Are You a Servant Leader?

Servant and leader – at its first glance, the juxtaposition of these two seemingly irreconcilable notions leaves many people confused.  Yet, there never has been a time more timely and apt to learn and apply the concepts of servant leadership in our organizations, school, and family bereft of love, authenticity and character. Let me begin with a story that inspired Robert Greenleaf who coined the term servant leadership through his readings of Hermann Hesse’s Journey to the East.

“A band of men embarks on a mythical journey. A man named Leo accompanies the party as the servant who does the menial chores, but also sustains them with his spirit and his song. He is a person of extraordinary presence. All goes well until Leo disappears. Then the group falls into disarray and the journey is abandoned. They cannot make it without the servant Leo. The narrator, one of the party, after some years of wandering, finds Leo and is taken into the Order that had sponsored the journey. There he discovers that Leo, whom he had known first as servant, was in fact the titular head of the Order, its guiding spirit, a great and noble leader.”

Robert Greenleaf, inspired by Leo, defines servant-leadership with the following questions,

“Do others around the servant leader become wiser, freer, more autonomous, healthier, and better able themselves to become servants? Will the least privileged of the society be benefited or at least not further deprived?” Greenleaf suggest that the servant leader is a servant first, which begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve. Only once the desire to serve is made through conscious choice that brings one to aspire to lead.

            

I think Greenleaf is right in his conclusion; that is, the cornerstone of servant leadership originates from this desire to serve. But I found myself asking “What if people do not want to serve?,” “Where do these feelings of service come from anyway?,” “Why do people ought to subscribe to these view?” Sooner or later, I had a baggage of unanswered questions lingering me.  

As a Christian, I began to ask myself how the responsible Christian leader approaches leadership. In studying the Scripture, I discovered there is a leadership model that is undergirded as the linchpin of of the body of Christ. This biblical brand of leadership is uniquely expressed through what is called the servant attitude of the leader – the desire to enrich and enhance the lives of those being led through unselfish servanthood.

Jesus Christ understood His own mission and He clearly articulated this as an attitude and value for leadership. Following an argument among his disciplines about greatness in the Kingdom, Jesus turned common assumptions and values of leadership upside down through a revolutionary teaching. After arriving at Capernaum, He questioned them: “What were you arguing about on the road?” He then sat down and called His twelve disciples. He said “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:33-35)

Jesus Christ intentionally used the term servant (diakonos) to clearly communicate with His disciplines. They knew the word accentuated the service given on behalf of others. The notion also carried the idea of deep devotion. Influenced by the norms of the day, the disciplines were most likely puzzled by his crucial lecture on how to climb the leadership ladder. Others serve leaders, they reasoned, but Jesus literally turned this thinking upside down. Authentic leaders are devoted to service that focuses on the needs, personal growth, and happiness of others. With time, the disciplines would recognize that Kingdom leaders was not about climbing the ladder, but serving at the bottom.

Greenleaf outlined ten characteristics that define a servant-leader:

1.     Listening

2.     Empathy

3.     Healing

4.     Awareness

5.     Persuasion

6.     Conceptualization

7.     Foresight

8.     Stewardship

9.     Commitment to the growth of people

10.  Building Community

Click here for the description of each characteristic of a servant leader. 

Servant leadership works in any context. Leading organizations, Southwest Airlines and Starbucks have adopted servant leadership into their core values and principles. Please see the video below. 


      Southwest Airlines – Colleen Barrett
         President of SouthWest Airlines, Colleen Barrett, speaks about Servant-Leadership at SouthWest while addressing  
         UPenn Wharton. 

Dateline NBC – The Power of Faith

          Dateline NBC presented this piece on a more religion-focused view of Servant-Leadership. It includes an interview 

          with Larry Spears and a section on the success at Starbucks. 

Why Core Values Matter

Let me begin with my story. It was around the beginning of my junior year at UBC (University of British Columbia). You know that if you are a Commerce student, this is arguably the most critical year – a key stepping stone, if you will – in accelerating your professional career. Around junior year, most students come to this realization and start to frenetically attend multiple conferences, network like crazy, and embark on their job hunting journey. I was one of those students trying to find a way in to the corporate world and fight my way up the hills of the Great Recession. I cannot speak for others, though I presume a vast majority of them may share similar sentiments, but the journey I embarked on was difficult and onerous yet highly rewarding.

I simply cannot forget the countless hours spent in preparing for student-club and job-related interviews. It was a strenuous and time-consuming. I think I interviewed around 15 times during my entire university career. I would characterize the first half of my interviews weak and incomplete. As I became more serious about my professional endeavours in Human Resources, it suddenly dawned on to me the utmost importance of interviews. The fact of the matter is your entire image, perception, and future is created in 60-minutes or less.

Most companies employ behavioural questions since it’s widely known as the most valid and reliable measure of high performance and success in your job. However, I wanted to start with the basics – the foundation. First, I attempted to answer the foundational questions such as:

“What’s your greatest strengths and weaknesses?”
“Why do you want this job?”

“Why should we hire you?”

The most profound question I encountered  was, “What would be written on your epitaph at the end of your life?”

I found myself dumbfounded as I began to dribble nonsense on these ‘simple’ questions…. Consciously thinking and articulating my underlying values and beliefs was something unprecedented. I came to the conclusion that I lacked self-awareness.

When you come to think of it, the notion of an interview is quite simple. It’s about a dialogue between two parties who don’t know each other. It’s about telling your story and connecting it to the other party. Sounds easy, doesn’t it.. Now, who doesn’t dread interviews…The reason there is such fear is the lack of certainty and familiarity of who are we and what we stand for. Sounds crazy, but it’s quite true.

I felt worse and worse as I found myself struggling to answer even these simple questions. As days passed by, I wasn’t feeling any better either. I had to directly confront this situation. So, I began to ask my family, friends, and acquaintances what they thought of me. I began recording their candid thoughts and perceptions on my strengths and weaknesses. I asked deeper and probing questions, and what led them to think and feel in a certain way. This wasn’t an easy process. The hardest part was allowing myself to be vulnerable. I had to completely expose myself I could not argue back. I only listened, listened, and listened.

Next, I compiled and analyzed their comments and began to compare it with my own thoughts. There were some differences and similarities. The more time I spent time in isolation reading the Bible, praying and thinking, I felt better about myself. I had a stronger grasp of what constitutes my identity. Eventually, I discovered a pattern, a common theme, from the results of this undertaking. I decided I was going to write it down and etch it in my heart. This culminated in the five core values. Core values are a series of words or phrases defining who you are and what you stand for. They represent the internal navigation system for your life and the filter through which you process all of life’s decisions. They are the values you would fight for and the attributes you hope others say about you in your absence or after your death. They become key elements of your personal brand and define your character.

So here’s my personal core values:

·      Faith

·      Serving Others

·      Excellence

·      Integrity

·      Continuous Learning

All of this took about a year or so. The journey isn’t over. In fact, it’s a life-long process. I found myself much more confident, renewed, strengthened, now. One way I try to keep myself intact is writing a journal few times a week. This quiet time allows you to meditate and refine your thoughts and worldview.

Your Story:

So, now it’s your turn. What are your core values? Are you certain of who you are, what you stand for and believe? Everyone goes through this process and the earlier, the better. “With your values prioritized, you will see advantages when it comes to making decisions, too. Roy Disney once said, “It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” All jobs entail tradeoffs. Do you crave more prestige, higher pay, a chance to help others, increased job security, more variety, increased risk, and more independence? You may want them all, but the chances are good that you can't have them all. You have to make tradeoffs. The way to do that is by assessing each desire in light of your core values. Your values won't change, but you will decide which ones are more important to you right now in your present circumstances. Ultimately, values provide guidelines for answering the question: “What is most important to me?” When it comes to your career, there is no question more important than that.”

I stumbled upon a blog from a Sauder alumnus and consultant Mike Desjardins who shared his story of core values. He gave a speech at UBC and a core values worksheet with step-by-step instructions. For those who are still in the process of discovering your core values, I highly recommend you to take this seriously and start thinking about your fundamental personal values. This will truly change your life. 

Here it is video: Core Values Video

Here is the worksheet: Core Values Worksheet

If you have previously established a set of core values for your life, would you please take a couple minutes to share the impact your core values have had on your life in the comments sections below this post.