| One of the major fixes to our society has to be the way that we define success. The simple standard of success of accumulating money has resulted in greed, where no amount of money satisfies. It is like trying to eat a bucket of ice cream, where the ice cream no longer tastes very good. Greed has left the most successful still hungry for something they cannot define.
One of the ways to feel really good is to do something for someone else. Imagine leadership based on service to others. Actually, there is a whole theory of management based on compassion for others. Imagine a manager that removed all the obstacles and roadblocks in people's way in getting their jobs done. Imagine a manager focussed on meeting the legitimate needs (not wants) of employees.
The book, "The Servant, A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership" by James C. Hunter, defines leadership this way:
The skill of influencing people to work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good. Most of us are used to being led by people who use the power of the paycheck to force us to work for them. The idea of a manager who both pays and still works to generate enthusiasm seems rare and fascinating. And since we have little or no pay in politics and blogging, this leadership is for us. This leadership does not come from an MBA degree. Indeed this is more of a natural leadership that comes from good character and can be done by anyone at any level.
So how does this leadership work? |
| The book, "The Servant, A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership" by James C. Hunter, describes servant leadership as based on power, given by the people served, not power, taken by coercive means. A servant leader builds relationships more than just getting tasks done. A humorous story talks about promoting the best forklift driver to manager which yields a double whammy of a bad manager and the loss of the best forklift driver. A servant leader still has to use coercive power sometimes, since sometimes people do not want to obey rules like "Don't call women - girls!" The difference between a coercive power-based leader and a servant leader is that a servant leader is so respected that people would walk through walls for that leader.
The actions of leaders define them more than words. This type of leadership respects and cherishes all relationships and interests. In business, this means all the stakeholders: customers, employees, community members, stockholders, suppliers and other management.
Walk-through-wall leaders were described in Hunter's book by these traits:
Honest, trustworthy
Good role model
Caring
Committed
Good iistener
Held people accountable
Treated people with respect
Gave people encouragement
Positive, enthusiastic attitude
Appreciated people
I especially like the trait of "good listener". I think that "holding people accountable" with respect is actually challenging. To become this type of leader takes awareness, choice and effort. It takes discipline, to do what is not natural until it becomes natural.
An honest awareness of who we are is always difficult. "We do not see the world as it is, we see the world as we are." Selective perception is the difficult part of having leaders see who they are so they can change into a better leader.
Another interesting part of the Hunter's "The Servant" book is the discussion of this leadership application of "Love thine enemy". In this case, "love" does not represent a good translation of the original language. A better translation would be to treat everyone with the same loving-kindness and respect that you would want, especially your enemy. Our current society has gone the opposite direction where we shoot enemies with guns. Simple respect would generate more peace in the world.
Support for these ideas also comes from a popular management book, "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. The Collins book describes the research of many companies to discover that good leaders were not the flamboyant ones that made the newspaper headings but rather the good leaders were the quieter, thoughtful, strong-willed types. It was discovered that the quality of the people involved was more important than any other factor. It is all about character. Good leaders could confront brutal facts and yet not lose faith. Good leaders could let go of comfortable competent business where there was no long term future. Good leaders could carefully select innovations and technologies to build a better future.
I got on this path of looking at "servant leadership" because it was a term being widely used by the St Paul police department and the now Sheriff Matt Bostrom. It fits well with the theme of character based hiring. However, I think this idea of servant leadership could be universal. It especially should describe all of us in politics. Anyone can be this kind of leader. It is simply a choice! |
