I recently attended an introductory training on Servant Leadership in London lead by Terri McNerney and Ralph Lewis of The Greenleaf Centre For Servant-Leadership UK and hosted by Sadler Heath.
Servant-Leadership is a concept developed by Robert Greenleaf (pictured) in keeping with my own values and contrasting with the ego-driven macho-heroic leadership model that is the norm in business. Robert Greenleaf wrote: –
“The servant leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priorities are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servant? And what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or at least not be further deprived?”
– Robert Greenleaf: The Servant as Leader 1970.
Characteristics of Servant Leadership may include an emphasis on:
– listening
– humility
– relationship
– sharing rather than imposing
– leveling pay differentials
– saying yes
– heart led rather than expertise management
– an emphasis on trust and empowering, rather than controlling employees
– an acceptance of a leaders vulnerability and not knowing
From an integral point of view Servant Leadership is the emergence of person-centred, spirituality interested green and yellow memes in business (which is more often rationalist orange meme led). Servant leadership is morally and functionally better than what comes before it.
The idea that business exists not just for profit or to produce a product or service, but to provide meaningful work for employees is an ideal espouses by Servant Leadership. While it may appear radical it is an ideal held by some mainstream organizations such as Starbucks and John Lewis apparently, so may be becoming mainstream. CIPD magazine recently published a three-page article asking if Servant Leadership’s time has come. Perhaps in the recession people have seen where selfish management leads and wonder if we’d be in the mess we are if we had servant leaders. Some present at the Sadler Heath event (and I’m imagining reading this) were uncomfortable with the word “servant” – “service” is perhaps more palatable but it’s really an ego-battering paradigm shift. I’ve wondered before why we have customer service but not customer leadership, and management leadership but not management service – the two things go hand in hand – so Terri McNerney and Ralph Lewis were a breath of fresh air. They were also clearly capable trainers – well informed, sincere, and caring. Importantly for me, they embodied the Servant Leadership approach they were teaching. I recommend them and their work.
Hostmanship is a part of Servant Leadership and was exemplified by Sadler Heath. Sadler Heath are a new find for me (thanks Julia) and I really enjoyed being in a room full of people working in business in a more “human” way than is the norm. Where else can I pick up business cards bearing the title “The Corporate Hippy“! An all too rare treat – I will go to more events with Sadler Heath in the future. Business with heart and soul is on the rise!
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Leadership So What: Serve to lead