The Greenleaf Seminar

The Key Practices of Servant-Leaders

Presented by Dr. Kent M. Keith 2009 Mid-America Community Action Association Conference © Copyright Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership 2009

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Key Practices of Servant-Leaders

       Self-Awareness Listening Changing the pyramid Developing your colleagues Coaching, not controlling Unleashing the energy and intelligence of others Foresight 2

Self-Awareness

 One’s own strengths and weaknesses  Emotional intelligence  Primal Leadership (Goleman)  The impact of one’s words and deeds  Reflection 3

Exercise for Two: Self Awareness

 Answer this question: How do your strengths, weaknesses, and emotional reactions affect others? Think of a few specific examples.

 Pick a person near you and share your answer or the specific examples that you are comfortable sharing.

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Listening

 Key to understanding how to meet the needs of others  Servant-leaders don’t begin with the answer but with questions   Starbucks and Howard Behar PieperPower – Suzuki - Yunus 5

Changing the Pyramid

 In the traditional pyramid, the workforce is focused on the boss, not the customer  Blanchard: Servant-leader articulates a vision, then inverts the pyramid  Dr. Sample: work for those who work for you!

 A pyramid is lonely at the top: need a team 6

Developing Your Colleagues

 Greenleaf’s business ethic: the work exists for the person as much as the person exists for the work  TDIndustries Mission Statement  Schneider Corporation Vision Statement  Peter Drucker’s story about the president who developed managers 7

Coaching, not Controlling

 The traditional focus on “control”  Servant leaders coach and mentor  Chester Barnard: authority rests in the hands of the receiver of the signal  Meg Wheatley: Organizations are not machines but dynamic living systems in which relationships count 8

Unleashing the energy and intelligence of others

 Empowerment = allowing people to use their energy and intelligence  Ken Melrose at Toro  People need experience being “unleashed” so they can take leadership when needed  Everyone is there—why not engage everyone to the fullest?

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Foresight

 Greenleaf said foresight is the central ethic of leadership, the “lead” that the leader has  Not predicting specific events, but the underlying trends, issues, opportunities  Arie de Geus: example of forecasting when the rivers will swell and flood the valleys  Good to Great: A& P vs. Kroger  Max DePree: momentum 10

One result: Trust

 Trust is essential to leading any organization  You can build trust when you make it clear in word and deed that you care about your colleagues and customers  The key practices build trust because you are paying attention to your customers and colleagues and are getting them what they need 11

What does your organization look like?

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Exercise: Implementing the Key Practices

 Draw your organization  Mark yourself and three colleagues  Given your organizational structure, how could you best implement the key practices of servant-leaders?

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Discussion

 What do you find most interesting about the key practices of servant leaders?

 What do you think are the benefits of servant leadership?

 What do you think are the barriers to being a servant-leader?

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Thank you!

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