In this episode of "Weirdos in the Workplace," discover the power of leading as an act of service. Delve into the philosophy of servant leadership, its origins, and its impact. Embrace the practice of self-leadership and learn how to integrate the principles of servant leadership into your own life and organization, no matter your job title.

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Transcript >

Welcome to Weirdos in the Workplace, the podcast that celebrates authenticity, passion, and purpose. In other words, the things that make us unique and a little bit weird in today's world of work.

I'm your host, Erin Patchell, and today's episode is on leading as an act of service. Today we're going to explore more about what it means to be a servant leader and why this philosophy can radically enhance your capacity to adapt to whatever happens in the future. 

Stay tuned.

The philosopher Lao Tzu once said a leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim is fulfilled. They will say we did it ourselves. Servant leadership is all about putting the needs of others 1st and prioritizing the growth and well-being of the people in the community to which they belong.

It's a powerful concept that's been embraced by some of the world's most successful and compassionate leaders. And the interesting thing is that when you put the focus on the people first, the revenue and the profit will follow.

So, I was quite a morbid child, and I thought a lot about death. One of the things I would think about was what would people say about me when I die.

I was very curious about that, and over the years, I've developed a lot of thinking around this. When it is my time to go, I hope people look back and say Erin’s life was an act of service, whether I'm serving my family, team, customers, or myself, for my positioning. It’s this way that it gives me energy, and I feel like it gives me perspective to prioritize my time. So, I'm dedicating my time in the right place. Now, I don't think you need to be a people manager or executive to be a servant leader, and I want to mention that right up front because I think it's really important.

We’ve made a lot of progress in this area in the last ten years, but when I say leader, I do not mean executive or person with authority.

I'm talking first and most importantly about self-leadership and leading by example. There are so many individual contributors who are strong leaders and many CEOs who are terrible leaders, and every combination in between.

There was a time not that long ago when I would talk to managers about leadership development because that was a big part of my role. And a lot of them would just fundamentally reject the idea because they didn't view themselves as leaders. They didn't see that within their identities. They had this thinking that the concept of leadership was reserved only for the decision-makers at the top, and in my view, that is an idea that we just need to retire immediately.

Every person, every organization, every environment and every scenario is so different.

There's always going to be something to learn and adapt to, so the art and desire, the art and visions of leading ourselves and leading others as an act of service, is a practice. It's not something that has an end goal. It's actually more like a way of living and a way of being that becomes part of your identity as a person. Then as you continue to practice, it sinks into the identity of your organization and becomes and formulated. You know a big part of your culture and your brand.

Servant leadership as a personal identity is something that goes viral. It's something that rubs off on people.  When you embody it, you'll notice that the people around you are going to start embodying it as well.

Servant leadership has roots in ancient philosophical and spiritual traditions like Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity, and many others. The modern term servant leadership was coined by a gentleman named Robert Greenleaf in around 1970.

He wrote an essay called The Servant as Leader, and some of the characteristics included at that time, empathy, listening, stewardship and a focus of the growth and well-being of the people and the communities they serve. He believed that the leader’s primary role is to serve others.

The inspiration for Greenleaf's concept of servant leadership came from reading a novel called Journey to the East by Herman Hesse.

In the story, a character named Leo serves a group of travellers as a servant, providing them with support and guidance, and the leader, the protagonist, discovers that Leo is actually the leader of the organization that sponsored their journey. This revelation led to Greenleaf having the idea that a true leader is someone who serves others first and leads by example. And, of course, he leaned into that idea. And, you know, I did a lot of research around it and explored it.

The concept of servant leadership is a very important building block of the world we live in today.

Right now, organizations are refocusing so much energy towards purpose, environmental and social governance, and, you know, recruitment and retention efforts that are focused towards that as well. You can see so many different organizations that are embracing these principles, such as WestJet, Telus, Shopify, Canadian Tire organization, Starbucks, FedEx, and the Government of Canada, among many others.

It's actually not as difficult as you would think to embrace the concepts. In fact, it's very likely you already are, and you just don't have a name for it.

So, some of the different ways where that you would begin to embrace this is, you know, starting from the beginning, simply getting to know the people around you, getting to know your stakeholders, who are your teammates, who are your customers, who are your family at a deeper level.

Start observing and gaining more sensitivity to their needs, their pains and what delights them.

What can you do to make things a little bit easier for them?

What can you do to give them a moment of joy that enhances their experience?

How can you keep yourself accountable for turning this into an active practice?

That someday, once it becomes an unconscious reflex, you can embrace it as part of your identity.

Start asking more questions and getting curious about your team's perspective. Give them room to make decisions and take the lead. Give them a bigger sandbox to play them. Let them make their own mistakes and be that person who protects them from anything catastrophic.

Consider taking a coaching program.

I can't tell you how transformative my experience was when I took my first coaching program. It was like the entire world spun on its axis, and I'm not kidding. It changed the way that I literally did everything in my perspective, and there is no better way to unlock the capacity for servant leadership.

Because what a coach training program teaches you above anything else, I think, is that you do not have all the answers.

You will never have all the answers; everyone else is infinitely more capable than you think, and the questions are more important than the answers.

So, if you're part of an organization, maybe you are leading an organization, and you're wondering how you adopt certain leadership principles and begin this transformation within your organization.

You can begin to integrate it into the DNA of your organization by starting with your vision, mission, and values, you know, reviewing your vision, vision, and mission values, and really thinking about them in the context of servant leadership.

How are your physical, hybrid or virtual work models serving the needs of your team? Everything about servant leadership and the values also has to be built into the structure of the organization. Every part of the organization has to reinforce every other part of the organization. How does your origin story and the tales and legends that are told within your organization reflect the motivations and behaviours that lead to a service mindset?

Are your compensation rewards and recognition programs serving your people?

Are you democratizing leadership, development, and skills development so that any motivated person can engage your curiosity and become the best version of themselves?

Are you implementing a? Choose your own adventure style talent management ecosystem?

Do you have a customer-focused culture of service that's connected to higher values and purpose?

How are your policies and procedures written?

I'm talking about the actual words that you're using. Are they cold and disconnected, or are they humane and logical but using like people first language?

Does your outward customer-facing branding reflect your internal values?

So, by embracing these principles, we can all become servant leaders in our own unique ways and create that positive change in our workplace and beyond.

But if you need to start somewhere, start with yourself first. We all have to begin with leading ourselves first, and once we gain consistency, you know things will start flowing from there naturally. So, lead yourself first. What is it that you need to do or change or not do in order to feel like you're embracing servant leadership?

John Quincy Adams, the 6th president of the United States, said if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader. That means you.

That means you.

That's it for the sixth episode of Weirdos in the Workplace. I hope you found this exploration of servant leadership a little bit thought-provoking, and I want you to remember that you can be an agent of change.

That’s all for today. Thanks for listening! 

If you like this episode, I'd love to connect with you on https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-patchell/ or https://www.positivist.ca/.

I'm your host Erin Patchell, and remember, don't stay out of trouble.