In our previous podcast on perception, we had highlighted how bias plays a role in shaping our perception and how we can avoid it. We continue that conversation into looking at Servant Leadership in today’s podcast.
Good leaders are leaders who have a very broad view of the world and can clearly see the big picture.
In leadership circles, there is a lot of talk about servant leadership. Servant leadership is a leadership approach where a leader has a facilitating and serving people mindset. It’s an approach where the leader sees his or her role as serving the team and not the position.
Such a mindset creates high energy levels within a team who, usually, have a collaborative vision or bigger picture and move towards achieving that. This enables a more effective performance.
Twitter Quote “ #servantleadership means you are on the same page, same level, you're helping people along the journey”
Historically leadership provided leaders with an aura of authority. The rise of servant leadership has come about as leadership has evolved in keeping with business needs.
Let’s take the service element a bit broader. Some of the things that help you become more of a servant leader is seeing how other people live and be more appreciative. A way to do this is through voluntary work.
The moment we step into voluntary work we start realising that there are many people who are far worse off than us. At the same time, the activities help us get in touch with parts of ourselves that we may not have yet faced and tend to humble us and put us in a mindset of serving. As we learn more about the information, we were not aware off, we tend to get a better understanding of ourselves. This awareness impacts our perspective and changes our perception. It helps a lot to see how you see your own life and the lives of others.
Serving the community creates a mindset of helping people and you see the rewards and value of doing so.
In the workplace, there’s no difference when you're leading a team. You get rewards and value by serving them as the team will respond because they are being recognised and appreciated for who they are and for their struggles and not just as an employee.
As in doing voluntary service, the servant leadership behaviour at work is the same because you are looking from the perspective of I'm here to serve the people and learn from them even if their circumstances are not good, I'm still learning from them and it's adding to my self-development. (Twitter quote)
The designated leader provides the vision and goes ahead in clearing the way and moves to the back, as a team member, collaborating and helping in the daily functions and by stepping back allows team members to be recognised. That is the servant leader mindset which is based on the function of being a leader and not on the function of being a positional leader.
Good leaders are able to merge these to be great servant leaders.
