Servant Leadership

What is servant leadership and how does it apply to your organization?

Servant leadership is a practical philosophy, which supports people who choose to serve first, and then lead as a way of expanding service to individuals and institutions. Servant-leaders may or may not hold formal leadership positions.Servant leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment.

Robert Greenleaf, the man who coined the phrase, described servant-leadership in this way:

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. He or she is sharply different from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. For such it will be a later choice to serve after leadership is established. The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs 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 servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived.

From The Servant As Leader published by Robert Greenleaf in 1970.

What You Will Learn:

• Examine and assess your organizational values

• Examine and practice the principles of Servant Leadership

• Examine, discuss, and assess the concept and value of good followership in a servant leadership environment.

How You Will Benefit:

• By fostering an environment that promotes full engagement and motivates employees by your example

• By promoting and inculcating the 10 principles of servant leadership

• By cultivating effective followers who are able to assume both leader and follower roles as circumstances dictate

Who Should Attend: Managers, supervisors, team leaders, and project managers will find this program invaluable in transforming and reframing both individual and organization concepts of leadership and followership.

Competencies Addressed: External Awareness, Vision, Service Motivation, Partnering, Political Savvy, Accountability

Program Length: Two days (or more as appropriate with optional follow up)