With this Tip for Effective Boards, we continue our re-presentation of the ten most popular Tips out of our first 100 Tips for Effective Boards. “Characteristics of Servant-Leaders” which was Tip 69 is our fourth most popular Tip. Since “Characteristics of Servant-Leaders” is continued in Tip 70, I have incorporated both Tips 69 and 70 into Tip 108. I have made minor modifications to the original Tips. 

In Tips 69 and 70 we described the following seven characteristics of servant-leaders.

1.      Focus on and care about others. Servant-leadership is not a bag of tools or tips that anyone can use but is grounded in a deep inner genuine disposition of being of service to others. When in a leadership role, servant-leaders embody this inner disposition to serve. Servant-leaders are concerned about addressing the needs of others and how their actions can impact others (family members, friends, co-workers, those being supervised, customers, and any others impacted by them or their organizations). Servant-leaders accept others as they are with their limitations and empathize with them. Their focus is on others. They embrace true humility which has been described as “not thinking less of yourself but as thinking of yourself less.” (found in Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life; often misattributed to C. S. Lewis)

2.      Listen to understand and learn from others. Servant-leaders listen attentively, don’t interrupt, suspend judgment until they understand, check to make sure they are understanding others (message content and feelings), and attend to body language/non-verbal expressions (their own and others). As expressed in the Prayer of St. Francis, servant-leaders seek first to understand before seeking to be understood. They recognize that they have much to learn from others and strive to ask the right questions.

3.      Withdraw for reflection. Servant-leaders make time for periods of reflection. They allow time and space for ideas to simmer and for insight to occur. They avoid snap decisions and abrupt responses whenever possible.

4.      Collaborate and share power with others. Servant-leaders engage with others in an honest non-manipulative manner. In groups, they prefer consensus decision-making where practical. They prefer persuasion to direction, providing others the space and opportunity to evolve their own thinking. They embrace and promote non-authoritarian participative organizational structures with employee empowerment.

5.      See the big picture. Servant-leaders are able to “zoom out” from individual situations and events to appreciate patterns, the context within which individual events occur, the interrelationships and interconnectedness among people and among things, and the meaning of the whole as extending beyond the sum of the parts. Servant-leaders recognize that faulty systems rather than faulty employees are most often the source of problems in the workplace. Servant-leaders have the discipline and inclination to rise above everyday reality, develop a conceptualizing perspective, dream great dreams, and see the big picture. 

6.      Exercise foresight. Foresight involves systematically analyzing the past and current trends and projecting possible futures that can be effectively influenced or adjusted to. According to Robert Greenleaf, not to engage in foresight “may be viewed as an ethical failure.” (Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness, 2002 Edition, p. 39) Without foresight an individual or organization fails to be proactive while still able to prepare to be able to seize an opportunity or to avoid a future crisis situation.

7.      Become the change. Servant-leaders recognize that change starts “in here” with the servant-leaders themselves. They understand that changing oneself is not contingent upon others. The biggest problem is not “bad people,” but good people who don’t choose to get involved in making positive change. Servant-leaders exercise servant-leadership in their own corners of the world. As Mahatma Gandhi has said, “Be the change you want to see.”

Note that there is not one official list of servant-leader characteristics. Robert K. Greenleaf, the originator of the servant-leadership concept in recent times, never articulated such a list. I’ve identified seven key characteristics that speak to me. Different servant-leadership writers have come up with different (though similar) lists. You may find it helpful to review an excellent brief article by Larry Spears titled “Ten Characteristics of a Servant-Leader.” Click on www.spearscenter.org. In the left-hand column of the Spears Center homepage click on “Ten Characteristics of a Servant-Leader.” Larry Spears is a former long-term director of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, current President and CEO of the Larry C. Spears Center for Servant-Leadership, teaches graduate courses in servant-leadership at Gonzaga University, and is recognized as one of the leading scholars in servant-leadership worldwide.  Larry Spears and I co-authored the book Better Boards for a Better World: An Integrated Practice of Policy Governance® and Servant-Leadership described below. Larry Spears’s article “Ten Characteristics of a Servant-Leader” has been incorporated into chapter four of our book Better Boards.

To learn more about servant-leadership, google servant-leadership or Robert K. Greenleaf or visit the Spears Center for Servant-Leadership: www.spearscenter.org.  

To learn more about the Policy Governance® model, please click https://www.BoardsOnCourse.com/policy-governance.