If you have read much about leadership or been around people who are truly interested in the topic, you may have encountered the term “servant leader.” The phrase is often referenced but less frequently understood. During an uncertain time, harkening back to fundamental truths about how we are wired can help center us and make sure we are leading our people the way they deserve to be led.
Robert Greenleaf published an essay titled “The Servant as Leader” in 1970. Over a half-century later, the principles still hold true. He wrote about what he learned and lived out during a 38-year career at AT&T, then among the largest companies in the world. Greenleaf’s father—a machinist in Terre Haute, Indiana, during the Industrial Revolution—served as his first leadership mentor.
At its core, servant leadership has an undeniably simple yet lofty standard. The concept is about ensuring other people’s highest-priority needs are being served. In his own words, Greenleaf said: “The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”
Honestly answering these questions, I would venture to say, will be sobering and powerful for each of us.
If that is not a high enough bar, Greenleaf said a real servant leader “shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.”
Could we make this our daily mantra in leading our teams? If we did, what would the practice change about the way we set goals, run meetings and allocate our time?
Built to Serve
Greenleaf’s model is rooted deeply in what makes human beings feel most alive. Whether people flourish through the major faith traditions’ teachings throughout the world, through research from fields like psychology and neuroscience, or through stories from our own lives, the evidence is clear and compelling. We are most-lastingly satisfied when we devote ourselves to helping other people.
At Lippert, we place an enormous emphasis on community service for multiple reasons. We believe unwaveringly that business can and should be a powerful force for good. We find service to others is the very best way to develop meaningful relationships with one another as colleagues. We have seen community service deepen connections with our customers and the communities in which we operate. In addition to these ideals, here is a little secret: giving back also just makes us feel great!
Late last year, at our second annual “Getaway” event, our Lippert Cares team launched a new platform called “seRV with Purpose.” A total of 250 volunteers packed 1,200 bags for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and cleaned up the trails at F.D. Roosevelt State Park. The event was the start of something that links together the above-mentioned truths. Full-time RVers participating in the event shared feelings of engagement and satisfaction by connecting with nonprofit organizations and helping facilitate experiences where they can give back together to a worthy cause.
Something tells me the future will see movements such as this gain momentum because, again, we as human beings were built to serve others, plain and simple.
This is also why we set an annual 100,000-hour community impact work goal for our team members. Work includes individual passion projects in our communities, taking teams to work alongside one another for a cause close to an employee’s heart and culminating events such as our annual “Pack Out.” This year’s Pack Out, its fourth iteration, had over 1,500 team members box and distribute 108,000 essential food items, school supplies and toiletries for local schools and nonprofits over three days. We have seen so much positive human connection come from these efforts.
Doing this well involves tapping into people’s “why.” From trail clean-ups and park beautification efforts in the U.S. to mentoring and educating women in Tunisia, over 75% percent of our team members volunteer each year. Michilah Grimes, our director of corporate and community impact, felt asking people about their motivation behind each action was an important step. When we asked folks, she found, “Answers ranged from ‘to make the world a better place for my children’ to ‘I was once the recipient of similar acts of kindness, and it changed my life.’”
We share this message incessantly because part of our mission is to spread this impact to other businesses and industries. In the end, servant leadership is about human flourishing, and we are certain that serving others, together whenever possible, is the secret sauce making it all happen.
Greenleaf’s 10
If you are compelled by the servant leadership notion and want to integrate its tenets into your organization’s leadership model beyond volunteering (which, again, is a foundational step), Robert Greenleaf outlined 10 core elements. They are (his categories, my explanations):
- Listening: Pick your cliché— we have two ears and one mouth, use them accordingly; seek first to understand; we all know communication is a two-way street. Ask yourself whether your listening as a leader meets this standard: Am I truly devoting the time and energy to understand the group’s will? Doing so is a high bar.
- Empathy: What do we do with what we hear? For every person we have the privilege of encountering, we should keep their irreducible and undeniable dignity and worth at the forefront of our minds, especially when their behavior or performance is in question. We should go to great lengths to ensure their value is never in doubt.
- Healing: This might be the least comfortable tenet to many because healing necessitates vulnerability. Implied in Greenleaf’s framing is the “search for wholeness,” which cannot be done in earnest without acknowledging pain and shortcomings within ourselves and our team members. None of the other steps reach their full potential if we skip this one.
- Awareness: Although this element appears obvious, Greenleaf’s definition challenges us. To Greenleaf, awareness does not provide solace, but serves to disturb. Do not undertake this principle if you are hoping for the status quo.
- Persuasion: Every good leader is persuasive. The servant leader builds consensus and buy-in rather than relying on positional authority (“because I said so” or “because I’m the boss”).
- Conceptualization: In many organizations, including Lippert, the term here is “vision casting.” Leaders gaze beyond the day-to-day to paint a compelling picture of bold dreams, which serve to galvanize and inspire teams.
- Foresight: When I taught undergraduate business students at the University of Notre Dame, a peer taught a class called Foresight. The class made many Type A, overachieving learners crazy because there was no right answer in the back of the book! Foresight is about learning from experience, dealing with uncertainty and relying on intuition to guide decisions.
- Stewardship: This is synonymous with what we call “Business as a Force for Good.” Every organizational member should be involved in making a positive impact on the wider world in which we live and work. Whether team members participate in the community impact efforts outlined above or in sustainability causes, being a responsible steward is servant leadership’s principal element. Greenleaf wrote an entire book on this topic alone.
- Commitment to growth: By now you can probably guess, but he is not just talking about growing your bottom line. Servant leadership involves a deep commitment to all staff members’ personal and professional growth. I lead a team of two dozen people dedicated exclusively to this critical dimension—believe me when I tell you helping employees grow is time and money well spent.
- Building community: As our society has largely shifted in the past 50-plus years away from some common sources of connectedness knitting people together—think bowling leagues, neighborhoods where everyone knew one another, etc.—the reality is the workplace holds the promise to serve as a bastion of togetherness, providing a connection that people need to flourish. Do not overlook the incredible potential your organization has to be a community conduit.
The Win-Win
Lest this entire column come across as idealistic, I want to close by making one very clear final point: servant leadership is about helping people thrive, but it also can be extremely helpful for your company’s profitability.
We have seen firsthand these principles do wonders for retention, team member engagement and even stock prices.
I encourage you to dive into this fully. I assure you; you will never look back.
Adam Kronk heads up Lippert’s efforts around culture and leadership development. From running a boarding school with an overt focus on character formation; to founding a center for ethical leadership in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame; to working to empower rural Cambodians; to serving homeless men, women and children at a residential facility in Indiana—Kronk’s career journey has centered on helping human beings become the best versions of themselves.
