Leadership can be Servant Lead

The first time when I heard the term SERVANT LEADER-ship concept was in a religious forum (in Chicago along with a few American Colleagues ) when christ washed the feet of his disciples and formulated/ set up the church based on 12 disciples and Paul as a forebearer of the concept. It was very intriguing for my American colleagues, at least in Indian culture, the concept of humility respect, and et al is a reality which I as a child grew up with.

In a corporate environment, effective leaders stand out. When these individuals build on servant leadership foundations, these "serving leaders" can achieve extraordinary results.

The base concept in Servant Leadership "Serving leaders inspire greatness by putting other's needs first".

These Leader's make productive use of what has been learned through extensive organizational behavior research in expectancy theory, goal setting, and participatory management. Some researched in books like Don M. Frick and James W. Sipe's "The Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership," and Jim Collins "Good to Great," confirms that companies with serving leader-led cultures enjoy market returns well above their peers.

To illustrate how the serving leader orchestrates outstanding results, let us look at a crucial approach to taking action called "Raise the Bar." It's a skill all effective leaders must master, yet serving leaders do so in a way that empowers and engages people to give their very best discretionary effort.

First, let's address underlying, perhaps even unconscious, assumptions about servant leaders: that they are "soft," they overemphasize employee empowerment and inclusion, and they let their "inmates run the SHOP." Effective servant leadership is anything but soft.

Serving leaders hold high expectations for team performance, organizational support systems, and for themselves. Each day, they signal high expectations for performance throughout their organizations. Further, they establish a culture of serving leadership with their actions.

Effective Serving Leaders: Similar to OKR (Objective vs Key Result ) - I am just drawing similarities to elaborate a learning

a) Set personal goals that are specific and clear. Actions to achieve these goals demonstrate alignment of personal and organizational core values. For example, leaders use actions that bring together leaders from different areas of an organization to work on crucial projects. This process allows individuals and teams to learn how to work collaboratively to set and achieve personal and organizational goals.

b) Help others become goal-focused and aligned to the organization's greater purpose. Annual reviews are replaced with goal achievement sessions.

c) Help teams craft cross-functional shared goals, and facilitate team commitment to shared goals, rooting out internal competition and conflict when it creates barriers to overall success.

d) Push for routines that promote continuous process improvement, creating systems that assist everyone in achieving excellence.

e) Question the status quo and look for strategic transformational change, responding to customers and changes in the competitive landscape.

Effective leaders don't just set high goals and then hope for the best, or set high expectations and demand compliance. Serving leaders move flexibly between goal setting and goal getting. And to help others accomplish their goals, leaders deal with potential barriers within themselves - they control their egos. Others are invited to contribute ideas, push harder, collaborate, and stay committed. A top leader with humility allows others to share the work and receive the credit.

The opportunity to practice, rebound from setbacks and eventually enjoy achievements will give leaders the confidence and competence to act effectively in the "Raise the Bar" approach.