Leading or Reacting?

Understanding Servant Leadership

Speaker: Tom Thibodeau

Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018

8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

Northland Ballroom

Tom Thibodeau

Tom Thibodeau is the Distinguished Professor of Servant Leadership at Viterbo University where he has been teaching for the past 34 years. Tom is a husband, father, grandfather, teacher, consultant, active community member, and part owner of a country tavern.

Quotes on Leadership

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look

fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot. Eleanor

Roosevelt

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled,

they will say: we did it ourselves. Lao Tzu

Where there is not vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between,

the leader is a servant. Max DePree

You don’t need a title to be a leader. Multiple Attributions

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. John Maxwell

My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a

common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. General Montgomery

Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a

higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. Peter Drucker

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed,

it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the

ground. Sir Winston Churchill

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less. Andre Malraux

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. Aristotle

Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or

position. Brian Tracy

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more

followers. Ralph Nader

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. Publilius Syrus

A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t

necessarily want to go, but ought to be. Rosalynn Carter

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people

believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. Sam Walton

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions and the

compassion to listen to the needs of others. He doesn't set out to be a leader, but becomes one

by the quality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. In the end, leaders are much like

eagles... they do not flock; you find them one at a time. Unknown

A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward. Ovid

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.

Andrew Carnegie

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. Max Lucado

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their

ingenuity. General George Patton

Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway. Eleanor Roosevelt

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. Maya Angelou

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a

leader. John Quincy Adams

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory

when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will

appreciate your leadership. Nelson Mandela

Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow. Chinese Proverb

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an

emergency. Arnold Glasow

Whatever you are, be a good one. No man is good enough to govern another man without the

other’s consent. Abraham Lincoln

There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage. Fuchan Yuan

I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground for leadership, but

raising children isn’t. Dee Dee Myers

The supreme quality of leadership is integrity. You don’t lead by hitting people over the head –

that’s assault, not leadership. Dwight Eisenhower

Earn your leadership every day. Michael Jordan

Servant Leadership, Defined

Robert Greenleaf, in Servant as Leader, defines servant leadership: “The servant leader is servant first…

It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to

aspire to lead. He or she is sharply different from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the

need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. For such it will be a later choice

to serve – after leadership is established. The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types.

Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human culture.

The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest

priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as

persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely

themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit,

or, at least, will they not be further deprived?”

James Hunter, in The Servant, describes servant leadership this way: “A leader is someone who identifies

and meets the legitimate needs of their people, removes all the barriers, so they can serve the customer.

Again, to lead you must serve.”

James A. Autry, in The Servant Leader, defines servant leadership in these terms: “Leadership is…about

caring for people and being a useful resource for people…being present for people and building a

community at work…letting go of ego, bringing your spirit to work, being your best and most authentic

self…creating a place in which people can do good work, can find meaning in their work, and can bring

their spirits to work…paying attention. Leadership requires love.”

Joe Batten, in his article “Servant-Leadership: A Passion to Serve,” says simply: “Real servant-leaders are

committed to the growth and renewal of all with whom they come into contact…Leadership in every phase

of your life can only happen if others like what they see in you, respect you, and want to achieve what you

are asking them to be and do.”

The Key Practices of Servant-Leaders By Dr. Kent M. Keith, CEO, Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 2008, 2010

Servant leadership has been supported by many leadership experts such as Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter

Drucker, Max De Pree, Peter Senge, and Margaret Wheatly. They are drawn to servant leadership for a number of

reasons, but all of them are supportive because servant leadership works.

Servant leadership works because of the specific practices of servant-leaders, practices that help them to be effective

leaders and get positive results for their organizations. Seven of these key practices are self-awareness, listening,

changing the pyramid, developing your colleagues, coaching not controlling, unleashing the energy and intelligence

of others, and foresight. Here is a summary of each of these practices:

Self-Awareness

Each of us is the instrument through which we lead. If we want to be effective servant-leaders, we need to

be aware of who we are and how we impact others. Other people are watching and reacting to our

personalities, our strengths and weaknesses, our biases, our skills and experiences, and the way we talk and

move and act. What we learn about ourselves depends on feedback from others and our own reflection—

taking the time to think about how we behave, and why, and when, and consider whether there are other,

better, more appropriate, more effective, more thoughtful ways to behave.

Listening

In his classic essay, The Servant as Leader, Robert Greenleaf said that “only a true natural servant

automatically responds to any problem by listening first.” Servant-leaders listen in as many ways as

possible. They observe what people are doing. They conduct informal interviews, formal interviews,

surveys, discussion groups, and focus groups. They use suggestions boxes. They do marketing studies and

needs assessments. They are always asking, listening, watching, and thinking about what they learn. By

listening, servant-leaders are able to identify the needs of their colleagues and customers. That puts them in

a good position to meet those needs. When they do, their organizations are successful—their colleagues

are able to perform at a high level, and they have happy customers, clients, patients, members, students, or

citizens.

Changing the Pyramid

One of the obstacles to listening is the traditional organizational hierarchy—the pyramid. Often, members

of the organization look up toward the top of the pyramid, and focus on pleasing their “bosses.” But if

everyone is looking up to please his or her boss, who is looking out, and paying attention to the needs of the

customers? That’s why servant-leaders talk about inverting the pyramid, or laying it on its side, so that

everyone in the organization is focused on the people whom the organization is designed to serve.

Robert Greenleaf pointed out that the person at the top of the pyramid has no colleagues, only subordinates.

As a result, it is hard to get information, and it is hard to test new ideas. The chief may be the only person

who doesn’t know certain things, because nobody will tell him. Or people may share information that is

biased, or incomplete, and they may not share the bad news, for fear that the chief will shoot the messenger.

It is also hard for the chief to test ideas. People are reluctant to tell the chief that his or her idea is a bad

one. The solution is obvious—servant-leaders create a team at the top. The team consists of senior leaders

who are committed to the mission and to each other, who will share final decisions, but those decisions will

be far better informed and more relevant to the needs of those being served.

Developing Your Colleagues

Robert Greenleaf proposed a new business ethic, which was that “the work exists for the person as much as

the person exists for the work. Put another way, the business exists as much to provide meaningful work to

the person as it exists to provide a product or service to the customer.” Work should provide people with

opportunities to learn and grow and fulfill their potential. When your colleagues grow, the capacity of your

organization grows. Developing colleagues includes a commitment to extensive on-the-job training, as

well as formal education, new assignments, and internal promotions.

Coaching, not Controlling

Coaching and mentoring is a good way to develop people. Organizations need rules and regulations, but

trying to control people doesn’t bring out their best. Servant-leaders bring out the best in their colleagues

by engaging, inspiring, coaching, and mentoring. Servant-leaders help their colleagues understand the

organization’s mission and their role in fulfilling it. Servant-leaders make sure their colleagues understand

the organization’s goals, and have the training and tools they need to achieve those goals.

Unleashing the Energy and Intelligence of Others

After developing and coaching their colleagues, servant-leaders unleash the energy and potential of their

colleagues. People need experience making their own decisions, because occasions may arise when they

need to be the leaders, or make a decision that they normally don’t make. Not unleashing the energy and

intelligence of others is extraordinarily sad and wasteful. It doesn’t make any sense to have lots of people

in an organization, but let only a few people—those at the top—use their full potential. Servant-leaders

unleash everyone and encourage them to make the maximum contribution they can make to the

organization and the people it serves.

Foresight

Robert Greenleaf said that foresight is the central ethic of leadership. In The Servant as Leader, he said

that “prescience, or foresight, is a better than average guess about what is going to happen when in the

future.” Greenleaf said that foresight is the “lead” that the leader has. If you aren’t out in front, you really

aren’t leading—you are just reacting. And if you are just reacting, you may run out of options, and get

boxed in, and start making bad decisions—including unethical ones. Greenleaf said that the failure of

foresight can put an organization in a bad situation that might have been avoided.

While there are other practices that help servant-leaders to be effective and successful, these seven are fundamental.

They are about paying attention to people, developing people, and looking ahead so that the servant-leader and his

colleagues will be able to continue serving others, far into the future.

Further information about the seven key practices can be found in The Case for Servant Leadership by Kent M.

Keith, available from the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (www.greenleaf.org).

Questions and Answers about Servant Leadership

by Kent M. Keith

How does servant leadership differ from other ideas about leadership?

The answer to this question depends on one’s definition of servant leadership, as well as one’s definition of

all the other ideas to which servant leadership can be compared. Because the definitions vary, the answer to

the question can become long and complicated.

Robert Greenleaf coined the words “servant-leader” and “servant leadership” in his essay, The Servant as

Leader, first published in 1970, and then revised and republished in 1973. His second and third major essays

on servant leadership were The Institution as Servant, published in 1972, and Trustees as Servants,

published in 1974.

It is important to remember that Greenleaf did not propose servant leadership as an academic theory, but as a

philosophy with a set of practices. However, scholars have become interested in developing theory of

servant leadership in order to test it and compare it with ideas or theories that have been proposed since

Greenleaf published his first essays. For example, transforming leadership was described by James

MacGregor Burns in 1978, and later re-described as transformational leadership by Bernard Bass beginning

in 1985. In recent years, scholars have also studied ideas such as leader-member exchange (LMX), authentic

leadership, ethical leadership, Level 5 leadership, empowering leadership, spiritual leadership, and self-

sacrificing leadership.

Based on the view of scholars, the elements that are most unique to servant leadership compared with other

theories are:

The moral component, not only in terms of the personal morality and integrity of the servant-leader,

but also in terms of the way in which a servant-leader encourages enhanced moral reasoning among

his or her followers, who can therefore test the moral basis of the servant -leader’s visions and

organizational goals;

The focus on serving followers for their own good, not just the good of the organization, and

forming long-term relationships with followers, encouraging their growth and development so that

over time they may reach their fullest potential;

Concern with the success of all stakeholders, broadly defined-employees, customers, business

partners, communities, and society as a whole-including those who are the least privileged; and

self-reflection, as a counter to the leader’s hubris.

Scholarly work has focused on leaders and followers. Robert Greenleaf had a broader view. He was

concerned not only with leaders and followers, but also with institutions and society at large. Within the

organization, he championed teams and councils of equals, and referred to “individuals,” “staff,” and

“administration”, more often than “followers.” He urged servant-leaders to work with their colleagues to

improve the service of their institutions, in order to establish a more just, caring society.

What are the characteristics of servant-led organization?

Greenleaf wrote that institutions and their trustees should care about everyone they touch; employees,

customers, business partners, creditors, members or shareholders, and communities. Organizations depend

on all their stakeholders to achieve success.

At servant-institutions, listening to customers, clients, patients, members, or students is a core task, and it

occurs at both the macro and micro levels. Servant-institutions are respectful and responsive to those they

serve, and are dedicated to creating programs, products, and services that truly meet their needs. As a result,

those served become supportive and loyal members and customers. They continue to use the programs,

products, and services that are offered, giving the organization the opportunity to increase customer share-to

do more business with the same people.

Servant-institutions are good at listening to their vendors or suppliers. They know that they rely heavily on

their business partners, so they try to build trust. The see the benefit of having long-term relationships, and

devote time to learning about each other’s businesses in order to solve any problems that may arise. Because

of their relationship, the organization and its business partners can focus together on the “end customers.”

Servant-institutions that are publicly held companies are good at listening to shareholders, and are

committed to providing accurate, honest, and timely indurating to them as well as the general public.

Shareholder interests are considered along with the interests of other stakeholders.

Servant-institutions care about the communities in which they operate, and seek to serve those communities

in a number of ways. They learn about the immediate neighborhood, the social and economic networks, and

the natural environment. They respect and listen to the different community voices. They enter into

partnership with community groups, and encourage community service by their employees and customers.

They model servant leadership, and help create an environment in which the community can thrive.

Finally, it is no surprise that servant-intuitions are led by servant-leaders at every level. Everyone in the

organization is encouraged to be a servant - leader, identifying and meeting the needs of colleagues and

customers. The training and culture of the organization reinforce servant leadership.

Questions and Answers about Servant Leadership, Kent M. Keith, The Greenleaf Center for Servant

Leadership

Robert K. Greenleaf’s Five Life Markers From Greenleaf

“I will do what I can to serve and change my little corner of the world”

From Professor Oscar Helming

Change organizations from within

“Our big institutions are not serving us well… My advice to some of you is that you make your careers

inside one of these big institutions, stay with it and become one of those who responds to suggestions

that institutions can change for the better.”

From E.B. White:

See things whole and harness the language to describe what you see

White influenced Greenleaf to think systemically and Greenleaf, in turn, directly influenced Peter

Senge’s evolution in understanding and describing “the fifth discipline” of systemic thinking and

creating learning organizations.

From radio commentator Elmer Davis

Prepare for old age even though you may not know what you are preparing for

Be a seeker. In the journey is the learning.

From Hermann Hesse’s character Leo in “Journey to the East”: The servant as leader

Distilled from: Greenleaf, R.K. (1986) Life’s choices and markers. Indianapolis: Robert K. Greenleaf Center.

What are 5 of your life markers? A few questions for reflection:

Who has been a highly significant person in your life?

What are one or more big ideas that evoke your passion?

Which event(s) shaped your destiny forever?

What principles guide you in your life’s work and mission?

Greenleaf frequently described his life experience by using the metaphor of a “seeker” and in that he found

joy. What metaphor(s) guide your understanding of life experience?

Characteristics of a Servant Leader

1. Listening

a. Responds to situations by listening first

b. Encourages thoughtful silence

2. Empathy

a. Expresses unlimited liability for others

b. Accepts and empathizes – never rejects

3. Healing

a. Understands that healing is a powerful force for transformation and integration

b. Seizes the opportunity to help make ourselves and others whole

4. Awareness

a. Knows self well

b. Is an active learner – immersed I the world

5. Persuasion

a. Uses persuasion to convince

b. Works with one person at a time, with gentle persuasion

6. Conceptualization

a. Thinks beyond day-to-day reality

b. Nurtures other capacity to work outside their usual frame of thinking

7. Foresight

a. Holds liberating visions

b. Is comfortable with the use of intuition

8. Stewardship

a. Holding something in trust for the greater good of society

b. Chooses service over self-interest

9. Commitment to the growth of people

a. Is committed to and demonstrably fosters the personal, spiritual and professional growth of all in the

organization

b. Uses power ethically

10. Building Community

a. Understands that we build for all

b. Believes that work is as essential for the worker as what they produce