Raising The Bar
Servant leadership: a model that can pay great dividends
Dallas Business Journal - by Glen Bounds The Bill J. Priest Institute
All too frequently, unsuccessful organizations are overmanaged and underled.
A successful organization doesn't just need someone to be in charge. Success requires leadership -- people to set direction for the organization, give it a vision and then translate the vision into reality.
Leadership must be present in every successful company. The question is which form of leadership? Studies too numerous to mention have presented literally hundreds of definitions of what constitutes leadership. Servant leadership, which has its roots in the New Testament, is espoused here. This unique style of leadership has been researched and presented since 1970 by the late Dr. Robert K. Greenleaf.
Servant leadership has been widely used in all types of organizations: for-profit businesses, not-for-profit organizations, churches, universities and foundations.
It requires a leader to have a natural desire to serve first. How is this played out in everyday work? Servant leaders listen to, respond to and support employees. They remove barriers and obstacles which would prevent employees from growing as individuals and performing well in the workplace. They see to it that opportunities for personal and professional growth are readily available to employees.
A servant leader embraces people-building and development, not people protection -- giving care and support while upholding the company's expectations of employee performance. Characteristics of a servant leader include:
• the ability to listen receptively to what others have to say;
• highly developed powers of persuasion, in contrast to positional authority;
• commitment to building community in the workplace; and
• commitment to the growth of employees, believing that people have an intrinsic value beyond their contribution as workers.
An organization can flourish with servant leadership if the CEO and other leaders are capable of and are committed to serving those they lead.
When the motives for practicing servant leadership are pure, the result is not only increased profit but employee trust, says Jack Lowe Jr. of Dallas-based TDIndustries. That trust is very valuable to his company.
Lowe, CEO of TDIndustries, and his father, Jack Lowe Sr., before him, were pioneers in practicing servant leadership in business. Their company has experienced tremendous recognition as a result.
During the past year, TDIndustries received one of three 1998 Texas Quality Awards, and Fortune ranked the company fifth on its "100 Best Companies To Work For in America" list. The top 100 companies are identified by randomly selecting employees to complete surveys, which include a Great Place to Work Trust Index. Being ranked fifth indicates TDIndustries employees trust their leaders.
A high trust level among employees gives an organization an agility to respond to the constantly changing business environment without having to hassle with constant internal resistance to change.
Employees trusting their leaders is the key to success, according to Lowe.
"It is impossible to attain and maintain global competitiveness in serving customers without continuously, aggressively improving the process we use to serve customers," says Lowe. "This improvement is impossible without the eager participation from everyone from the front line through middle management to the executive office at TDIndustries.
"We cannot get this support unless we have a high trust environment. High trust results in lower costs, and low trust results in higher costs of operation. If you are doing servant leadership to make money, it won't work. If you are doing it for the right reasons -- the honest desire to help others -- it pays great dividends."
Bounds is the CEO of the Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development, which assists individuals and organizations in creating jobs and improving business performance. The Bill Priest Institute is a division of the Dallas County Community College District. To learn more about its services and programs, call (214) 860-5803.
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