Servant Leadership — the value of…

What do you think about when you enter a room?

The old cliché is either “Here I am” or “There you are” — suggesting an introvert or extrovert personality type.

How often do you stop to consider: ‘someone has set this room up correctly’, ‘the agenda for today’s meeting has been well planned’, ‘is there someone here who can help me achieve my goals today?’

Probably never…

You’ll assume that any issues that are not yours have been resolved by someone else — and if you have a problem then someone will be available to help you.

That’s not a bad thing, everyone has their own priorities, goals and objectives and puts them first. However, for a team to be effective all the pieces must work harmoniously. Have you ever arrived at meeting to find that the projector is not working? How many productivity minutes were wasted trying to get it fixed?

The role of the Servant Leader is to remove any barriers to people doing what they do best.

Delegation Vs Cross-Functional Teams

Traditionally a ‘Leadership’ position is a highly paid management role, someone who has an overview of a solution and can delegate tasks to appropriate individuals.

But how often have a management team been undermined by the culture of an organisation? A resistance to change, a consensus of opinion that differs to the leadership vision.

It is a given that if you want people to deliver then it has to be their decision. One of my favourite quotes comes from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who states:

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea”

In truth, a leader can sit anywhere in the organisation

An effective leader is a mix of a project manager, delivery coach, decision maker and sales person. To name just a few traits that they must call upon to deliver business objectives.

It is not dependent on hierarchy, salary or experience.

So, how do you avoid the ‘broken projector’ scenario? You have 3 options:

1. Do everything yourself
2. Outsource
3. Own it as a team.

Option 1 will mean that you are at the meeting first, 30 minutes early to check that everything is setup correctly. It is possible, but you have a 3 hour meeting immediately before so you’ll need to set it up before breakfast and hope no one breaks it. This means making your day longer and eventually you will burn out.

Option 2 means getting someone else to do it. Delegation max, but all your team are highly skilled professionals who think organising meetings is either below them or a waste of time. Your budget doesn’t extend to a personal assistant so instead the task doesn’t get done and the time is lost.

Option 3 is shared responsibility. It may result in any team member who gets their first checking the room is set up correctly so that the meeting can start on time and benefit everyone. The team are cross-functional and working for each other. The consensus of opinion has been directed to be aligned with the business vision.

Putting a Price on Success

Which players in a soccer team have the highest transfer values? It’s the attackers, the Neymars and Ronaldos, the ones who score goals.

However, a team full of attackers is useless.

Without defenders the team will concede more goals than they score and the team loses.

But a team with just defenders wont score.

An effective team needs an engine, someone who understands the game and knows when to defend and when to attack. Someone who can move the ball to the best player from the middle of the park and is connected to the entire team.

A manager sat on the sidelines can shout and shout and shout, but they are not best positioned to see the killer pass on the other side of the field that can be made in a split second. Real leadership sits in the middle of the team directing the action.

So why aren’t (holding) midfielders the most valuable players in soccer?

The answer is because their value is hidden. Scoring goals or not conceding goals is a transparent KPI. Enabling the KPI to be achieved is a hidden cost.

If we celebrated key passes or clean sheets the same way we cheered goals, the whole team’s contribution would be recognised.

What does this lookalike in a business team?

So what does a ‘key pass’ look like on a project? How can you appreciate a ‘clean sheet’ when it just looks like BAU? or worse when there are no critical problems for someone to save the day from?

Isn’t it just better not to have to ‘save the day’ in the first place?

A Servant Leader will exhibit the following behaviours:

https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe?utm_campaign=tedspread--b&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

• Active listening and hearing problems, or even just the early signs of problems, from within the team
• Be able to assess the scale of the problems — risk identification and prioritisation. It’s rare just to have one problem.
• Resolving problems, removing blockers and getting stuck in.
  Firefighting and short term planning followed up with continuous improvement and prevention processes.
• Altruism and inclusiveness (see Simon Sinek’s great TED talk above) — Making effort to include everyone, recognise contributions, failing as a team and getting personally involved with delivery. A leader has skills to bring to the team too.
• Switching from a product to a customer focus. Encourage the team to understand the business and personal benefits of delivery. It’s not all about individual’s personal appraisals or just making numbers. It’s delivering the business vision and delighting customers.
• Drive change — be a change advocate and recognise when a team behaviour is or isn’t working. Not being afraid to call out bad behaviours.

This is easy isn’t it?

That’s why businesses are full of great mangers who are loved, why customers are always delighted and why employees always feel valued.

Yeah, right!

It takes a shift to move a team into this mindset. We’re not starting from a utopia where everyone seeks out the job that is best suited to them and wants to do well.

Business is based in the theory that everyone knows what they have to do and if they do it then it will all work. Everyone is a cog in the machine and the person at the top is in control.

To find the value of servant leadership it costs trust. Those with the authority at the top have to trust in those that they have hired to be capable of leading and delivering what is needed.