By Chris D’Souza –
Do you hold a position of leadership? Even if you don’t, do you lead others in your organization? At home? How do you lead? You see, leading can be done irrespective of position or title. John Maxwell, the well known leadership guru sums it up succinctly, “Leadership is influence”. The moment we realize we are in a position to influence someone, we are in a position to lead. When we understand this perspective, a paradigm shift happens – the focus is not on the leader, it shifts to the follower. That precisely is what Servant Leadership is all about. It means investing in the needs and growth of the team rather than lording it over them.
That’s a far cry from today’s “me first” attitude in society. On one hand it is as old as the words of the gospel itself – “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” (Mt 20:26) and on the other, many modern leadership gurus such as Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey and Peter Senge have given it a contemporary flavour and meaning. Let’s also understand what servant leadership is not: it doesn’t mean adopting a grovelling attitude that makes you offer yourself as a doormat! Servant leadership is a blend and balance between leading and serving. You don’t lose leadership qualities when becoming a servant leader.
Though servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase was first popularized by Robert Greenleaf in 1970. He says, “The servant-leader is servant first…… that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served”. A servant-leader focuses mainly on the growth and well-being of people and the communities he or she leads. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.
Today hundreds of organizations are testimony to the effectiveness of servant leadership. I’d like to focus on one of them – Chick-fil-A, a quick-service chicken sandwich restaurant chain that in the US that created a culture of leadership which has gained it immense success and popularity. Truett Cathy, its founder, set up the business in 1946 and they have consistently grown sales by more than 10% each year, every year since 1946. Corporate staff retention rate is 95-97%, which is amazing by any standard !They are bigger than KFC and have recently touched close to $8 billion in sales, been the recipient of several awards including ‘Top 10 Best Companies To Work For, Consumer Choice: Value through Service’, etc. All of this is in-spite of the fact that they are closed on Sundays (based on their belief system), unlike their competitors. So, what exactly makes them so successful?
According to a report in Forbes, their success lies in their efforts to create a strong and enduring leadership culture that values people above everything else.
These success principles of Chick-fil-A have been captured in the bestselling book “The Secret” authored by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller (VP of Chick-fil-A) and embodied in a Leadership Training Model called the SERVE model. In essence, it embodies 5 key practices:
- See and Shape the Future – Vision
- Engage and Develop Others – People
- Reinvent Continuously – Improvement
- Value Results and Relationships – Success
- Embody the Values – Credibility
The SERVE model of Leadership has been replicated in several other organizations and it has been equally successful in terms of transforming organizational culture. A few the Chick-fil-A business owners will be in Bangalore next week, offering a one day workshop showcasing the SERVE model of leadership. Details are in the poster.
Chris D’Souza is Director at Lead Strategic Development Pvt Ltd. which is affiliated to Lead International. He can be reached at: [email protected]