Brought to you by Jeff Thoren, DVM, ACC  

What separates the very best leaders from all the rest?  Do they know something that other leaders don’t?  Perhaps.

However, great leadership doesn’t start with what you know.  It begins with a fundamental belief - a different motivation.  The very best leaders are driven, or feel a sense of calling, to serve.  This is not a new idea, but it is a radical one by most standards.

Here’s this month’s feature ...

The Higher Plane of Leadership by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller

Leader to Leader - Fall 2007

Highlights from the article:

Serving as a leader doesn’t mean being unaware of results or undisciplined in your approach to leading.  It actually means executing very well on a few fundamental practices that seem to show up over and over in the writings and the practices of outstanding leaders around the world. 

Here’s a five-point checklist for putting servant leadership into action:

1. See the Future.  Vision is something that all leaders have.  They are able to see a desired future that is in the best interest of their organization and their followers.  In many instances, the leader is not only the first to see this promising new future but is often the primary spokes person for the vision.  What are you trying to accomplish that serves the greater good?  What’s your vision?
     

2. Engage and Develop Others.  The best leaders know that growing employees increases the likelihood of a growing organization; that’s why developing others is core.  What will you do to create an environment in which people will wholeheartedly invest themselves?  One where they have a sense of contribution and a belief that their input mattered?
     

3. Reinvent Continuously.  The best leaders are always concerned with how to get better.  The best leaders are learners.  Great leaders are also willing to reinvent the way the work gets done and the way the organization is structured.  Structure should enable performance, not inhibit it.  The leader serves the organization by challenging the way things are.  This discontent with the status quo invariably stimulates progress.
     

4. Value Results and Relationships.  Outstanding leaders focus on results AND relationships - two seemingly opposite ideas in most organizational cultures.  To focus on either at the expense of the other is a short-term strategy.  Long-term success is built on an unwavering commitment to both.
     

5. Embody the Values.  How’s your credibility as a leader?  If leaders are not trusted by their followers, they're bound to fail.  People always watch their leaders.  They’re trying to determine their trustworthiness as leaders.  What leaders believe and how they behave is of the utmost importance.  If leaders say one thing and do another, they are not walking the talk.  The best leaders know their values, share their values, and, most important, they live their values. This creates trust and the opportunity to serve.

  
For the full text article, go to ...
http://www.leadertoleader.org/knowledgecenter/journal.aspx?ArticleID=665

   
Obstacles to Servant Leadership

The five practices outlined above are the primary ways great leaders serve people and organizations.  They've stood the test of time and will continue to be effective in the future.  But most students of leadership would tell us that servant leaders are the exception and not the norm.  Why?!  Here are the top two reasons:

1. Lack of Knowledge and Skill.  The greatest cause of leadership failure in business today is because it’s assumed that anyone can, without any new knowledge or skill, lead others.  The truth is that talent, and even success, in one job may do nothing to prepare an individual to lead.  The good news is that people can learn to be more effective as leaders - if they’re willing to commit to the hard work and effort associated with personal growth.
     

2. Focus on Self Instead of Others.  We live in a world that is fundamentally about “me.”  Virtually all of us have our own interests at heart most of the time.  We have come to believe that if we don’t look out for ourselves, no one will.  The marketplace in which we work has been described as a jungle.  And we all know that in a jungle, only the strong survive.  But this propensity to be preoccupied with self seems to have escaped the truly great leaders.

At the end of the day, if any of us want to be great leaders, we must ask and answer the fundamental question, “Am I a serving leader or a self-serving leader?”

“Great leaders don’t think less of themselves; they think of themselves less often.” - Ken Blanchard

  
Next Month

We’ll explore self-awareness and the effective leader.  Organizations benefit more from leaders who take responsibility for what they don’t know than from leaders who pretend to know it all. 

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