What Servant-Leadership Means to Me

The term servant-leadership was coined by Robert Greenleaf in 1977 and has been the cornerstone of my professional career across many different roles and levels of influence. Simply put, being a servant-leader means putting team success first and attaining greatness for the team by valuing the output, growth, time, and achievements of others more highly than your own. Being a positive leader is difficult, much less a true servant-leader, but I derive a great sense of satisfaction adhering to this principle and being a supportive force for my team and colleagues. The following are the major aspects of servant-leadership that I focus on improving my delivery around.

Major Components

Engagement

In order to serve, you need a high level of engagement with your team. This is doubly true if you want to lead your team in an effective manner. You can learn more about how I engage with my team in this article, but there is no substitute for a leader with a clear understanding of the value their team delivers.

How you engage with your team matters. They need to trust you are there to make them more impactful in their role, and the “shine” they create will be theirs to own. Just as team members are accountable for the quality of their work and how they interact with others, their accomplishments need to be reflected clearly.

Empathy

This is where we need to take the long view. If we support our team, understand what is going on outside of work for them, and give them space to take care of what is important, we will be rewarded with great work. There are clear boundaries here, but in my experience, people will remember how you supported them during tough times, and that trust will enrich both parties by building into a wonderful working relationship.

It’s a rare situation where you look back and wish you’d spent more time in the office or working longer hours. Keep what is important the priority, and everything else will fall into place.

Coaching

Hands down, coaching is the most important thing I do. I interact closely with someone and share my perspective, working towards a better solution or outcome. As human beings, we place a high value on being understood and our opportunity to convey thoughts, emotions, and energy. Being a coach helps me master my own sense of the work by helping teach someone see a more broad, or a more narrow, or a more contextual vision of what we need to do. When I observe an individual drive positive change aligned with organizational goals as a result of my 1 on 1 coaching, the level of pure excitement, pride, and joy I have is immeasurable.

Buffering

I have received negative feedback from my leadership chain based around how I buffer for my team. Part of the reason why my team trusts me is that I am in their corner and seek to limit their unplanned work and unexpected pressure from outside sources. At the end of each 1 on 1 I have with my team, I inquire if they need help with anything or if there is anyone I need to follow up with to ensure there are no blockers to progress. Be careful here to not be so totally focused on protecting your team that you fail to engage properly with the outside, but instead direct engagements into a predictable pattern where you can set expectations clearly and give your team space to execute.

Context

Along with coaching and mentoring, one of the most important pieces of value a manager can provide is context. Context in this manner represents another source of data, and one that can help drive better decisions more likely to meet a need. I am often in conversations that my team is not. Every day I make decisions to balance having my team in meetings versus what I can cover and provide a synopsis around so that they can execute with clear direction. Context can be urgency, overlapping priorities, stakeholder expectations, or potential blockers to execution. When our team fails, a lack of context is usually part of the equation. I like the way that Netflix outlines context versus control in management styles.

Transparency

Being transparent does not mean being blunt, undiplomatic, or blindly sharing. Transparency is being open about your goals, objectives, and feedback. Feedback should be timely. Feedback needs to be directed and specific. Feedback should only be given with the express intent of building your team up to do something better next time.

Being transparent without context is not helpful, and communications should be tailored to the recipient. Being transparent to a stakeholder may mean a high level roadmap, whereas to a colleague in another team who is doing a similar type of work, a project management board with detailed work items could be beneficial. We should also be transparent with our accomplishments.

Trust

You can’t buy trust. Trust is knowing that your manager has your back and trusts you. Trust is knowing you are advocated for and appreciated. Trust is keeping your word and being consistent in your messaging. Golden handcuffs will only work for so long, but teams stick together when trust is given and received. Teams are also more quick to take risks and strive for greatness when there is trust in their management and support systems. Be trustworthy.