10 Principles of Servant Leadership for America’s Diverse Workforce
Servant Leadership is a behavior adopted by individuals to serve others for the greater good.
Servant Leaders are committed to the core values of ethical behavior, respect, fairness, and integrity to others.
Servant Leaders reflect their organization’s commitment to nurture and support a culture where employees are heard, appreciated, and respected. Dedication to employee morale and job engagement is just one of their goals.
Fact: Servant Leaders ensure a workplace culture of high employee morale and engagement. This is especially true in today’s highly diverse workplace. Today’s diverse workforce requires more Servant Leaders – many more!
Early 20th Century leadership focused on design and implementation of growth strategies, market share, worker productivity, and bottom line profitability. Unfortunately, leaders lacked time to cultivate future leaders who would develop and serve the workforce. Servant Leadership behavior had not arrived. The need for Servant Leaders has arrived now!
Servant Leaders provide a workplace culture with the support required for job commitment and performance. As America’s workforce continues to rapidly diversify, Servant Leaders are needed in greater numbers. Employees from diverse backgrounds welcome management’s commitment to them as they learn and grow. Your organization’s reputation will benefit from a welcoming and supportive workplace. Servant Leaders will provide the environment where employees will thrive.
“Organizations exist to serve. Period.
Leaders live to serve. Period.”
Tom Peters
Author
Business Management Guru
Your diverse workforce is a pool of untapped talent.
They are engines of growth!
In the coming decades, America’s expanding diverse workforce will require guidance and support. In fact, all employees will require the presence of Servant Leaders’ support in America’s high-tech workplace.
Your workforce will respect and trust senior management as they grow in skills and confidence. Servant Leaders will invigorate employee job commitment. Your workforce will meet deadlines with their own brand of confidence, commitment, and loyalty. They will deliver the goods! In the coming decades, it will be a valuable two-way street.
Antrim Consulting urges you to develop a core group of Servant Leaders. Begin with comprehensive training and give them the power to infuse your entire workforce with the knowledge that they are valued and supported. Servant Leaders will strengthen your organization’s future and bottom line profitability.
Greenleaf on his 80th Birthday
Robert K. Greenleaf felt power-centered authoritarian styles limited the innovative skills, usefulness, confidence, and growth of others. Those limitations impacted not only the individuals but the organization’s entire workforce, as well.
“It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.
Leadership must first and foremost meet the needs of others.
Nothing much happens without a dream.
For something really great to happen, it takes a really great dream.”
Robert K. Greenleaf
Founder of Servant Leadership movement and
The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership
1904-1990
Greenleaf encouraged four basic strategies to oxygenate an organization’s workforce:
Encourage diversity of thought
Create a culture of trust
Have an unselfish mindset
Foster leadership in others
Greenleaf’s values mirror those of Antrim Consulting. Over the past two decades, Antrim has observed that employee self-confidence, innovation, performance, and job commitment increases when supported by Servant Leaders.
Greenleaf’s 10 Principles of Servant Leadership
1. Listeners: Servant leaders ensure communication accuracy and do so by skillfully reiterating what others say. They do this frequently to create conversational bonds that build trusting relationships and stimulate goal achievement.
10 Principles of Servant Leadership
2. Empathic: Servant leaders possess superb insight into the emotions and feelings of others. Those insights allow them to display compassionate understanding. In turn, their empathy results in high levels of employee trust.
3. Awareness: Servant leaders who possess self-awareness are likely to inspire the same traits in others resulting in well-being, satisfaction, and calm behaviors.
4. Healers: Servant leaders support healing when others experience low self-confidence or when they may doubt individual or team contributions. Servant leaders possess exceptional skills and promote healing using positivity to refocus and renew team cohesiveness and goal achievement.
5. Persuaders: Servant leaders use positive and reassuring language to break through rigid or one-sided thinking when change resistance builds. Servant leaders help others become innovative thinkers.
6. Conceptualization: Servant leaders are goal focused when assessing issues. They see the big picture and important details. They use a flexible issues-based approach along with their expertise to help others.
7. Knowledge and Foresight: Servant leaders are adept at using knowledge of past mistakes and/or successes; they evaluate future decisions. Servant leaders are skilled at empowering others to do the same.
8. Custodians: Highly experienced servant leaders understand the importance and value of their roles. They develop and sustain trust and confidence by fostering those traits across their workplace. They act as custodians for the future.
9. Commitment to Serve: Greenleaf said, “A great leader is seen as a servant first.” Servant leaders are motivated to serve others without using power, rank, or position.
10. Team Development and Cohesiveness: Servant leaders are natural coaches and motivators. They give eagerly of their time, wisdom, and skills to develop others. In doing so, they develop future leaders who will carry on when they are gone!
“True heroism is remarkably sober. It is very undramatic.
It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost,
but the urge to serve others at whatever the cost.”
Antrim’s Invitation
For over 20 years, Antrim Consulting has guided its clients toward a Servant Leadership based culture. We believe the value in developing your workforce lies in the ability to serve their personal and professional performance growth needs. In turn, they will serve and support the growth of your business.
Deep seeded principles, traits, and actions of Servant Leaders provide others with enduring personal and professional benefits. Service to others is a rewarding life to Servant Leaders.
As Servant Leadership consultants, Antrim Consulting believes much is expected of leadership. We’d enjoy serving your organizations and developing a team of Servant Leaders.
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