Servant Leadership
Importance of leadership
Servant leadership shows the importance of leadership
Robert Green Leaf once said that the first and most important choice a leader makes is the choice to serve. and John C. Maxwell tells us that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Today it is becoming clear that unquestioning servant leadership is the new standard of leadership. The world’s best CEOs and founders apply to their companies. The world’s most respected leaders can vouch for it.
If a leader wants his organization to excel, he must be prepared to put others first. Ken Blanchard says that in order to help people you have to be clear about your goals and then roll up your sleeves and do whatever it takes to help people win.
In such a situation, they are not working for you, you are working for them. But how can we ensure that our workplace meets these new standards? And how we can best use it to take our organization to new heights?
79% of employees quit their jobs due to a lack of appreciation, a leader not giving out clear directions, not taking time to sit down with employees and not providing regular feedback. We’re among the top 10 employee complaints in the us.
To grow a successful businesses, only 14% of CEOs possess the leadership talent that is required to accomplish a task . These statistics proves the importance of servant leadership which is increasingly growing area that businesses should focus on.
These are designed to cover this broad topic as thoroughly as possible to encourage growth in these vital areas, and to facilitate a real and fruitful discussion within your organization about how you can each improve on this essential characteristic, both at work and in your personal lives in general. At the very end of this roadmap comes the most important final step.
What you will learn from this course:
15 key steps to become a servant leader
Set expectations through conceptualization
Be committed to the employees growth
Improve interactions in meetings
15 key steps to become a servant leader
Listen attentively
Listening is the focal quality of servant leadership. As a servant leader, you should naturally possess the desire of wanting to serve others. You understand that the well being of your employees is your top priority. You also recognize that they can provide valuable input to the team. This is why communication is so important in every business.
Listening is important concerning their well being. A lot of employees experience low morale from time to time. It may stem from personal concerns outside of work, such as financial or family problems.
Another root cause might be factors in inside the office, such as feeling burnt out in work or experience inappropriate treatment from other staff. In some cases, they may experience physical pain like sickness or emotional distress like anxiety or depression. These factors can highly affect their morale in the workplace and may lead to poor performance.
If you noticed someone on your team who is feeling down or having a rough day, why not invite them to sit down and talk things over? Don’t wait for them to come to you. Take the initiative. Of course, you might not be a licensed therapist or a trained expert that can provide professional advice, but what’s the best thing you can do as a leader? Listen, really listen.
Listen attentively as they open up, don’t interrupt. Let them express freely what’s in their minds. Take in what they’re saying. You’ll be surprised how some people don’t really need solutions to their problems. They just want someone to listen. Be that someone.
Show empathy
Listening and showing empathy go hand in hand. Listening is useless if it goes right out of your head. As you understand things from their perspective. Show empathy. Without being emotionally invested, try to put yourself in their situation. This will help you to understand things from their perspective. This in turn can lead you to provide them with the best practical help that you can offer.
What are the other practical ways you can show empathy in the workplace? Consider using these phrases the next time you go to work. How are you feeling? I, I would feel the same way. How can I help? Tell me about it. Is there something wrong?
Practice self-awareness
A good leader should understand the strengths and weaknesses of their employees, but a great leader recognizes their own positives and negatives too. Self-awareness is a vital trait every servant leader should have. Self-awareness is defined as being acquainted with your values and personality.
You recognize that you’re imperfect, that you tend to have a weak perspective from certain things. Self-awareness is such an important trait that a leader should possess for. It develops emotional intelligence. It helps you to acknowledge your limitations and know what things you need to work on to be a better leader.
When you’re aware of your traits, habits, and emotions and how your actions affect others, you’ll be able to manage your emotions and make better sound decisions. This in turn, will motivate others to do the same. What are the fundamental ways to practice self-awareness? Consider these suggestions. Take a personality test, practice self-inspection.
Motivate using persuasion
Be aware of your emotional triggers. Exercise, self-discipline, motivate using persuasion. It’s logical for your employees to follow you because you’re a boss. However, using your authority doesn’t always motivate them to take action. You want them to feel that they’re involved and that their actions will contribute to the team’s success.
You do that by means of persuasion. When we hear the word persuasion, maybe the first thing that pops in our minds is the act of deceiving. Someone usually by slick sales tactics, but that’s not the case for servant leadership. To persuade means to change someone’s mind and convince them to change their decisions and actions.
Mastering the art of persuasion is the key to being a great servant leader. When you tactfully persuade others, you encourage them to do what’s right for the organization. Another reason why persuasion is important is that it builds consensus decision making.
When a leader uses persuasion to make decisions, they can impel everyone to be on the same page. And more importantly, that everyone supports the decision made.
How can you develop persuasion?
Here are a few habits that you should start working on.
Develop curiosity
Servant leaders are inquisitive in the world around them and the people they work with. Make an effort to know the physical and emotional needs of each individual.
Dreams and aspirations
Get to know what their dreams and aspirations are. This will help you on how to persuade them better. Listen attentively when talking to one of your employees.
Show personal interest
Show personal interest by looking them in the eye and using their name Throughout your conversation. Attentiveness shows that you value their opinion. Opinions that are valued and respected help build mutual trust. This trust in turn will make it easier for them to be persuaded.
Practice honesty
The power of your persuasion and your credibility as a leader is greatly affected by the level of honesty you show to your team. Being dishonest can mislead them and can damage the comradery in your overall reputation. As a servant leader, you should strive to be honest at all times, even when the truth hurts.
In the end, people will appreciate honest and unbiased feedback Lead through stewardship. A leader is selfless and caring. Leaders are stewards there responsible caretakers that oversee and protect their team.
Lead through stewardship
A leader is selfless and caring. Leaders are stewards. They’re responsible caretakers that oversee and protect their team. They constantly look for ways on how to improve and expand the business. When you lead through stewardship, you shape your organization to excellence.
As a steward, you’re committed to achieving the long-term goals of your company by setting short-term goals while remaining steadfast to the company’s core values. Despite internal and external pressures that they may encounter, servant leaders remain patient and persistent in reaching their objectives. How can you practice stewardship in your business?
Here are three main ways.
Focus on promoting well being. As a leader, you need to make sure that everyone is happy with their job. Find ways to make their work more enjoyable.
Sustain comradery, ensure that everyone in your team interacts well with one another.
Strive to maintain a healthy synergy in the workplace. Adjust organizational values when needed. As globalization shapes businesses today, you have to make sure that your company’s core values are aligned with the evolving culture.
Set expectations through conceptualization
Dream big, aim high. These words define what conceptualization is. When you conceptualize, you’re focusing not on the present, but on what lies ahead in the future. Your mission and vision are future oriented, and your objectives are always inclined to the foreseeable future.
Conceptualization isn’t a personal quest. Rather, it’s built around the people who help you achieve those dreams. To do that, servant leaders should approach individual work relationships as long-term commitments.
At the outset of the relationship, expectations should be set, giving them accountability. When employees have ownership to help shape the company’s vision, they will find more purpose and meaning to their work.
Move forward using foresight
Foresight is another trait that a servant leader should have. The reason is that we all make mistakes. Errors are inevitable, especially from a business perspective. Mistakes can affect you, but you can use these as a learning experience for you to continue to grow.
Learning from mistakes help you to make a better decision in the future. But that’s not all foresight, not only looks in the past, but is also vigilant to current situations. We see constant change every day. Having foresight, you continually look for ways on how to grow your business by gaining insight on past.
Be committed to the employees growth
Be committed to the employee’s growth. As a leader, you understand that individual growth is essential to collective progress. You should be deeply committed to nurturing their personal and professional growth. This can be by means of investing time, money, and resources to help them be matured as a worker, but also as an individual.
What are some ways you can support their growth?
Here are a few delegate tasks.
If you have too much on your plate, why not delegate other responsibilities to your team? This will not only save you more time, but also helps develop their skills.
Give out stretch assignments. These are tasks beyond their current roles and skills. It’s designed to let them think outside the box, allowing them to stretch developmentally.
Introduce new networks. As the head of the company, you’re in the position to open doors for creating new connections to your employees. Introduce them to other professionals, experts and mentors. Expanding their network creates a lot of opportunities to receive further support, knowledge and advice on how to grow personally and professionally.
Implement job shadowing. Job shadowing is an activity in which a staff from one area of the organization has the opportunity to work alongside other staff in different areas and gain insight from the experience. You can use job shadowing to train individuals to work alongside more experienced colleagues so they can learn and grow within their current role.
Establish cross-training programs. This program trains an employee to do a different part of the organization. This hands-on approach improves morale, boosts productivity, and promotes growth.
Express appreciation
Do you recall when was the last time you said thank you to an employee? You may be so caught up with work that you forget to say. Some words of appreciation to your hardworking employees saying thank you is not just some company prerequisite, nor is it a mere obligation that managers should do.
You give recognition because you are grateful. You voice out these words of appreciation because that’s what your heart tells you to do. Sadly, a lack of appreciation makes employees feel that their work doesn’t matter or that their efforts are unappreciated.
This lowers their morale and decreases the level of effort they put into your company. If left untreated, you might end up losing one of your top workers. As a leader, your job is to express these words of appreciation every day.
Treat employees with respect
How can you show yourself thankful? One way is by talking to your employees one by one. Sincerely. Tell them how much they mean to the team and how you value their efforts. Remember, it doesn’t have to be flowery and exaggerated. A short yet sincere gesture is enough to get them back on their feet.
When you regularly give out employee recognition, you will increase productivity, job satisfaction, employee happiness, retention, loyalty. Team culture. Treat employees with respect. Respect is imperative for servant leadership. Treating employees with dignity contributes to their well being.
When you respect employees, they become more alert, creative, and productive, thus resulting in a more positive workplace. So when it comes to showing respect, always remember, treat others the way you want to be treated. You treat your employees with respect.
When you show courtesy, kindness, and politeness, avoid. Micromanaging are not quick to judge. Understand their limitations. Listen to their opinions. Are aware of your body language, tone of voice and demeanor. Treat them fairly and equally. Practice empathy, respect their culture and beliefs.
Improve interaction in meetings
As an employee of a company, there may have been times when you have felt you have been ignored or out of place during a meeting. The reason is that it seems that your only job is to listen, listen and listen. However, it’s imperative that every person in the group should feel that their attendance is worthwhile and that their contribution is highly valued.
As a servant leader, your job is to create synergy among the team. How can you spur interaction within the group? Consider these practical tips. Encourage preparation. A good tip for preparation is to encourage your attendees to prepare their questions in advance during the meeting.
Ask them to provide updates or ask questions. A well-prepared inquiry will surely benefit the whole team and will let them feel that they’re essential. Involve everyone. For facilitators, your job is to make sure that everyone in attendance should have a share in the discussion.
If you have have hired so-called introverts, why not give them a chance to have a say? By giving everyone an opportunity to express their thoughts shows that you value their opinions. When they participate it also allows them a chance to appreciate the value of such meetings and ask questions of importance.
When it comes to participating, everyone has a different point of view. Knowing this, you should make it a point to approach such questions in tactful way. In fact, you can initiate thought-provoking topics that can stimulate their minds resulting in a more highly interactive group.
Give them a break
At times, you may find out that your workers look gloomy and depressed, and there could be a number of reasons why. Some employees feel that their work is just the same thing over and over again, as if being stuck in an endless loop.
On the other hand, someone might be dealing with sickness, loss of a loved one, relationship problems, and other personal matters. As for others, they simply just can’t handle the pressure of their work, causing them to become stressed and burnt out.
As a servant leader, how can you prevent them from being burned out? Give them a breather, a day off from work and help them to be refreshed and rejuvenated. When they return to work, they will feel more energized, providing more productivity. As a servant leader, what can you do to ensure that they have enough work-life balance?
You should ensure that your employees have the right to take vacations. You can do this by applying a paid time off policy. This policy simply means that an employee has the right to have time off from work while still getting paid.
PTOs include holidays, sick days, vacation, and personal matters such as bereavement, leaves, jury duty, and even military training. When you apply PTO to your business, you give your employees the freedom to take days off according to their discretion.
It also allows them to have some control of their schedule to attend personal matters. Sure enough, employees will value the flexibility that they gain through this policy. This is because you give them the right to have a break when they would need it the most.
Develop keystone habits
The reason why servant leadership is so effective is that the leaders have developed keystone habits. Keystone habits as defined by Charles duh Hague are small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into the other aspects of their life.
As a servant leader, acquiring these metaphoric habits transform you to be the best version of yourself so you can serve more people better.
Here are a few examples of keystone habits.
Daily exercise, sleeping early, writing a daily journal, cooking, donating to charity, spending quality time with loved ones, meditation, practicing gratitude. These keystone habits serve as building blocks in creating a successful leadership. These habits strengthen your physical, mental, and emotional state, improving your welfare set.
Set smart goals
Smart goals. Servant leaders strive to create goals that are foolproof. Sadly, not all goals produce rewarding results. Ill-considered plans or havocs that will only lead to a wild goose chase. To achieve your desired results, you need to create goals that can produce that kind of result. These goals are called smart goals. Establishing smart goals make it easier to visualize what success looks like. What does a smart goal mean?
Here’s the breakdown.
S specific SMART goals must be specific, clear and well-defined. Knowing your why is the key to understanding your motivation and will fuel you to stay on track. The more specific and detailed the goal you set, the more likely it will be accomplished. When goals are not specific enough, you set yourself up to fail.
M. Measurable smart goals must have criteria for gauging progress. Set productive habits and patterns, assess your progress and know when you’ve achieved it. Seeing incremental progress towards a goal will also excite and motivate you to stay the course and achieve your goal.
A achievable. To set yourself up for success, goals must be attainable. This means something outside of your comfort zone, but not so onerous that you set yourself up to fail. Goals should provide a structure, but also leave flexibility are relevant.
Goals must be R relevant to your priorities. Setting a goal to run a marathon when your greatest dream is to write a book is not relevant. Make sure goals align with your dreams and priorities. Also, consider if achieving your goal will be in your control or if success will be dictated by external circumstances.
T time bound set deadlines around your goals so you can stay focused on achieving them rather than simply setting a goal of exercising or eating well. Adding a deadline will make the goal more achievable. Deadlines have the added benefit of reflection. It allows time to review progress, thinking about what worked and what didn’t.
Develop a sense of urgency
A servant leader values time and makes the most out of every second. This is why having a sense of urgency is vital for efficiency. Having a sense of urgency means that you’re fully present at the moment. In other words, you’re mindful of your current situation and are ready to act promptly and decisively, though not worrying too much about what may.
Worrying too much about what may happen in the future, having a sense of urgency will prevent us from overthinking. Instead, you focus on the present. Taking one day at a time, a leader with a sense of urgency understands how fast paced the business world is, so he or she strives to keep ahead of everyone else.
To develop a sense of urgency, you need a proactive approach. A proactive person is like a chess player. In order to win, you need to think a few steps ahead.
The same is true in dealing with tasks. In order to manage time, you need to think ahead to see what needs to get done. Discipline, urgency starts in the mind. Discipline requires tremendous self-control.
When you are locked into your goals, you won’t get distracted.
Optimism and determination. Optimism provides confidence when things get tough. While determination provides courage to keep moving forward, and now it’s discussion time. The most important part of this training, who ever’s the head honcho in the group, should designate a facilitator whose responsibility is that each of the questions you see on your screen is covered and that everyone, time permitting Is able to have their say.
It is important to ensure that all contributions, suggestions and opinions are valued and respected.
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