Archives for March 2013

Servant Leader

March 31, 2013 by bmb5434

Servant leadership is both a leadership philosophy and set of leadership practices. Traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid.” By comparison, the servant-leader shares power puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible (Northouse, 2013). One person I feel is a great example of a servant leader is mother Teresa. Mother Teresa, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born August 26, 1910 in what is today Skopje, Macedonia. At the age of 12, she began showing interest in the life of missionaries and felt that she was being called to a life of serving God. By the time she was 18 she had left home and joined the Sisters of Loreto, never to see her mother or sister again. Though based out of Ireland, the Sisters of Loreto had a mission in Calcutta, India, where Mother Teresa spent most of her life serving as a teacher and helping the poor. Upon taking her first vows as a nun in 1931, she chose the name Teresa after the patron saint of missionaries.

The model of servant leadership is your basic input, process, and output model. The input stage is known as the antecedent condition which is pre existing factors in the leadership situation that set the backdrop for the leadership (Northouse, 2013). In 1939, Sister Teresa took her final vows to the Sisters of Loreto. In 1946, she was suspected of having tuberculosis and was sent to Darjeeling to rest. It was there that Sister Teresa decided she was being called to “serve the poorest of the poor.” Thus, she requested permission to leave the Sisters of Loreto to serve the poor of Calcutta. She was given permission by the pope to leave her order and focus on the poor. Calcutta at the time had a million poor people when she arrived (Chawla, 1992).

Servant leader behaviors are conceptualizing, emotional healing, putting followers first, helping followers succeed, behaving ethically, and creating value for the community (PSU Lesson 11, 2103). There was a lot of sickness and suffering when she started so she learned more about how to care for the sick and suffering, she went to Patna, India to receive a few months of medical training from the American Medical Missionaries (Chawla, 1992). Teresa soon began serving the people of Calcutta and doing whatever she could to help others. In 1950, Mother Teresa officially established the Missionaries of Charity with 12 members. A former student from St. Mary’s was the first to join her. She was a young Hindu girl who greatly respected Mother Teresa and her work for the poor (Chawla, 1992). Several other members of the Missionaries of Charity were also former wealthy Hindu students of St. Mary’s High School. They all lived together in a small building that was donated to them. Today, there are thousands of members of the Missionaries of Charity all around the world.

Outcomes are the end result of servant leadership (PSU Lesson 11, 2013). Over the years, Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity established homes all over the world for the dying, the sick, orphaned children, lepers, the aged, the disabled, and AIDS victims in New York. The impact she made on the people she served was immense but the impact on the world was even greater. Even though she is gone her legacy as being a servant leader leaves on today and her impact will last generations.

Chawla, N. (1992). Mother teresa. New York: Element Books Ltd.

PSU World Campus. (n.d.). Lesson 11: Servant leadership. Lecture. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp13/psych485/001/content/11_lesson/01_page.html

Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership: theory and practice (6th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publication

Mike Krzyzewski: Not Just a Coach but also a Servant Leader

March 30, 2013 by kym5147

A servant leader places emphasis on helping followers develop into leaders and leader has desire to serve others so they can develop to meet organizational needs (PSU, 2013). This type of leadership is characterized by empathy, healing, commitment to growth of others, persuasion and building a community among others (PSU, 2013). The leader is someone who is self-less and does things for others. In a sense they place the needs of others before their own.

When describing types of servant leaders, religious figures, philanthropist may be at the top of the list. However, I think there is another career that can exhibit this, a coach. Coaches are some people that can have a lasting impact on individuals. They are respected individuals that can have a positive change in someone’s life. I believe a good coach doesn’t just care about their win percentage, but also care about developing model citizens and thus exhibit some aspects of servant leadership. A coach that exemplifies this well is Duke Head Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski. I believe he exemplifies a servant leader by being one to listen to his players, feeling empathy for them, showing commitment to growth of players as well as build a positive community. In accomplishing those tasks, he has also built Duke Basketball into a perennial powerhouse.

Coach Krzyzewski is described as a leader who maximizes his players’ leadership capacity within a team setting (Stone, Russell, & Patterson, 2004). The leadership they gain through Coach K enables them to become good leaders in other organizational settings outside of the team (Stone et al., 2004). This is one of the reasons Coach K is highly respected as he doesn’t just develop basketball players, but develops men. He cares about the development and growth of his players both on and off the field (Stone et al., 2004). Additionally to developing young men to be better members of the community, he was very empathetic and resourceful for his team. Being far away from home, Coach K represents the father figure to some of his players (Sidle, 2007). He listened when they need the opinion of someone and provides advice as needed (Sidle, 2007). He is a guide and role model for all of them to follow. His leadership and personality allows him to bring cohesion to the team that sets them up for success. His players have great respect for him which allows him to further establish himself as a leader of developing men.

Duke is very fortunate to have a person that is not only a good basketball coach, but also have a positive impact in their community. He does this for the betterment of individuals, not for personal gain or fame. Despite having numerous acclaims, his greatness is the impact he has had on the lives of his players. This is why I believe Coach Mike Kryzewski is an example of a servant leader.

References

PSU World Campus (2013). PSYCH 485 Lesson 11: Servant Leadership. Retrieved on March 28, 2013, fromhttps://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp13/psych485/003/content/11_lesson/03_page.html

Sidle, C. (2007). The five intelligences of leadership. Leader to Leader, (43), 19.

Stone, A. G., Russell, R. F., & Patterson, K. (2004). Transformational versus servant leadership: A difference in leader focus. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 25(4), 349-361. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730410538671

Is Servant Leadership Teachable?

March 30, 2013 by tah5335

To determine if anyone can learn to be a Servant Leader first we need to examine what being a Servant Leader entails. According to Spears as documented by Northouse “there are 10 major characteristics of Servant Leadership: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building a community.” (Northouse, 2012) Are these characteristics “teachable”? I believe to a person willing to learn they are almost all teachable characteristics.

Listening is the “interactive process that includes sending and receiving messages” which is a skill that can be taught, honed, and mastered with practice and guidance. Empathy is “‘standing in the shoes’ of another person” which is a skill that can be taught through role playing exercises and putting people in the situations and letting them see the problem from both sides. Awareness according to Greenleaf as documented by Northouse “is a quality within the Servant Leader that makes them acutely attuned and receptive to their physical, social, and political environments.” (Northouse, 2012) Healing is the ability to “support followers by helping them overcome personal problems.” (Northouse, 2012) This can be trained by having the leader attend counseling classes which will assist the Servant Leader in knowing “how and when” to help their followers with personal problems. Awareness may not be easy to train however through experience and having a mentor point out things that are happening over time will open up a person’s eyes to the “real picture” and allow them to recognize things that are happening and be aware of their surroundings. Persuasion is “a clear and persistent communication that convinces others to change” this is a characteristic that most leaders possess and it can be trained. There is always a different way something can be said to another person and with training and practice a Servant Leader can learn how to convince a follower to accomplish a task or make a change of some sort. Conceptualization “refers to an individual’s ability to be a visionary for an organization, providing a clear sense of its goals and direction.” (Northouse, 2012) With training and experience it becomes easier to see the “big picture” and how day-to-day operations affect the big picture; therefore it is a trainable characteristic. Foresight is “the ability to predict what is coming based on what is occurring in the present and what has happened in the past.” (Northouse, 2012) Experience is probably the best teacher for this characteristic, also the use of a mentor would be helpful. After a leader has been through a situation they can talk to their mentor and “walk thought the situation again” discovering what made the events take place and give them knowledge to refer back to allowing them to have foresight. Stewardship is “taking responsibility for the leadership role entrusted to the leader” (Northouse, 2012) which can be taught by holding the leader accountable for their role. Lastly Building a Community is to “provide a place where people can feel safe and connected with others, but are still allowed to express their own individuality.” (Northouse, 2012) This characteristic can best be taught by “leading by example,” the person teaching the Servant Leader needs to create this environment and allow them to feel what it is like. This characteristic in combination with Empathy will give a Servant Leader the ability to create a caring environment.

Commitment to the growth of people is a characteristic that may not be trainable. How can you train someone to be truly “committed to helping each person in the organization grow personally and professionally?” (Northouse, 2012) This is a trait I feel that must come from within; however I think that as all the other characteristics are trained, honed, and mastered this characteristic will evolve.

After a closer look at all of the characteristics of a Servant Leader it is easier to see that at least 9 of them are trainable and can be taught, trained or mentored. The reality is that they CAN be taught but it takes TIME, and in some cases a LONG TIME. The process is not a quick one to learn.

If we use teachers as an example of Servant Leadership we can see how this process can take time to develop. I will use 2 personal friends as examples, Jenny and Dugan when they first started teaching both were sure they knew how to teach children but neither of them were prepared for the fact that they had to help the children with things in their personal lives to get them to be able to learn. Jenny went to teach in Florida, she is an English teacher (fluent in Spanish) teaching in a predominantly Spanish speaking area. She found herself struggling to teach because the children’s families were uneducated, migrant workers. She spent years learning how to help the children so that they would be able to learn. She says that she finally knows the challenges for each coming year (foresight) and is becoming more effective.

Dugan went to teach in Baltimore in an inner city school. His challenge was gangs; he had to find a way to get the kids to want to become educated to “get out” of the gang world. He struggled for 10 years, learning to be a Servant Leader for the children with few success stories. He says his biggest struggle was he had to appear to be a Strong leader to stand up to the Gangs while simultaneously being a servant leader. He says he loved his success story kids but the violence was too much. He left that area and is doing succeeding at teaching in a rural area school- where servant leadership comes much easier as he can relate to the children better.

Teaching someone to be a Servant Leader takes time and persistence, and above all a willingness to learn the characteristics of being a “Servant Leader: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building a community.” (Northouse, 2012)

References:

Northouse, P. (2012). Leadership: Theory and practice. (6 ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishing.

Good Business

March 30, 2013 by ldl5078

One of the most impressive quotes on leadership behavior has to be one by Max DePree (1992), “Above all, leadership is a position of servanthood.” This one word ‘servanthood’ explains what a leader is; a servant; because leaders are not people who just order or dictate employers, punish or reward performance. In this book, DePree goes on to discuss the ten characteristics of a servant leader in detail. In the end, he quotes a friend “Leaders stand alone, take the heat, bear the pain, tell the truth.” According to Robert Greenleaf (1970), servant leadership begins with the feeling of wanting to serve and serve first and foremost. It is to make sure that the highest priority is serving the needs of others.

The story of Starbucks and the former president of Starbucks Coffee Company North America and Starbucks Coffee International Howard Behar is a good example of servant leadership. Howard Behar tells of the leadership style at Starbucks in his book It’s Not About The Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks (2007). Behar shared the story of when three Starbucks employees were murdered in Washington D.C. during a failed robbery attempt. The event clearly had a profound effect on him. He explained how Howard Schultz, CEO, did not call the public relations department. Nor did he call legal counsel. Instead, Schultz dropped everything, flew from corporate headquarters to Washington and spent the entire week visiting with the families and employees in the area. As Dave Olsen, Senior Vice President of Culture and Leadership Development said, leadership is “largely about having courage to do the right thing”. Or, as Behar said, “Leading with compassion never stops…there’s no time off”. There are some business stories which show us that leaders who care about their employees’ benefits do actually exist. As Benjamin Lichtenwalner (2009) summarized:

Howard Behar and Dave Olsen spoke of many challenges they faced during the rapid expansion of Starbucks. However, in spite of many challenges, they never lost sight of their values. For example, although there was often pressure to reduce their prices, the company needed these prices to maintain commitments to their partners. The prices for Starbuck’s products ensured their ability to provide the same health insurance to anyone working 20 hours or more a week that they provided to the CEO. As Mr. Behar said, “people forget what’s in that cup of coffee”, cheaper cups of coffee elsewhere may not contain those same benefits for the person serving the coffee.

You don’t have to be a fan of Starbucks to admit this makes great business sense. And if you’re not a fan, that’s okay. But let me just throw some brief statistics at you:

� At $300 million, Starbucks spends more on healthcare insurance for its employees than on coffee beans.

� Starbucks had 137,000 employees or “partners” as they call them in 2010. This is twice the population of Greenland.

� Starbucks was founded in 1971 and has since grown into the largest coffeehouse company in the world with more than 18,000 stores worldwide and 13.3 billion U.S. dollars in total revenues in 2012.

� According to Scarborough Research more than 20 million people had visited a Starbucks store within the last 30 days in 2012.

� Finally, (and my favorite) the rumor about Starbucks not supporting our military is a blatant untruth. coffee cup.jpg

My point about the whole rant is this, there are great leaders out there and hopefully this is a small start in proving that theory. Unfortunately, they may be few and far between, but they do exist. Of all the ten characteristics of a servant leader in Greenleaf’s writings, my favorite is commitment to the growth of people. “Greenleaf’s conceptualization of servant leadership placed a premium on treating each follower as a unique person with intrinsic value that goes beyond his or her tangible contributions to the organizations.” (Northouse, 2013, p. 222). This is exactly what Starbucks leadership does with their “partners.” Because after all, were it not for the employee, there would be no business.

Behar, Howard. (2007). It’s not about the coffee: Leadership principles from a life at starbucks. Portfolio Hardcover Publishing. Retrieved from:

http://www.howardbehar.com/home.shtml

De Pree, M. (1992). The attributes of leadership: A checklist. pp. 218-226. Leadership Jazz. NY: Dell.

Greenleaf, R.K. (1970). The servant as leader. Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.

Lichtenwalner, Benjamin. (2009). 5 Examples of leadership success in troubled times. Retrieved from: http://advice.cio.com/benjamin_lichtenwalner/5_examples_of_leadership_success_in_troubled_times?page=0,2

Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice. (6^th ed.). Sage Publications. Los Angeles, CA.

My Experience with Servant Leadership

March 30, 2013 by cmh5249

In the 24 years of my life I have taken on various types of leadership roles ranging from power (expert and legitimate) to the opposite side of the spectrum with servant leadership. While leadership through power can be useful to achieve a goal I have personally found that servant leadership tends to have much greater long term results.

When a person wields simple power they usually do not bother investing into the follower but instead merely directs the follower. A follower can grow personally if they put their own effort into improving themselves, but often they will instead just follow orders and do as told, not going beyond the call. Servant leadership is all about the opposite. As a servant leader you invest into your followers and enable them to grow and learn. Instead of a visually bold and action driven leader you are a teacher and you guide those who follow you.

As Northouse and the world campus lesson stated, servant leadership is built of a group of characteristics. They are all important, but personally if you are trying to be a servant leader without having stewardship you are simply not cutting it. Stewardship is the goal, you are helping others instead of puffing up your own chest.

Not surprisingly, my experiences with servant leadership began in the Church. As an active Christian my whole life, I have personally been on both sides of servant leadership. When I was young, people invested into my life to develop me as a Godly leader. This was not limited to when I was young though, even now and in the future I will still have people that put effort into showing me servant leadership by investing in my life. In turn, I have learned how to be a servant leader of my own, reinvesting that which I have learned into helping others.

I am not saying that I am a perfect servant leader, I am far from it, but I invest into others and one day they will repeat the process and this is what servant leadership is all about. As a servant leader you help your followers grow instead of just directing them. Instead of merely giving orders a servant leader invests in the follower and enables them to grow and develop further than they would on their own.

Northouse, Peter G. “Servant Leadership .” Leadership: Theory and Practice. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2013. 219-249. Print.

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2013). PSYCH 485 Lesson 11: Servant Leadership

https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp13/psych485/003/content/11_lesson/03_page.html