) is an unshakable optimist and the author of three bestselling books: Start with Why, Leaders Eat Last, Together Is Better, and his most recent, Find Your Why. A trained ethnographer, Simon has a bold goal to help build a world in which the vast majority of people go home every day feeling fulfilled by their work. His first TED Talk in 2009 is the third most watched talk of all time on TED.com .

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http://www.startwithwhy.com

http://TED.com

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P a r t T w o

Ele ments of Servant Leadership

Dif er ent Points of View about Servant Leadership

• In Marshall Goldsmith’s essay, “One Question Every Servant Leader Should Ask,” he emphasizes that great leaders are willing servants of people, organ izations, and causes. To help these leaders stay focused on making a positive diference, he has developed a simple formulation to help them avoid the pervasive triggers that would pull them of course.

• Brené Brown, in “In the Ser vice of Others: When Leaders Dare to Rehumanize Work,” introduces the concept that servant leadership cannot exist in a culture of shame—of blaming, gossiping, bullying, humiliation— primarily because shame breeds fear and the foundation of servant leadership is courage.

• Tom Mullins, in “Servant Leaders Celebrate Others,” shows why accentuating the positive and celebrating success is a key factor in servant leadership.

• James Ferrell, in “The Servant Leader’s Focus,” stresses that for servant leaders ser vice should not be the true focus. Every act of ser vice is a behavioral extension of the real root of servant leadership: a caring, outward mindset.

• In Chris Hodges’s essay, “What You See Determines How You Serve,” he illustrates how servant leaders serve people diferently because they see people difer- ently. People are here not to be judged, but to be loved.

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• Craig Groeschel, in “Compassion: The Heart of Servant Leadership,” emphasizes that compassion is not a feeling; it is an action. And a simple act of compassion from one human being to another can change a life.

• Patrick Lencioni tells us “Why Ideal Team Players Make Great Servant Leaders”— it’s because the three primary values of an ideal team player are three of the most essential qualities of an efective servant leader.

• Laurie Beth Jones, in “The Servant Leader’s Identity,” points out the importance of understanding yourself and others so that you can get clear about your leader- ship style and how to relate to the people around you.

• Henry Cloud, in “The Four Corners of the Leader’s Universe,” helps you answer the question “Where are my people today— inside their hearts, minds, and souls?” so that you can better serve them and help them succeed.

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C h a p t e r 1 0

One Question Every Servant Leader Should Ask

M a r s h a l l G o l d s m i t h

When Marshall Goldsmith was in his early twenties and finishing

his doctoral degree at UCLA, he was asked to teach a course at

California American University, where I was teaching with founder

Paul Hersey. Marshall and I immediately became soul mates and

I have admired his teaching and writing skills ever since. I think

you’ll see why I’m a big fan of his after reading his essay. — KB

A decision maker, a game changer, a force to reckon with, a wielder of power: this is a leader in the popu lar imagination. As an executive coach who has been helping successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in be hav ior for more than thirty- five years, I have worked with many influential people who fit this description. The best of them understand that, for a servant leader, power is beside the point.

For example, one of the most inspiring servant leaders I have ever met is Frances Hesselbein, president and CEO of the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute and former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. Her motto is To serve is to live. This kind of humility may seem at odds with the image of the heroic, power ful leader. But as my friend Frances has pointed out, great lead- ers are willing servants of people, organ izations, and causes. Instead of wor- rying about how power ful they are or what position they hold, these leaders focus on what others need. Without the distractions of ego, they can see the clearest path to positive outcomes. (For more on Frances Hesselbein, see the es- say by Jim Dittmar in Part Four of this book.)

Maintaining this clarity is a challenge, as any tested leader knows. In competitive situations or organ izations, staying committed to a servant lead- ership mentality is a monumental challenge that requires daily, if not hourly,

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attention. To keep my coaching clients on track, I developed a simple formulation— one that helps them focus on making a positive diference in- stead of demonstrating their own superiority. It can help you, too. Follow it and you will dramatically shrink your daily volume of stress, unpleasant de- bate, and wasted time, while getting closer to the results you want.

The next time you run into a conflict, ask yourself this question:

AM I WILLING AT THIS TIME

TO MAKE THE INVESTMENT REQUIRED TO MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE

ON THIS TOPIC?

It pops into my head so often each day that I’ve turned the first five words into an acronym: AIWATT (it rhymes with “say what”). Like the physician’s princi ple “First, do no harm,” it doesn’t require you to do anything other than merely avoid doing something foolish.

Perhaps you’re thinking I don’t need to repeat a simple question to remem- ber to make a positive difference. But I believe all of us need exactly this kind of help. In Triggers: Becoming the Person You Want to Be,1 I make the case that relying on structure— even something as simple as the AIWATT question— is key to changing our leadership be hav ior. In every waking hour we are bom- barded by triggers— people, events, and circumstances that have the potential to change us. We often fail to appreciate just how much these triggers afect us, and how difficult it is to fend them of without some kind of support.

AIWATT is just one of the tactics I suggest. Of course, it isn’t a univer- sal panacea for all our interpersonal prob lems, but it has a specific utility. It’s a reminder that our environment tempts us many times a day to engage in pointless arguments and prove ourselves the winner. We can do something about this unfortunate tendency—by doing nothing. In our Western, action- focused culture, that sounds like laziness or failure. But it can be a surprisingly power ful position to take. I’ll explain using two complementary insights: a Bud- dhist parable and an observation from Peter Drucker, one of my heroes and the father of modern management theory.

The Parable of the Empty Boat

A young farmer laboriously paddled his boat up the river to deliver his pro- duce to the village. It was a hot day, and he wanted to make his delivery and

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One Question Every Servant Leader Should Ask • 67

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get home before dark. As he looked ahead, he spied another vessel, heading rapidly downstream toward his boat. He rowed furiously to get out of the way, but it didn’t seem to help.

He shouted, “Change direction! You are going to hit me!” to no avail— the vessel hit his boat with a violent thud. He cried out, “You idiot! How could you manage to hit my boat in the middle of this wide river?”

As he glared into the boat, seeking out the individual responsible for the accident, he realized no one was there. He had been screaming at an empty boat that had broken free of its moorings and was floating downstream with the current.

We behave one way when we believe there is another person at the helm. We can blame that stupid, uncaring person for our misfortune. This blaming permits us to get angry, act out, assign blame, and play the victim. We be- have more calmly when we learn that it’s an empty boat. With no available scapegoat, we can’t get upset. We make peace with the fact that our misfor- tune was the result of fate or bad luck. We may even laugh at the absurdity of a random unmanned boat finding a way to collide with us in a vast body of water.

The moral: There’s never anyone in the other boat. We are always scream- ing at an empty vessel. An empty boat isn’t targeting us. And neither are all the people creating the sour notes in the soundtrack of our day.

I like to make this point in leadership classes with a simple exercise. I’ll ask a random audience member to think of one person who makes them feel bad, angry, or crazy. “Can you envision that person?” I ask.

A nod, a disgusted face, and then, “Yes.” “How much sleep is that person losing over you to night?” I ask. “None.” “Who is being punished here? Who is doing the punishing?” I ask. The answer inevitably is, “Me and me.” I end the exercise with a simple reminder that getting mad at people for

being who they are makes as much sense as getting mad at a chair for being a chair. The chair cannot help but be a chair, and people cannot help but be themselves. If there’s a person who drives you crazy, you don’t have to like, agree with, or re spect them; just accept them for being who they are.

False Positives

The empty boat parable is a useful meta phor for understanding how others afect us. To grasp how we afect others, I turn to Drucker, who has been an

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enormous influence on my life and work. “Our mission in life should be to make a positive diference,” he said, “not to prove how smart or right we are.” It sounds so obvious— given the choice, who wouldn’t opt to make a positive diference?

But Drucker is highlighting two notions that we have trou ble holding in our heads si mul ta neously. When we have the opportunity to demonstrate our brainpower, we’re rarely thinking about a positive result for the other people in the room. We’re actually issuing what I like to call false positives— making statements to upgrade ourselves, often at the expense of others. They appear in many forms:

• Pedantry: A subordinate makes a grammatical error in a presentation— using who instead of whom— and you correct him. Smart, perhaps, if the objective is punctilious grammar— but hardly a contribution that improves the room’s vibe.

• Saying “I told you so”: You tell your wife the two of you need to leave the house at least sixty minutes in advance to make an eight o’clock Broadway show. She delays, and you arrive late. You proceed to ruin her night in proportion to how much she ruined yours.

• Moral superiority: You tell a friend or loved one that she shouldn’t smoke, that he doesn’t need another beer, or that you would have taken a faster route home. How often do these eforts elicit a genuine thank you, or anything but an eye roll?

• Complaining: The average American worker spends fifteen hours a month complaining about upper management, making it one of the more popu lar workplace activities. When you complain, you’re disagreeing with what someone else deci ded, planned, or did. By definition, you’re being disagreeable and adding the implication that you would have done better. It’s rarely a positive contribution, especially if you do it behind people’s backs rather than to their faces.

From wake-up to bedtime, when we’re in contact with another human being, we face the option of being helpful, hurtful, or neutral. If we’re not paying attention, it’s easy to choose hurtful— especially if in the pro cess we prove we’re smarter, better, or more right than the other guy. Often we’re not aware that we’re being counterproductive. Nor is it our intention to be cruel, as if we have chosen to speak our minds and damn the consequences. Con-

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sequences don’t enter the picture. We’re only thinking about elevating our- selves. We’re trying to prove how smart we are to an empty boat!

This is where AIWATT is useful, if only to create a split- second delay in our potentially prideful, cynical, judgmental, argumentative, and selfish re- sponses to our environment. The delay gives us time to consider a more posi- tive response. AIWATT helps us after a trigger creates an impulse and before we exhibit be hav ior we may later regret. The nineteen- word text deserves close analy sis. Each part is something aspiring servant leaders should know:

• Am I willing implies that we are exercising volition— taking responsibility— rather than surfing along the waves of inertia that other wise rule our day. We are asking “Do I really want to do this?”

• At this time reminds us that we’re operating in the pres ent. Circum- stances will difer later on, demanding a dif er ent response. The only issue is what we’re facing now.

• To make the investment required reminds us that responding to others is work—an expenditure of time, energy, and opportunity. And like any investment, our resources are finite. We are asking “Is this really the best use of my time?”

• To make a positive difference places the emphasis on the kinder, gentler side of our nature. It’s a reminder that we can help create either a better us or a better world. If we’re not accomplishing one or the other, why are we getting involved?

• On this topic focuses us on the matter at hand. We can’t solve every prob lem. The time we spend on topics where we can’t make a positive diference is stolen from topics where we can.

Like closing our office door so people hesitate before they knock, asking ourselves “Am I willing, at this time, to make the investment required to make a positive diference on this topic?” gives us a thin barrier of breathing room— time enough to inhale, exhale, and reflect on whether the outcome we seek is a true positive that is intended for the benefit of others, or a false positive that is intended to polish our own image. For servant leaders who want to make serving others their primary mission, that’s a vital distinction.

Marshall Goldsmith (www.marshallgoldsmith . com) has been recognized by Thinkers50, Global Gurus, Fast Com pany, and Inc. as the world’s leading executive coach. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Triggers,

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http://www.marshallgoldsmith.com

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What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Mojo, and several other books. He received his PhD from UCLA Anderson School of Management. His client list is a who’s who of the world’s CEOs.

Note

1. Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter, Triggers: Becoming the Person You Want to Be (New York: Crown, 2015).

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C h a p t e r 1 1

In the Ser vice of Others

When Leaders Dare to Rehumanize Work

B r e n é B r o w n

I first got acquainted with Brené Brown when people told me

about her TED Talk on “The Power of Vulnerability.” As I watched

it, I immediately made the connection between the importance of

vulnerability and effective servant leadership. Brené and I agree

that having a servant heart is definitely an inside- out job. In this

essay she details how, when heart- led leadership prevails in an

organ ization, shame will not be a factor. — KB

Given what I’ve learned from research and what I’ve observed over the past de cade as I’ve worked with leaders from companies of all sizes and types, I believe we have to completely reexamine the idea of engagement. To reignite creativity, innovation, and learning, leaders must dare to rehumanize educa- tion and work. This means understanding how scarcity is afecting the way we lead and work, learning how to engage with vulnerability, and recogniz- ing and combating shame.

Make no mistake: honest conversations about vulnerability and shame are disruptive. The reason we’re not having these conversations in our organ- izations is that they shine light in dark corners. Once there is language, aware- ness, and understanding, turning back is almost impossible and carries with it severe consequences. We all want to dare greatly. If you give us a glimpse into that possibility, we’ll hold on to it as our vision. It can’t be taken away.

Sir Ken Robinson speaks to the power of making this shift in his appeal to leaders to replace the outdated idea that human organ izations should work like machines with a meta phor that captures the realities of humanity. In his book Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative,1 Robinson writes: “However

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seductive the machine meta phor may be for industrial production, human organ izations are not actually mechanisms and people are not components in them. People have values and feelings, perceptions, opinions, motivations, and biographies, whereas cogs and sprockets do not. An organ ization is not the physical facilities within which it operates; it is the networks of people in it.”

Recognizing and Combating Shame

Servant leadership and shame culture cannot coexist for a simple reason: the foundation of servant leadership is courage and shame breeds fear. Shame crushes our tolerance for vulnerability, thereby killing engagement, innova- tion, creativity, productivity, and trust. And worst of all, if we don’t know what we’re looking for, shame can ravage our organ izations before we see one outward sign of a prob lem. Shame works like termites in a house. It’s hidden in the dark behind the walls and constantly eating away at our infrastruc- ture, until one day the stairs suddenly crumble. Only then do we realize that it’s only a matter of time before the walls come tumbling down.

In the same way that a casual walk around our house won’t reveal a ter- mite prob lem, a stroll through an office or a school won’t necessarily reveal a shame prob lem. Or at least we hope it’s not that obvious. If it is—if we see a man ag er berating an employee or a teacher shaming a student— the prob lem is already acute and more than likely has been happening for a long time. In most cases, though, we have to know what we’re looking for when we assess an organ ization for signs that shame may be an issue.

Signs That Shame Has Permeated a Culture

Blaming, gossiping, favoritism, name- calling, and harassment are all be hav- ior cues that shame has permeated a culture. A more obvious sign is when shame becomes an outright management tool. Is there evidence of people in leadership roles bullying others, criticizing subordinates in front of colleagues, delivering public reprimands, or setting up reward systems that intentionally belittle, shame, or humiliate people?

I’ve never been to a shame- free organ ization. I’m not saying it doesn’t ex- ist, but I doubt it. In fact, once I’ve explained how shame works, I normally have several leaders approach me and explain that they use shame on a daily basis. Most ask how to change that practice— but a few proudly say, “It works.” The best case scenario is that it’s a limited or contained prob lem rather than

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In the Ser vice of Others • 73

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a cultural norm. This is also true in schools. Approximately 85 percent of the men and women we interviewed for our shame research could recall a school incident from their childhood that was so shaming it changed how they thought of themselves as learners. What makes this even more haunting is that approximately half of those recollections were what I refer to as creativity scars. The research participants could point to a specific incident where they were told or shown that they weren’t good writers, artists, musicians, danc- ers, or something creative. This helps explain why the gremlins are so power- ful when it comes to creativity and innovation at work. We’re afraid to reopen wounds by sharing new ideas and taking creative risks.

When we see shame being used as a management tool in the workplace (again, that means bullying, criticism in front of colleagues, public reprimands, or reward systems that intentionally belittle people), we need to take direct action because it means that we’ve got an infestation on our hands. And we need to remember that this doesn’t just happen overnight. Equally impor tant to keep in mind is that shame rolls downhill. If employees are constantly hav- ing to navigate shame, you can bet they’re passing it on to their customers, colleagues, and even families.

So, if it’s happening and it can be isolated to a specific unit, work team, or person, it has to be addressed immediately and without shame. We learn shame in our families of origin, and many people grow up believing that it’s an efec- tive and efficient way to manage people, run a classroom, and parent. For that reason, shaming someone who’s using shame is not helpful. But doing noth- ing is equally dangerous, not only for the people who are targets of the sham- ing but also for the entire organ ization. Shame begets shame.

Several years ago a man came up to me after an event and said, “Inter- view me! Please! I’m a financial adviser and you wouldn’t believe what hap- pens in my office.” When I met Don for the interview, he told me that in his organ ization you choose your office each quarter based on your quarterly re- sults: the person with the best results chooses first and sends the person in the desired office packing.

He shook his head, and his voice cracked a bit when he said, “Given that I’ve had the best numbers for the past six quarters, you’d think I’d like that. But I don’t. I absolutely hate it. It’s a miserable environment.” He then told me how after the previous quarterly results were in, his boss walked into his office, closed the door, and told him that he had to move offices.

“At first I thought my numbers had dropped. Then he told me that he didn’t care if I had the best numbers or if I liked my office; the point was to

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terrorize the other guys. He said, ‘Busting their balls in public builds charac- ter. It’s motivating.’ ”

Before the end of our interview, he told me he was job hunting. “I’m good at my job and even enjoy it, but I didn’t sign up to terrorize people. I never knew why it felt so lousy, but after hearing you talk, now I do. It’s shame. It’s worse than high school. I’ll find a better place to work, and you can be darn sure I’m taking my clients with me.”

In I Thought It Was Just Me,2 I tell the following story about Sylvia, an event planner in her thirties who jumped right into our interview by saying, “I wish you could have interviewed me six months ago. I was a dif er ent person. I was so stuck in shame.” When I asked her what she meant, she explained she had heard about my research from a friend and volunteered to be interviewed because she felt her life had been changed by shame. She had recently had an impor tant breakthrough when she found herself on the “losers list” at work.

Apparently, after two years of what her employer called “outstanding winner’s work,” she had made her first big mistake. The mistake cost her agency a major client. Her boss’s response was to put her on the losers list. She said, “In one minute I went from being on the winners board to being at the top of the losers list.” I guess I must have winced when Sylvia referred to the losers list because, without my remarking at all, she said, “I know, it’s terrible. My boss has these two big dry erase boards outside of his office. One is the win- ners list, and one is for the losers.” She said for weeks she could barely func- tion. She lost her confidence and started missing work. Shame, anxiety, and fear took over. After a difficult three- week period, she quit her job and went to work for another agency.

Shame can only rise so far in any system before people disengage to pro- tect themselves. When we’re disengaged we don’t show up, we don’t contrib- ute, and we stop caring. On the far end of the spectrum, disengagement allows people to rationalize all kinds of unethical be hav ior including lying, steal- ing, and cheating. In the cases of Don and Sylvia, they didn’t just disengage; they quit— and took their talent to competitors.

The Blame Game

Here’s the best way to think about the relationship between shame and blame: if blame is driving, shame is riding shotgun. In organ izations, schools, and families, blaming and finger- pointing are often symptoms of shame. Shame researchers June Tangney and Ronda Dearing explain that in shame- bound relationships, people “mea sure carefully, weigh, and assign blame.” They write,

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In the Ser vice of Others • 75

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“In the face of any negative outcome, large or small, someone or something must be found responsible and held accountable. There’s no notion of water under the bridge.” They go on to say, “ After all, if someone must be to blame and it’s not me, it must be you! From blame comes shame. And then hurt, denial, anger, and retaliation.”3

Blame is simply the discharging of pain and discomfort. We blame when we’re uncomfortable and experience pain— when we’re vulnerable, angry, hurt, in shame, grieving. There’s nothing productive about blame, and it of- ten involves shaming someone or just being mean. If blame is a pattern in your culture, then shame needs to be addressed as an issue.

Cover- Up Culture

Related to blame is the issue of cover- ups. Just like blame is a sign of shame- based organ izations, cover-up cultures depend on shame to keep folks quiet. When the culture of an organ ization mandates that it is more impor tant to protect the reputation of a system and those in power than it is to protect the basic human dignity of individuals or communities, you can be certain that shame is systemic, money drives ethics, and accountability is dead. This is true in all systems, from corporations, nonprofits, universities, and governments, to churches, schools, families, and sports programs. If you think back on any major incidents fueled by cover- ups, you’ll see this pattern.

In an orga nizational culture of servant leadership where re spect and the dignity of individuals are held as the highest values, shame and blame don’t work as management styles. There is no leading by fear. Empathy is a valued asset, accountability is an expectation rather than an exception, and the pri- mal human need for belonging is not used as leverage and social control. We can’t control the be hav ior of individuals; however, we can cultivate orga- nizational cultures where bad be hav iors are not tolerated and people are held accountable for protecting what matters most: human beings.

The four best strategies for building shame- resilient organ izations are:

1. Encourage servant leaders to courageously facilitate honest conver- sations about shame and cultivate shame- resilient cultures.

2. Make a conscientious efort to see where shame might be function- ing in the organ ization and how it might even be creeping into the way we engage with our coworkers and students.

3. A critical shame resilience strategy is normalizing. Leaders and man ag ers can cultivate engagement by helping people know what

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to expect. What are common strug gles? How have other people dealt with them? What have your experiences been?

4. Train all employees on the profound dangers of shame culture and teach them how to give and receive feedback in a way that fosters growth and engagement.

We won’t solve the complex issues we’re facing today without creativity, innovation, and engaged learning. As servant leaders, we can’t aford to let our discomfort with the topic of shame get in the way of recognizing and com- bating it in our schools and workplaces.

Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston where she holds the Huffington Foundation- Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the Gradu ate Col- lege of Social Work. She has spent the past sixteen years studying courage, vulner- ability, shame, and empathy and is the author of three #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, and Rising Strong. Her latest book is Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone.

Notes

1. Ken Robinson, Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative (London: John Wiley and Sons, 2001).

2. Brené Brown, I Thought It Was Just Me (but It Isn’t) (New York: Gotham, 2007).

3. June Price Tangney and Ronda L. Dearing, Shame and Guilt (New York: Guildford, 2002).

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C h a p t e r 1 2

Servant Leaders Celebrate Others

T o m M u l l i n s

I met Tom Mullins when we were speakers at a servant leadership

conference. He is such a positive, energetic person that I was

drawn to him right away. When I heard his feelings about

cele bration, I was even more of a fan. Why? Because of all the

things that I’ve ever taught over the years, the one concept I would

never give up is my feeling that the key to developing people and

creating great organ izations is to catch people doing things right.

In this essay, Tom shows why accenting the positive and celebrating

success is a key ele ment of servant leadership. — KB

One of the most impor tant things I’ve learned from being both a football coach and a pastor is that you cannot celebrate your team’s victories often enough. People thrive when they are recognized and affirmed for their con- tributions to your organ ization’s success. As a matter of fact, your team mem- bers’ longevity and continued engagement in the execution of your vision is directly influenced by your ability to celebrate them in meaningful ways.

Accordingly, servant leaders understand the impact cele bration has on the health of their organ ization. They make cele bration a high priority in their leadership and are always looking for new ways to acknowledge their team’s success. They understand that when the team experiences a win, they must pause to celebrate that win before they can expect the team to move on to the next goal.

For my book The Leadership Game,1 I had the privilege of interviewing Coach Gene Stallings, the former national championship coach at the Uni- versity of Alabama. He told me a story about overhearing one of his assistant coaches ripping into the team after they had won a game. Coach Stallings

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ended up letting the assistant coach go because his philosophy and be hav ior didn’t represent the Alabama organ ization’s emphasis on cele bration. Sadly, the assistant coach was more interested in highlighting what could have gone better rather than celebrating what went well.

That’s a valuable lesson for all of us in leadership. When you celebrate your team’s wins, big or small, you are affirming the efort made to reach team goals. Winning calls for cele bration!

I have found there are five benefits of cele bration: it demonstrates that you value your team, it reinforces core orga nizational values, it builds team morale, it increases retention and productivity, and it is a great recruiting tool. Let’s investigate each of these benefits.

Cele bration Demonstrates You Value Your Team

Celebrating your people demonstrates that you value them and you acknowl- edge their part in making the victory pos si ble. Simply put, your people need to feel valued and affirmed by their leader.

In a world where so many people focus on the negative and beat others down for their imperfections, servant leaders need to look for any way pos si- ble to show care and gratitude. It’s been said that for every critical comment we receive, it takes nine affirming comments to balance the negative efect of that one criticism. A servant leader is invested in nurturing the positive qual- ities and contributions of their team members by recognizing and celebrat- ing the diversity of their par tic u lar strengths.

When the affirmation of others becomes a habit in your leadership style, it quickly becomes part of the culture among all of your team members. When they see your example of looking for opportunities to celebrate others, they will soon find themselves doing the same for their teammates. This is a win- win for every one!

Cele bration Reinforces Core Orga nizational Values

Cele bration also has the benefit of reinforcing your organ ization’s core val- ues, which in turn helps shape its culture and environment. The things you celebrate as a leader send a clear message to your team about what you deem to be impor tant qualities of a successful team player. For example, when you acknowledge the hard work and productivity of an individual team member, your team will know that hard work and productivity are impor tant to you.

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Servant leaders are always mindful that they must live out these core values first. You cannot expect your team to share your stated values if your actions do not reflect these values. If you say you value integrity, you must show your team members, through your daily choices, that you have this value. Once you’ve adopted the princi ple of integrity in your own life, look for this quality in your team members and celebrate it publicly when you see it.

At Christ Fellowship, the church I cofounded with my wife, Donna, we use our weekly staf meeting to affirm the outstanding job our team mem- bers do in ministering to others through the lens of our core values. We al- ways look for ways to praise one another and then tie that praise directly back to what we value. This reminds our team of the importance of modeling our core values for our congregation so they, too, can live a life fully immersed in the key princi ples and precepts of God’s Word.

My friend Jerry Anderson instituted a program called Virtual High Five where his employees try to catch each other living out the values of their organ- ization. They post on a virtual bulletin board the actions they witness, and these praisings are celebrated at department as well as all- company meetings. Jerry’s program clearly articulates the qualities of a successful team player and the virtues his com pany stands on. When he acknowledges these qualities and virtues through cele bration, it naturally reinforces them with his people.

Cele bration Builds Team Morale

Cele bration increases team members’ morale when they get to enjoy victories together. Cele bration is a high motivator because every one enjoys the thrill of victory and wants to experience it as often as pos si ble!

I have found that one of the most motivating things I can do to serve and celebrate my team members is to take time to learn how each person is uniquely motivated. It is the leader’s responsibility to learn what each team member values and how that person prefers to celebrate.

Some people respond best to public acknowl edgment, some to a hand- written note of gratitude. Others value face time with me, so I make sure to pop in on them, praise their eforts, and point out how their par tic u lar as- sistance made the diference in a recent win. Still others respond best to gifts like a day of or a fun corporate social event like a special lunch together. Many are motivated by pay increases—so when the bud get permits, that’s a good way to send a message that their hard work has not gone unnoticed and that they are a valuable asset to our team.

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A servant leader also tries to regularly celebrate the contributions of the unsung heroes on the team. It takes an entire team— each person function- ing within their own skill set and giving their best at every level—to create a win. Accordingly, it’s impor tant that you acknowledge every one’s position and participation, not just the people on the front lines.

As you can imagine, one department that rarely gets public accolades in the church is the accounting department. Because of this, Donna and I try to be intentional about celebrating that team’s hard work and behind- the- scenes ministry. We once took every one in the department to lunch at a nice restaurant at a local mall, where we talked with them and listened to them share about their lives. Then we gave each person $100 and told them they had to spend every penny on themselves, right then and there. When they returned, it was fun to watch their faces light up as they shared how they spent the money. I believe it increased morale in their department for months to come. In fact, many of our accounting staf still talk about how special that was for them. It was a small gesture but it spoke highly of our love for them and gratitude for their contribution.

Find out what motivates your people and clearly demonstrates your grat- itude, and then do it regularly!

Cele bration Increases Retention and Productivity

When you are deliberate about celebrating all of your team members, you will find that retention and productivity naturally increase. The U.S. Department of Labor recently reported that 46 percent of employees who leave their jobs do it because they feel unappreciated. I believe one of the ways this statistic can be easily reversed is by leaders encouraging their people by celebrating their roles on the team.

In addition, people are more productive in positive surroundings. Cele- bration creates an environment where people want to work to meet the organ- ization’s goals. Simply stated, what gets celebrated gets done! The more you affirm your team, the more productive they are. A servant leader who is in- tentional about celebrating will have a happy, hardworking team.

Cele bration Is a Great Recruiting Tool

Cele bration also serves as a great recruiting tool for your organ ization. I’ve found that when a recruit witnesses the ways we celebrate wins together as a team, they are eager to be a part of what’s happening here. Cele bration is at-

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