Introduction Servant-leadership
‘You might obey a leader who has power and is authoritarian. You might do what he asks you to do. But you will not necessarily strive to serve him or the organisation in a way that brings out the best and most engaged version of yourself. That is, unless you and the people you work with also truly respect and appreciate the leader for who he is and what he does.’
— Dan B. Allender, professor and author of Leading with a Limp
Servant-leadership, fortunately, is not hype. Nor is it anything new. As the quote from Lao-Tzu at the front of this book illustrates, it has been around for centuries. More than that, almost everyone applies it in their daily lives. Parenting, for example, is often a form of servantleadership. Consider your function as a parent when teaching your little son to ride a bike:
You take your son outside on a sunny day and provide a safe environment. After all, you won’t let him practise on a busy brick road or a sloping street strewn with pebbles. You explain to him how cycling works, put him on the saddle and guide him the first few metres with your hand. When, after some practice, your son zig-zags his first metres, you shout at him that he is doing great. When he falls that inevitable first time, you are quick to be near him. You rub the sore knee, advise where necessary and boost his confidence.
When he falls a second time and throws his brand new bike in the street, crying, you speak to him about it. You make it clear that you understand that he is frustrated and therefore crying, that all beginnings are difficult and he will learn.
After a few weeks of practice, you decide together that the training wheels can come off. You explain to your son that he has made it all by himself so far. When you finally see him cycling up and down the street smiling, you beam with pride.
When you teach your little son to cycle, you will naturally start looking for the perfect balance between leading and serving. Of course, you have already cycled many miles yourself, so he can still learn a lot from you. But most of all, you want him to learn on his own, so that soon he will be able to go out on his own. In servant-leadership it is the same: you look for the balance between leading and serving, between limiting and giving space, between making rules and letting people discover for themselves.
Servant-leadership as a philosophy starts from the idea that as a leader, you do not create followers, but new leaders. A servant leader helps his employees develop, and teaches them to inspire others to do the same. It calls on the leader to create a working environment where his employees can unleash their talents and passion, and where they visibly contribute to the organisation’s mission and goals.
The development of the employee is central, and this is because the servant leader believes that the real capital of an organization is in his employees. He wants them to succeed and be able to achieve success. After all, the success of the employees is the success of the company, or in other words, the results of an organisation are determined by the performance of its employees. For the servant leader, it is therefore of the utmost importance for his employees to flourish within his organisation.
The effectiveness of this approach can be found everywhere, especially in nature.
one vision
TWo pillars of servant-leadership
Yardstick
The support
BONDING
AUTONOMY
a vision from
motivation
to drive
COMPETENCE
THREE ROLES
As a leader
Autonomy - The Manager
Giving Space
Giving Guidance
Bonding - The Leader
Providing Direction
Strengthening Relationships
Competence - The Coach
Defining Roles
Encouraging Reflection
from motivation to drive
The diagram above summarizes the basis for this book. It will provide a helpful thread throughout the text for clarifying the various facets of servant-leadership. This model makes the connection between the results of the organisation and the needs of the employee. After all, my assumption is that results follow when efforts are made to create drive in the employee. I use the ABC of employee needs mentioned above as a basis for this:
• Autonomy: the employee wants to be able to decide for himself, as much as possible, what he does and how he does something.
• Bonding with a cause and with the team: the employee wants to contribute to something that is meaningful in his eyes. He wants to do this in connection with the team and the organisation.
• Competence: the employee wants to be good at something and be appreciated for his talents.
The servant leader starts with a vision and sets a professional yardstick from there. To achieve it, he will support his employees. He does this from three roles, each linked to the ABC of employee needs:
• The manager ensures that the employee is given enough space to perform his job as autonomously as possible. He also facilitates the team’s activities by removing as many inefficiencies or obstacles as possible.
• The leader ensures that the organisation keeps going in the right direction and that the employee remains relationally connected to the team.
• Finally, there is the coach, who ensures proper role allocation based on talents and encourages reflection in a safe learning environment.
WORKING TOGETHER TOWARDS A VISION USING METHOD O
GET STARTED!
SCAN: WHAT ARGUMENTS DO WE SEE IN OUR ENVIRONMENT FOR UPDATING OUR VISION??
DRIVE: IN WHICH CONCRETE SITUATIONS HAVE WE FELT OURSELVES TRULY DRIVEN TOWARDS A GOAL IN THE PAST YEAR? WHAT WERE THE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS FOR OUR SUCCESS?
DREAM: WHAT DOES OUR DREAM OR VISION LOOK LIKE IN CONCRETE TERMS? SHARE CONCRETE IMAGES OF THE DREAM.
DESIGN: HOW DO WE TRANSLATE THE VISION INTO CONCRETE PRINCIPLES? BE AS SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE.
1 2 4 3 9 8 6 7 5
OPERATIONAL: FORMULATE AT LEAST 1 SMART GOAL FOR EACH EMPLOYEE.
MATCH: WHAT DO WE NEED TO COMMIT TO THE VISION? NAME ANY FEARS OR CONCERNS. ls o w d o wn a c c etarele
TACTICAL: TRANSLATE THE STRATEGIC GOALS INTO TEAM GOALS FOR THE COMING YEAR.
STRATEGIC: TURN THE VISION INTO STRATEGIC GOALS FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS.
CONSULTATION: HOW DO WE TRANSLATE OUR NEEDS INTO CONCRETE ACTION BEFORE WE IMPLEMENT THE VISION? DOES EVERYONE FEEL MOTIVATED BY THE SAME VISION?
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CREATING THE VISION
• Formulate a strong, defined vision using these three questions: Why are we doing it? What do we stand for? What are we aiming for?
• Keep the vision alive among your employees so that they feel connected to it and can rally behind it. To zoom in on what you want to stand for, take your colleagues through the steps of Method O. Make the steps as concrete as possible and return to them repeatedly.
INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVES
Day in, day out we go full steam ahead to fulfil our collective ambition. At the same time, we also want to care about you as an individual. That is why we occasionally hold conversations.
The following questions can help shape these conversations.
What was/were your top moment(s) last year?
Tell me... What concrete initiative I can take away from this conversation??
What is a concrete ambition of yours?
What would you like to change in the way we work? What can you do about it?
What concrete ideas do you have to improve bonding within the team?
In which areas do you think you can still grow?
Do you have any tips to help your manager grow?
RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE YARDSTICK AND THE SUPPORT
• Set a clear yardstick.
• Discuss with your team whether the yardstick (desired result, desired behaviour) is clear. Be sure to praise achieved results or desired behaviour.
• When you notice people underperforming, don’t hesitate to call them on it.
• Let your employees speak their piece, then discuss the problem. This will also allow you to address them
Situation: Problem/Cause
Write down the problem
E.g. We have too little office spacethis is frustrating
What solutions do we have? What is possible?
E.g. Looking together at what are necessary agenda items (does everything have to be decided in the group?)
E.g. Forwarding the meeting agenda so that everyone can prepare (saving time)
Why is the problem occurring?
Analyse the problem: why is it a problem? What is the cause of the problem? What can we influence? Formulate the essential problem
Bijv. We meet too often and for too long and with too many people
Check if there are criteria before you brainstorm solutions. What is already certain? Is there a framework within which to think?
E.g. We only have one meeting room
E.g. We need to meet at least once a month
Define a sensible goal
Make sure it is about results or commitments and not statements of intentions
E.g. We want to have fewer meetings (want = intend)
E.g. We are going to ensure a significant decrease in the number of meetings so that we have enough space
Who does what when?
By using an improvement board, you have a visual and transparent way to consult efficiently and work together on shared goals. For instance, teams may learn that they don’t have to involve everyone in a briefing, that they don’t have to write an extensive report but that a to-do list is sufficient, that you can save a lot of time with a few small tweaks. It is an effective way to expose bureaucratic tensions. On top of that, making a schedule is less intimidating to teams because here tasks are disconnected from people and linked to the function. That way, it is easier to talk about flaws because guilt is less of an issue. Once you are able to put your finger on a wound, you can heal it by looking for cures with the team. That way, in the long run, every experience, complaint, problem or frustration can become an opportunity to optimise the work process.
However, some challenges come not from within the company, but from outside. It is important when analysing the flow of tasks to also identify factors that cannot be controlled - for instance, if you are dependent on external sources. Sometimes there are jobs that rely on people or organisations outside the team. Many managers tend to intervene when a problem arises between an outside organisation and their own team.
Tim is business manager of three different restaurants. He has good contacts with a vegetable supplier who comes to deliver every Tuesday morning. Recently, however, deliveries have been delayed several times, with dire consequences.
Of course Tim can take on the responsibility himself of contacting the supplier and holding him accountable for delays. However, this leads Tim to commit to having such conversations in the future with every external supplier he depends on (the butcher, the window cleaner, the wine merchant, and so on). The unintended or unwanted effect of this is that the team becomes dependent on the manager. After all, he is the one who puts out the fires; he’s the problem-solver. From the philosophy of servant-leadership, we want to systematically make the team as independent as possible from the leader.
IN CONCLUSION
Throughout Part I, we have examined the importance of vision. This is the direction you want your organisation to go and the basis from which you can develop bold ideals for the future. A shared vision creates bonding between employees and the organisation.
Next you fix a yardstick to judge your employees’ behaviour and results. When you notice that they are not measuring up, you provide support. This support will always follow the same four steps: addressingexpressing - discussing - agreeing.
For support, you can act from three different roles: as a manager, as a leader and as a coach. It is here that you really make a difference in meeting the ABC needs of your employees. In the overview, you can see how the three positions are linked to the ABC.
to give space by steering for
to give direction and guard the vision
to guide the flow of activities in furthering autonomy, he wants employees to take responsibility and to decide for themselves how to tackle things
to determine roles by focusing on talent
to strengthen relationships in furthering bonding, he wants to contribute to meaningful goals in a good atmosphere.
to stimulate reflection in a safe learning climate in furthering competence, he wants employees to be good at something and be appreciated for it.
I return one last time to the metaphor of the wolf pack. The alpha male allows space to his pack members to make their own decisions and go their own way, but ensures they are moving forward efficiently in the right direction, taking into account both internal and external factors. He indicates the right way by leading or communicating with his gaze because he understands the importance of communication within the group. He will rarely be aggressive towards members of his pack, and is assertive only when he needs to be. He tries, along with all members, to nurture and grow the young into the best version of themselves. The alpha wolf understands that the pack is his family, that he needs them, just as the pack needs him. As Rudyard Kipling wrote: ‘The wolf depends on the pack, and the pack depends on the wolf.’ Always keep this framework in mind as a leader.
That’s as far as the comparison with wolves goes. In Part II, I delve further into the three different roles of the manager. It covers the four styles of a manager, the five characteristics of a servant leader and the six competences of a coach.
1. PROACTIVE: KEEP TO THE MAIN THING, THE MAIN THING
‘You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can change the position of the sails.’
— H. Jackson Brown
Proactive
John is the CEO of a large packaging firm. He is often too busy, which is the case again today. He employs two receptionists, Rita and Sandra, who for the first time in two years take leave on the same day. And as John’s desk is right next to the reception desk, he feels he has no choice but to take over their work. He takes phone calls, receives the paper supplier, speaks to visitors and tries to do his own work in between.
The above example shows that having a busy schedule does not necessarily mean effective leadership. In this example, John is like a captain of a large ship, scrubbing the deck. The ship has no captain at that moment. Inevitably, this means that things on his agenda are taking precedence that, as CEO, are not necessarily important.
As a manager, you too may experience constant ‘pressure’ on the job. In periods of stress, when you are juggling tasks and deadlines, it isn’t easy to keep your focus on what is really important in the long-term and the effects that will generate sustainable success. To maintain control of your own schedule and your organisation or team, it is important to think about your own time management: that you are proactive and engage as much as possible where you, in your unique role, can make a difference. A first step is to become aware of the difference between things you can and cannot influence.
CIRCLE OF INVOLVEMENT
CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE
CIRCLE OF INVOLVEMENT CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE
The circle of involvement and the circle of influence (Covey, 1989) offer clarity here. Within the circle of involvement are the things that affect and impact us, but over which we ourselves have little or no control. Big or little things like the weather, traffic jams, pressures at work, poor organisation, unclear agreements, unspoken feedback, and so on become big energy guzzlers that we cannot avoid. These things are frustrating and can throw you off track.
The circle of influence refers to things you can actually influenceyour own plans and goals, your dealings with colleagues, friends and superiors, your outlook, the time you put into important things, your own development, and so on. Often our attention is taken up by the circle of involvement. But instead of focusing your attention and energy on what you can’t do anything about - troublesome colleagues, traffic jams on the way to work, rain on the day of your outdoor team building exercise, and so on - I invite
you to explore the circle of influence. Where do you have influence?
However small your influence may be, this is an opportunity to be effective. By focusing your attention and energy here, you end up expanding your circle of influence. For problems where we have no influence at all, we can only try to resolve inwardly. For instance, we can decide to accept an unwanted situation and give up resisting it.
This means that traits of the other person are at odds with their own qualities. The core quadrant can lead people to recognise their own part of the problem and thus reframe the conflict. Future friction can be avoided if the two parties are willing to take more account of each other’s sensitivities. Once both people are made aware of this, it will create clarity all round, which may not have been possible before, because ‘the other is too stubborn to change anyway’.
CORE QUALITY
JOHN’S FLAWS
5. INVISIBLE: CREATE NEW LEADERS, NOT FOLLOWERS
‘The goal towards which parents have to strive in relation to their children is this: to make themselves superfluous.’
— P.H. Ritter, writer and journalist, 1882-1962
DIt is no accident that this book begins with the example of a parent teaching his child to ride a bicycle. As a parent, you wish your child only one thing: that he will be able to stand on his own two feet, make his own decisions and face the challenges that come his way as a mature and resilient human being.
We recognise a servant leader by his employees: they grow. To encourage their growth, the manager systematically grants them more powers while investing in their development. Granting powers ensures that employees develop a proactive attitude and self-confidence. This gives them more personal influence and the stimulation of learning.
It recalibrates the basis of hierarchy and power; servant leaders use their formal power to empower others. In this sense, he is a journeyman along the road to mastery. For years, a good leader was the expert who knew the most or could do everything best. Servant-leadership is precisely not about wanting to lead and be imitated, but rather focuses on encouraging and guiding others’ abilities.
A servant leader wants to make his employees completely independent, allow them as much control over their own work as possible and earn his total trust. If this evolution continues, it is possible that you yourself as a leader will become seemingly redundant or invisible.
The GRROW model presented here encourages employees to think for themselves, which often proves very effective. After all, when an employee has thought of a solution or approach himself, he will usually be able to implement it well and with gusto.
‘Chief, how could I organise my meetings more efficiently? Everyone just sits there unprepared and they often don’t respond when I ask something.’
The GRROW model consists of five phases that can take place in a conversation. GRROW is an abbreviation for: Goal - Reality - Resources - Options - Will (Whitmore, 2010). These phases do not necessarily occur in this order. Often, a conversation starts with reality.
Goal
Find out the things the conversation should concretely deliver:
• Specifically, what should meetings look like?
• What do your colleagues do differently?
• Do you have examples of what they do differently?
• What should be the result of the meetings?
• How would that make you feel?
Or more generally:
• What do you want to achieve?
• What would the situation be like for you to be ‘satisfied’?
• In what areas would you like to see change?
• What would you like to tackle?
• Where would you like to be after this conversation?
• How will you know the problem has been solved?
Reality
Explore the current situation with as open a mind as possible. Your function as coach now is to encourage your employee to selfanalyse, in addition to analysing concrete examples. It is important to maintain the common thread and close off irrelevant tangents before they get very far. Concentrate on solving an existing problem. So don’t go rooting around too much in ‘how you got here’, but together place the ladder on which your employee can climb out of the pit. Be aware that silence in a conversation can indicate that your employee’s thinking process has been activated. So feel free to allow this. Sample questions could be:
• How exactly do you run the meetings?
• What is the effect of that?
• Where do they get stuck, do you think?
• What would you like to see, experience, hear more of at the meetings?
• Who or what else is at play?
SYMPATHETIC CONFRONTATION
RELATIONSHIP MESSAGE
WHAT IS YOUR INTENTION IN DELIVERING THIS MESSAGE? WHY DO IT?
WHAT MAKES YOU (DARE) NOT GIVE THE MESSAGE? WHY NOT?
CONTENT
EVENT
CONSEQUENCES
FROM NOW ON:
SPEAK OUT:
TALK IT OVER: : DISCUSS: AGREE:
FACTS AND BEHAVIOUR WITHOUT JUDGEMENT/INTERPRETATION
EFFECT ON THE OPERATION FEELINGS THAT IT TRIGGERS
Keep a silence, check if your colleague understands what you are saying. Leave room for emotion. Be an OEN.
Look for the essential reason why we keep running into this problem. Use LSQ. Focus on the Goal: How do we work this out together?
Look for options and solutions that can really make a difference
Who does what by when? Be SMART.
4. CHALLENGE
‘Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.’
— Saint Augustine
As a coach, you not only support, you also challenge the other person to go further than they would on their own. By challenge, I mean that you encourage someone to push their limits and tap into their enthusiasm, while supporting them in doing so. A challenging coach will stimulate his employee to go one step further. He will support his employees, enabling them to gain self-confidence, take care of themselves develop their talents and take on more responsibility. A coach will help look for any possible personal challenges his employees face. Some examples:
• Support someone who is drowning in work to not start a new project right away, but to set their own priorities first.
• Challenging someone to make choices that mean more to themselves.
• Helping someone make a difficult conversation go well anyway.
Challenging is a logical extension of appreciation. What your employee has a talent for and is ‘naturally’ good at, also requires further development. When we know the talents of our employees, we can empower and use them in the team. Be alert to signs of strengths in the employee, to what is already going well. He can often use these strengths elsewhere. If you make his successes explicit, dynamics are created and the learning process switches up a gear. The other person feels empowered in what he can do and is challenged.
IN CONCLUSION
In Part II, I elaborated on the three roles of manager, leader and coach. When we add these themes to the framework of Part I, a new framework emerges:
The leader The organisation ABC of the employees
THE MANAGER
will …
give space by insisting on results
guide the flow of activities give direction, and guard the vision
use four styles:
THE LEADER de coach AUTONOMY
will … will …
strengthen relationships
define roles by focusing on talent
stimulate reflection in a safe learning climate
• instructing
• directing or guiding
• facilitating
• delegating use five
• characteristics:
• proactive
• empathetic
• authentic
• curious
• invisible
use six skills:
• explore
• appreciate
• engage
• confront
• challenge
• inspire
• allow space
He wants to take responsibility and to a large extent, be able to decide for himself how to tackle something
BONDING WITH THE GOAL AND WITH THE TEAM COMPETENCE
He wants to contribute to a meaningful goal in a good atmosphere. He wants to be good at something and be appreciated for it.
ORGANIZATION & TEAMS IN ‘DRIVE’
After all, the team operates within a broader context, and that context has a major impact on what the team can achieve. If that context does not serve a team’s drive, the effect of training is often short-lived. After all, every day the team is influenced by the organisation’s strategy, structure, culture, processes and systems. You can see this clearly in the diagram on page 226.
For example, the other day we were at a company where an administrative assistant was told to submit an application for... a stapler. Because of the cumbersome structure, red tape, slow processes and outdated systems, it took no less than two months for him to get approval for something he would simply pick up from the shop at home.
This led me to write a new book: “Respond!” In it, I describe a step-by-step method to reinvent your organisation, based on the foundations of connection, trust and shared responsibility. If you take this journey, you can arrive at a responsive organisation. In it, selforganisation, co-creation and wholeness will be central. Let us briefly explain these concepts:
Self-organisation: where you not only allow the greatest possible autonomy in the execution of the job, but also responsibility for organising the whole thing. The team not only has a meadow with fence posts within which it can act autonomously, it also decides where the posts are located and can move them if necessary.
Co-creative goals: where organisation, teams, employees and clients go for it together. This starts from a firm commitment to the vision, and immediately transcends it. We are constantly in touch with our situation to make policy together and adjust it where necessary.
Wholeness: choosing to look beyond a person’s competences. The employee is viewed with confidence in his or her totality. In our experience, an organisation built from these three building blocks creates the ideal environment for teams and employees with drive.