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transcript: http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe/transcript?language=en
The paradoxical idea of servant leadership brings to mind the phrase, “so crazy, it might actually work.” In the traditional view of leadership, service is the job of the follower. However, servant leadership puts the leader at service. In servant leadership, the leader focuses on servicing their followers; they empathize, nurture, and provide attention so that the followers can develop their full personal capacities (Northouse, 2013). Spears (2002) identified 10 servant leader characteristics: Listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, and commitment to the growth of people.
Listening involves the interactive process of communication between leaders and followers (Northouse, 2013). In the traditional world of leadership, we think of leaders as instructing, ordering, or ruling. In servant leadership, leaders listen first to understand and acknowledge their followers. Empathy is the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s position and see where they are coming from. This makes the follower feel unique and validated (Northouse, 2013).Healing does not involve mystical powers, however it does involve offering support to followers by overcoming their personal problems and caring about their well-being (Northouse, 2013). Awareness is similar to emotional intelligence in that it includes the understanding of oneself and the impact one has on others through being attune and receptive to one’s physical, social, and political environments (Northouse, 2013).
Persuasion, not coercion, is a servant leadership quality. Persuasion involves the use of gentle non judgmental argument, not force-like coercion (Northouse, 2013). Conceptualization and foresight are similar in that they both require a looking into the future. Conceptualization is visualization to help prepare for complex organizational problems, while foresight involves the ability to predict the future through analizations of the past and present (Northouse, 2013). Stewardship is when the leader takes responsibility for their role as leader. It requires taking on the responsibilities of a leader and holding the organization in trust for the greater good of society (Northouse, 2013). Lastly, commitment to the growth of people is a dedication to each person in the organization and commitment to helping each individual grow both personally and professionally.
Simon Sinek, a management theorist discusses what makes a great leader in this TED talk. Sinek explains why good leaders make their followers feel safe and secure which can inspire cooperation, influence, and create a strong bond. This talk really helps to illustrate how efficient leadership can be achieved by putting the followers first.
Servant leadership is successful when leaders truly believe and act upon a desire to make their followers successful, through being honest and treating them as partners (PSU, 2014). Sinek gives us a great real world application of this by telling the story of Charlie Kim, the CEO of Next Jump. Next Jump is a tech company, of which there are thousands in the US, but what makes Next Jump stand out is it’s policy of lifetime employment. That’s right, no one gets fired. ever. In fact, if your performance is weak, extra time and resources are dedicated to coaching and helping you improve. As a leader, what better way to demonstrate your belief in and desire to make your followers successful, than a no fire policy? This upfront honesty and trust given to employees the moment they are hired show how servant leadership creates performance and growth. Charlie Kim grew his company from a one man operation to a multi-layered corporation. Both Charlie and Sinek talk about viewing leaders and followers as analogous to parents and children. If our child brings home a C or acts out, we don’t fire them, we help them. This philosophy of not abandoning our followers as a leader, no matter what, instills a strong sense of mutual trust and respect.
Servant leadership only works when leaders have a humanistic philosophy and altruistic tendencies (PSU, 2014). Sinek talks about how banking CEO’s violated the definition of leadership, breaking the social contract involved by sacrificing so many of their followers during the recession, so as not to affect their own income. These acts of greed by leaders have been seen throughout history and have created a distrust and fear among leaders and followers. The banking industry will now have a hard time retaining hardworking, loyal employees. As Sinek says, “Great leaders would never sacrifice the people to save the numbers, they would sooner sacrifice the numbers to save the people.” This is an idea rooted from servant leadership, the idea of putting others first.
How does putting others first benefit the leader? Sinek tells us about Bob Chapman, the owner of a manufacturing company in the mid-west. His company was hit hard by the recession in 2008, losing 30% of their orders overnight. They were in a ten million dollar hole. Staying true to the model of servant leadership, Bob refused to lay off any of his workers. Instead of cutting jobs, Bob announced to the company that he would rather everyone suffer a little, than to have one person suffer a lot; and inducted a furlough program. All members of the organization from the CEO to floor workers were required to take a 4 week unpaid vacation. The trust that results from servant leadership (Bob not laying off any workers) encourages followers to grow as servant leaders themselves while maximizing their potential which in turn benefits the organization (PSU, 2014).
The workers maximized their potential, saving the organization, not ten but twenty million dollars. The idea of this trust encouraging followers to grow as servant leaders themselves was illustrated in what happened during this furlough program. The employees who could afford to take more time off, traded with those who could not, helping lighten the financial impact of their own colleagues. This natural development and passing on of leadership shows the long reaching influence servant leadership has.
So crazy it might just work. A perplexing theory such as servant leadership takes radical ideas like a lifetime employment policy, or employee-wide furlough, to illustrate how putting the leader at the service of their followers can result in ethical and efficient leadership.“When individuals engage in servant leadership, it is likely to improve outcomes at the individual, organizational, and societal levels (PSU, 2014)”.The servant leadership actions of Charlie Kim and Bob Chapman depict how the proper use of servant leadership creates trust, and inspires productivity; benefiting their organization, their employees, and those around them.
-Mai Dolinh
References
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
PSU WC. (2014). PSYCH 485: Lesson 11, Servant leadership. Retrieved November 8th, https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa14/psych485/001/toc.html
Sinek, Simon. (2014, March). Why good leaders make you feel safe [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_
safe#t-627531
Adam L Bennett says
The first question I have is what the heck is paradoxical about servant leadership? In fact, the way the Sinek describes leadership make you think that the idea of servant leadership is the fundamental foundation that all leadership should be based on. I would go as far as to say that in order to be well versed in leadership, and to be able to execute ideas like transformational, team, and situational leadership, a leader must adhere to the principles of servant leadership. By it’s very definition, it’s “the only theory to make ethical behavior and actual component of its explanation” (PSU, Lesson 11).
Sinek’s example of his situation in the airport is an excellent anecdote of the issues that are at the heart of the modern day employee and organization. I can speak from experience that the difference between a leader and a manager/ authority figure is trust. My department at work just had layoffs, and the morale has sunk to an all time low. When I started we were a department of 500, now we are down to 250 or less. The leadership has changed three times and each one has had little regard for the actual employees. They only cared about the numbers being produced, and it showed with the policies and decisions being made. Things like mandatory overtime on random weekends, and moments throughout the day when we had to immediately stop what we were doing (regardless of what we were working on) and focus on a report that had just been sent out. It was clear there were no leadership principles because there was never any consistency to the work output. The term that best describes our leadership is disregard.
I think we can trace a general disregard for employees back to the influence of shareholders of public markets (my company is publicly traded). There is so much emphasis on producing a buck that even when a company like Apple announces record profits but don’t meet expectations of shareholders, shareholder sell their stock in the company. All for what? An extra two cents a share?
The point is that servant leadership produces better, more loyal employees, and at the heart of most companies, that is what matters. It’s not a paradox because it is a logical explanation for leadership but the ideals have been lost on the idea of a quick buck. If only we had leaders like Bob Chapman who are able to see a larger more complete views of the living entity that are organizations, we may have avoided both the recession of 2008, and my company could have increased profits by emphasizing trust with employees.
References
PSU WC. (2014). PSYCH 485: Lesson 11, Servant leadership. Retrieved November 8th, https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa14/psych485/001/toc.html
Sinek, Simon. (2014, March). Why good leaders make you feel safe [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_
safe#t-627531
John Andrew Mcdonald says
I don’t view the attributes of servant leadership as being radical, and in fact I would view the opposite; with the non-servant characteristics that we all see managers put on display from time to time as being the radical ones. Consider the Servant Leader Behaviors that Northouse (2013) identified in Chapter 10. They include:
• Conceptualizing
o Fully understanding the direction of the organization
• Emotional Healing
o Having empathy and sensitivity towards employees
• Putting Followers First
o Knowing the needs of the team and taking action to address them
• Helping Followers Grow and Succeed
o Understanding the interests of followers and placing their success as a priority
• Behaving Ethically
o Knowing and abiding by ethical boundaries
• Empowering
o Giving opportunities to subordinates to assume situational leadership responsibilities and/or decision making and coaching them through the process
• Creating Value for the Community
o Being of service to the surrounding public
P. Northouse, 2013
Most of my employers and managers have demonstrated some or all of the above traits. Some do it well, some actively look to participate and develop their servant leadership skills, and others don’t try too hard, but do accomplish some of the attributes (like listening, behaving ethically, and helping followers), even if they aren’t aware that they’re doing it.
We all have the capability to be servant leaders, and since we all have that; it shouldn’t be viewed as being radical. For instance, my employer funds a global charity program called Delivering Better Lives. We support sustainable initiatives such as bringing fresh water to people in Africa, supporting orphanages and building schools in impoverished countries, and assisting homeless children, teens, and adults here in the US. The company encourages our employees (21,000 of us) to donate through payroll deduction and then they match those contributions as a total company donation.
My experience has been that most managers listen, have empathy, and work with subordinates to help them develop their careers. Some, mostly ones who haven’t yet matured, push their own agenda and support growth through cliques, but in today’s management environment, they are usually coached themselves or performance managed out.
In that regard, I think servant leadership is more prevalent that we give credit for.
Reference
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.