Brought to you by Jeff Thoren, DVM, ACC  

Many businesses and individuals have been negatively impacted by our sputtering economy. But how is it that some companies seem to be dealing with this current adversity better than others?  What’s their secret?

Servant leadership has never been more applicable to the world of leadership than it is today. Not only are people looking for deeper purpose and meaning as they meet the challenges of today’s changing world, they are also looking for principles that actually work. Servant leadership works.

Servant leadership is about getting people to a higher level by leading people at a higher level.

Here’s this month’s feature ...

The Stabilizing Effect of Good Leadership by The Ken Blanchard Companies

From Ignite! Newsletter - December 2008

Highlights from the article:

The acronym SERVE will help you remember five simple principles for success used by gifted servant leaders:

• S stands for See the Future. A compelling vision allows people to be proactive and move toward what they want rather than reactively moving away from what they don’t want. A vision builds trust, collaboration, interdependence, motivation, and mutual responsibility for success. Vision helps people make smart choices, because their decisions are being made with the end result in mind.
    

• E stands for Engage and Develop People. As a leader, once the vision and direction are set, you have to focus on engaging and developing your people so that they can live according to the vision. People need to be trained in self leadership. While many organizations teach managers how to delegate, there is less emphasis on developing individuals to pick up the ball and run with it. Developing self leaders is a powerful way to positively impact the bottom line.
    

• R stands for Reinvent Continuously. One of the biggest challenges leaders face when they look to re-invent processes to better serve the customer is inertia. Many people assume that an organizational structure is permanent. In many cases, the organizational structure no longer serves the business - the people are simply serving the structure. It’s good to have a plan; it’s good to have your structure in place. But always be watchful and determine whether it’s serving you, your customers, and your people well. If it’s not, change it.
    

• V stands for Value Results and Relationships. Gifted leaders - those who lead at a higher level - value both results and relationships. Both are critical for long-term survival. Not either/or, but both/and. For too long, many leaders have felt that they needed to choose. The way to maximize your results as a leader is to have high expectations for both results and relationships. If leaders can take care of their customers and create a motivating environment for their people, profits and financial strength are the applause they get for a job well done.
    

• E stands for Embody the Values. All genuine leadership is built on trust. Embody the Values is all about walking your talk. The article illustrates how The Ken Blanchard Companies responded to the financial crisis they faced following the events of September 11, 2001. Before making any major decision, members of the leadership team consulted their rank-ordered organizational values of ethical behavior, relationships, success, and learning. Instead of reactively cutting staff, they were able to weather the storm by engaging every employee to help find multiple  ways to minimize expenses and maximize income.

  
For the full text article, go to ...
http://www.kenblanchard.com/Business_Leadership/
Management_Leadership_Newsletter/december2008_main/

   
Implementing the Five Principles

In The Ken Blanchard Companies’ experience, businesses that deal best with adversity are those that have:

1. A clear and compelling vision

2. Passionate and engaged employees

3. Strong servant leaders

Consider these questions as you think about how to implement the five principles of servant leadership in your business or organization:

See the Future

• Where do you want your team to be in five years?

• How many members of your team could tell you what the team is trying to achieve?

Engage and Develop People

• To what extent have you successfully engaged each member of your team?

• How are you encouraging the development of your people?

Reinvent Continuously

• How can we do the work better?

• How can we do it with fewer errors?

• How can we do it faster?

• How can we do it for less?

• What systems or processes can we change to enhance performance?

Value Results and Relationships

• How much emphasis do you place on getting results?

• How many of your people would say that you have made a significant investment in their lives?

• What are the ways in which you have expressed appreciation for work well done in the last thirty days?

Embody the Values

• What are your team’s shared values?

• How explicit are these values and how can you insure that they are consistently informing decision-making and problem-solving within your business?

 
Next Month

Are you taking time to slow down and learn from your daily experience?  Or are you a slave to the tyranny of the urgent, constantly putting out fires and wishing there were more hours in the day? Learn to take a time out from every experience and apply what you are learning in the future – as a leader, in your business, and in your life.

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