Behaviors that May Seem Inconsistent with Servant Leadership
Servant leaders aren’t pussy cats, doormats, or spineless wonders.
You have the wrong idea if servant leadership makes you think of picking daisies while holding hands.
Servant leaders hunger for success. They don’t stroll into irrelevance.
You put your career in peril if you obstruct a servant leader from achieving their mission.
Express frustration:
Servant leaders use and express frustration.
A little edge in your voice makes everyone perk up. (Use this sparingly, but I think it it’s an important topic when discussing a full view of servant leadership.)
Express frustration when it’s a glowing ember. Don’t allow anger to flare up.
Explosive anger suggests you waited too long to deal with nagging issues. When you don’t listen to anger’s whisper, it yells louder to get your attention.
Tip: Always turn toward the future after expressing frustration with the past.
It might hurt:
When people block mission, servant leaders rise up to protect the best interests of the organization they serve, even when it hurts. Servant leaders serve mission first.
Serving people is guided, limited, and energized by pursuing mission.
Commitment to mission enables servant leaders to:
- Expect high performance from themselves and others. You aren’t a servant leader if you accept mediocrity.
- Point out inconsistent behaviors that hold back teams and organizations.
- Initiate tough conversations. You aren’t a servant leader if you avoid challenging issues.
- Pursue excellence by challenging the status quo.
- Confront team members who pull sideways. Servant leaders expect teams to pull together.
Servant leaders face, and when necessary, create discomfort in service to organizational mission.
What behaviors seem inconsistent with servant leadership, but after reflection, belong in the mix?
Yep. Servant leaders are people, too! And they are leaders because they have already accomplished things through their efforts and the efforts of others, so they have expectations of good performance results and tools to involve and engage people for workplace performance. Just because you work in an environment that operates with open voice does not mean that the workplace is a democracy and that each person has an equal vote. Feel fortunate to not work in a place where the Godzilla Manager keeps his foot stomping on the little worker Bambis.
Visions, Missions, goals and expectations should rule. People can earn some autonomy and workplace teams can have a say about how things are and could be to the manager that asks, listens and supports. But, as Dan suggests, there ARE consequences and there is accountability.
If your manager does act in this servant manager role, would you really want it different? And if they don’t, wouldn’t it be nice if they might?
Thank you for the validation and reminder about a servant-leader character trait. This is a winner!
A powerful message, Dan! Thanks for your insight and wisdom — and challenging us on a daily basis to grow in wisdom.
If you are afraid of being compared to a pussy cat, then you are struggling with perception problems. It is dangerous to build your persona on perception. And that’s the issue … western society likes to value perception as a true measure of who you are. Perceptions often hides or distorts reality. If you are truly STRONG as a man, you don’t care about perceptions. Stop fearing what people think of you and try to help others as a true servant leader.
Love your work! As a male I’m concerened by the use of “pussy cat” and for the connotation to mean weak. It was probably for the first time in three years that I stopped reading the article, and this is my first comment I have ever posted on your site. From all the posts I’ve read before, I don’t believe your intent was to be misogynistic, but that is how it came across to me.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks,
~Q
If you are afraid of being compared to a pussy cat, then you are struggling with perception problems. It is dangerous to build your persona on perception. And that’s the issue … western society likes to value perception as a true measure of who you are. Perceptions often hides or distorts reality. If you are truly STRONG as a man, you don’t care about perceptions. Stop fearing what people think of you and try to help others as a true servant leader.
I think apparent inconsistency in behaviours around servant-leadership largely arise out of tensions around who or what you are (or are expected to be) serving. Behaviours that serve you, your team and the bottom line all at once can be rare things.
Servant leaders at times have to tread carefully when dealing with certain employees. I love the article, it reminded me of some thinks that I have bypassed and will implement as soon as possible.
If one wants to be a leader, one wants to serve first. Cats are not like this at all. We are more working dogs. Definitely commitment to the mission statement and goals are the prime directive.
Thank you for this valuable insight. As we know, one of the most important tasks of every leader is to protect the brand from internal and external wrongdoers. To do so the organization has to follow. To make sure the right direction is taken, boundary posts manned by servant leaders define the demarcation to other possibly wrong options. Brabeck-Letmathe, president exec board of Nestlé, once said “As a top manager my duty is first of all to prevent young product and communication managers to finger the brand!” Ask the Inventors of “Coke”, “Classic Coke”, “Bern Mobil”, “Swissair and the disastreous brand campaign -the most refreshing Airline”,.and Nelly Wenger, former Cailler Boss if to quieten the servant leaders was such good an idea.
First of all i would like to thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom. I loved the way you said
Explosive anger suggests you waited too long to deal with nagging issues. When you don’t listen to anger’s whisper, it yells louder to get your attention.
Yes! It yelled so loudly that i felt as if it will make me deaf if i will not cover my ears.
Thanks
A timely reminder of who a servant leader serves. Thank you