SERVANT LEADERSHIP

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INTEGRATED PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

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A values-led approach to leading in complex and diverse environments

Dr. Stephen Covey wrote the foreword to Robert Greenleaf's book Servant Leadership. He writes:

"Victor Hugo said 'There is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come'. Servant Leadership's time has come. There is a great movement taking place throughout the world

today and its roots are to be found in two powerful forces. One is the dramatic globalisation of markets and technology. In a very pragmatic way this tide is fueling the impact of the second force:

the force of timeless, universal principles that have, and always will govern all enduring success, especially those principles that give 'air' and 'life' and creative power to the human spirit

that produce value in markets, organisations, families, and most significantly, individual lives."

Robert Greenleaf wrote:

"The Servant-Leader is a servant first. It begins with a natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. The conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead."

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Characteristics of Servant Leadership Servant Leaders embrace what many renown leaders have advocated

"It's all about our people and our users. We all know who we are. Everyone must know their

part: our people design products and our users decide if it is truly 'useful' and not just 'usable'. You have to know how to serve people and users and keep them close."

Characteristics of great servant leadership:

• A completely empowered workforce - capable, willing, ready, committed with full delegated authority.

• Thepeople'sjobistoruntheoffencebywinningcustomers,deliveringoutstanding service, and beating competitors in both these aspects.

• The servant leader's job is to run the defence: to unblock, change policies, correct processes, persuade other managers. This means servant leaders must always ask great questions, listen to ideas, manage the risks and check-out the alternatives with the people, because the manager's role is not to 'do' but to lead by serving their people who win busi-ness, customers and deliver great service.

• Transparencyiscritical-thesameinformationflowingupanddownfromtheboardroomto every person. Sharing the same data enables the people to comment and also feed upward to the Board directly.

• Creating a shift in management strategy from controlling the activity and performance of people from the 'outside-in'-potentiallyimposingone'spersonalityontostafftomotivatethem through your energy; to serving others by having great questioning skills, critical reasoning skills and listening clearly. Making a decision to have people growing from the 'inside-out'throughcoachingandenablingtheirsuccess.Havingthemlighttheirownfirefromwithinthemandbeingabletokeepthatfireburningbyaligningvaluesandpurposes.

• Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who lived through the Nazi concentration camps, wrote many brilliant books including one translated into English as Man's Search for Meaning. He postulated that mankind would do well to ask 'what is wanted of me?' and not just 'what is it that I want?'. He goes further to say, while being in a concentration camp:

"What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really

matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life, daily and hourly. Our question must consist, not in talk

and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to

fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."

• Servant Leaders understand that any team that is dependent on them or if all the members are completely independent of each other is not a team.

• It is through interdependence and mutually held values and purpose that a team emerges. Passion becomes compassion and is no less powerful.

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Servant Leadership and the Moral Compass Servant Leaders are the future directors, the future deciders, the future of many things, not limited to the current role, organisation or status you currently hold. Your remit is to lead beyondtheconfinesofyourrole;totakeresponsibilityforthewhole'system'andallofthismeans you need to master the necessary skills in the fullest sense and then bring it back to a reality and in a manner in which you can lead.

• A high trust culture, as Simon Sinek says, is "A culture where people expend zero energy protecting themselves from one another, their manager and the organisation but instead unite, form and face the purpose and live the values."

• Managerswhoknow,believeandpracticelisteningfirstandcoachingpeople.Theyknowtheir role is about what they do 'for' their people and their people's ideas. It means having great listening skills but to hear what your people truly think you need even better skills in asking the right questions. It begins with one question: "Am I willing to serve others?"

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The Servant Leadership Model - The Three Ages of LeadershipServant Leadership is an evolution of ages - you are present in more than one of them at all times until you depart the role as a leader. The greatest leaders are those who are truly in the service of their people.

1. He or she who does not learn from the past is doomed to repeat it. Asaneffectiveservant-leadereverydayI am a Learner. I must learn from those who came before me and those who are on the same journey right now. My mission is to enter every day with sufficientpresenceofmindandhearttofindtheseteachersandtolearnfromthem.

2. As a Teacher, I need to create a circle of safety in which we expend no energy protecting ourselves from one another but we unite, form and face our common purpose. I encourage mistakes not failure, I must teach to improve every day.

3. Someone will come behind me, will follow me for whom I must prepare the way. My Legacy will be to leave behind good servant-leader Teachers .

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The Servant Leadership Model and the Line of SightServant Leaders are also systems thinkers- within the context of their 'span of vision' they scan across the value chain from the start point to the end point. They look across this line of sight to ensure (i) the future is being considered as much as the classic 'week in view' -whichmostleaderssufferfrom(cannotseebeyond Friday) as much as (ii) the past is not being forgotten, or there is a great danger of repeating it, as depicted in the Three Ages of Leadership.

With a deeply held moral compass and the appropriate 'span of vision', the servant leader can avoid 'knee-jerking' into decisions and reacting to circumstances by having an ability to look over their shoulder at what happened in the past and over the horizon at what's coming towards them.

This brings an opportunity for patience and calmness as the servant leader allows people to fall but not fail, because nothing is learned without making mistakes. Critical to being able to allow mistakes and learning is having excellent communication skills.

A servant leader who learns the technique called Socratic Questioning will be in possession of an ability to capture the entire line of sight from the outer reaches of the market back into the organisation. A leader with true vision of what may yet come and what has already come to pass.

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The Servant Leadership Model - tools we teachThere is no better way of leading than through coaching performance. The IPMS Servant Leadership suite will completely enable this. It has four parts which work together as one system.

Socratic Questioning ToolkitTo deeply probe thinking, in a trusting and collaborative manner. To help everyone to begin to distinguish what they know or understand from what they do not know or understand. And to help everyone develop intellectual humility in the process. To know that you don't know is as profound as knowing you know.

The key to distinguishing Socratic questioning from questioning is that Socratic questioning is systematic, disciplined, deep and focuses on fundamental concepts, principles, theories, is-sues or problems. It is ideal for developing organisational and individual competence.

Behavioural: T4 Toolkit Connecting high initiative to high consideration this behavioural model is ideal for achieving alignment with every stakeholder you will coach. A coach is never just dealing with his or her direct reports, they can be coaching a colleague, a boss or a business partner.

Pull and Push Coaching ToolkitAn incredibly powerful technique for adjusting your coaching technique based on the types of behaviourbeingdisplayedbydifferentpersonalitiesaswellasthedifferinglevelsof knowledge, skill and experience of the parties involved. PULL coaching is used with people who are type T1, T2 and T4 and/or of higher knowledge, skill and experience, and encourages them to use critical reasoning with your guidance to reach conclusions and make fair and effectivedecisions.

PUSH coaching is used with people who are type T3 and/or with less knowledge, skill and experience. It avoids there being a massive 'void' when they cannot imagine an answer or make a decision because they lack knowledge, skill and experience.

The Empowerment Toolkit A tool called the 5 Part Process is ideal for fostering a principle of 'seek firsttounderstand'.Thedisciplineof the 5 Part Process provides a great framework within which you can live the T4 behaviour, determine the 'pull or push' techniques you need and use the Socratic Questioning Technique to unpack someone's thinking.