Servant leadership
Most of the organisations are built in this way:
- There is a a big-boss/leader,
- Under the boss there is management,
- Under those managers are employees,
- And somewhere on the bottom of the pyramid are customers.
“Under the conditions of weak leadership, decisions are made at the top. [..]
Servant leaders make the opposite, they give the power down, to those, that have the information.”
~Simon Sinek
Everybody in the company is working to come up the the boss expectations (or managers, that are higher in hierarchy) skipping the customer at all.
Story:
- Cust: Excuse me, can I use the company telephone,
- Emp: No.
- Cust: Why not?
- Emp: Because even I cannot use it, so why should I allow You to do it?
Employees, that are working in those companies are scared about the management opinions/decisions, and they are primarily focused on living up to the management expectations. There is no space for the client.
The decisions come from the boss and managers (top-down), and must be applied by everybody working in the organisation, despite the fact, that the decisions are made by the people, that have never met the client.
Those companies are oriented mainly on profits (just the numbers) not on the people.
But, there are companies that embrace Servant Leadership
“True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not to enrich the leader.”
~ John C. Maxwell
In this type of companies, the structure looks like the previous one, BUT INVERTED:
- On the top there are employees (that have direct contact with the client, and are empowered to make unexpected decisions),
- Under the employees, there are some managers (servant leaders), that cares about the employees,
- Then, there is a boss (servant leader), that case about the managers.
In this structure, employees must be empowered to make basic decisions, and the flow of the is bottom-up.
Servant-leadership oriented companies are focused primarily on people (not on numbers). But, in those companies, profits are the rewards for creation of highly-motivated working environment, what leads up to the highest standards of customer service.
That makes customers more satisfied, so the customer retention is much higher than in the standard leadership model.
That leads to a greater performance and higher returns in the long term.
“We can`t and should`t cut ourselves off from the ego, but we have to make sure, that this ego serves, not deserves”
~Dalai lama
The servant-leader characteristics — SELFLESS:
- S — Strength
- E — Enthusiasm
- L — Love
- F — Flexibility,
- L — Long-Term Oriented
- E — Emotional Intelligence — junction of self-consciousness and empathy
- S — System Intelligence — perceiving the organisation as a whole, while the same time focusing on the interactions between other elements of the system,
- S — Spiritual Intelligence — ability to keep the organisation in harmony with its higher goals and vision
The disparity among leaders
Leader is a person that desires/have control. The aim of servant leader is to unleash the talent and creativity in his/her people through bestowing the thrust.
Benefits
- Loyalty of stakeholders,
- Better productivity of employees,
- Higher customer satisfaction,
- Greater profits.
