SOS Leadership Blog: April 2012

To Lead is to Serve...Characteristics of a Servant Leader - Part 5

Welcome to the sixth blog in our Servant Leadership blog series, To Lead is To Serve! The first five blogs in this series are listed below:

In this blog series, we are learning about the ten characteristics of servant leaders created by Larry Spears based on the writings of Robert Greenleaf. In our previous posts, we've explored eight skills that set servant leaders apart: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, and stewardship. Today we will explore the final two characteristics that servant leaders possess: commitment to the growth of people and building community.

9. Commitment to the growth of people

As a servant leader, you have an inherent belief in human potential, and thus you have a steadfast commitment to the growth of each person you lead. I sincerely believe that this is one of the characteristics that sets the best leaders apart. Along with recognizing your commitment to the growth of others, you know that you must continuously invest in your own growth. You develop goals focused on growth, always recognizing that "the enemy of growing is knowing."

Larry Spears tells us that the "servant leader recognizes the tremendous responsibility to do everything within his or her power to nurture the personal, professional, and spiritual growth of employees." This translates to investing in people; these investments involve both time and money. Spend time listening to your people; take the time to understand what matters to them. Ask them about their dreams and goals, and seek to learn about how they want to grow both personally and professionally. Offer a variety of professional development opportunities based on what you've learned from your team. Servant leaders know that learning isn't something that just happens once a year at a conference or training workshop; it is an ongoing investment. After all, "leadership and learning are indispensable to each other," as John F. Kennedy so eloquently said.

10. Building community

You seek to bring people together, to help them create a meaningful community. You know that community is created when you exhibit your full potential as a servant leader and put into practice the other nine characteristics we've highlighted in this blog series. Robert Greenleaf, the father of servant leadership, said, "All that is needed to rebuild community as a viable life form for large numbers of people is for enough servant leaders to show the way." Are you showing the way?

One of my favorite quotes about community building comes from social activist Dorothy Day, “We have all known the long loneliness, and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.” I'm a stronger believer that business and love coexist, and Greenleaf has laid out how: servant leaders are called to build community. As a servant leader, you care deeply about people, and you want to bring them together for a common purpose, to achieve greatness together. For more, read this blog post about a company that has love has one of its core values.

Reflection Questions:

How have you invested in the growth of your people? Can you think of examples of your investments of both time and money in those who follow you?
Are you committed to your own growth? Do you have a plan for your personal and professional development?
In what ways are you building a community at work? How about at home?
How do you bring your team together at work? How do you motivate them to achieve their full potential as a team?
Will you accept Robert Greenleaf's challenge to be a servant leader who shows the way?

Stay tuned for the final blog in our "To Lead is To Serve" series, where we will wrap up and leave you with some closing thoughts to ponder. Have a great day!

Saying Yes to Priorities

“Every yes to something, is a no to something else.” This quote comes from our Protecting Goals program. How nice would it be to be able to say yes to everything? The reality is it is impossible to say yes to everything, even if it is something that is really important. It may be something that we really want to do. So how do we decide what we should say yes to? The answer is that we have to prioritize!

The definition of a priority is “something given or meriting attention before competing alternatives.” How do we figure out what our priorities are? We first have to find out what our values are, and figure out what matters most to us. Only then can we figure out our top priorities, and what we truly want to say yes to.

SOS has a great tool called the DISC Behavior Profile. With these assessments a person can find out what type of behavior traits they have, and what values they have in their life. It is amazing how accurate these assessments can be, pinpointing both a person’s strengths and weaknesses. Our behaviors have a lot to do with our values and priorities. You must remember that you don’t think your way to new behaviors, you behave your way to new thinking. Don’t get stressed out with feeling the need to say yes to everything, simply figure out what your priorities are! Change your behavior and your thinking will change.

In her new book, Retreat to Success: Living Your Life on Purpose, Amber Fogarty states: “We complicate our lives by constantly adding more. More work. More Commitments. More action items on our ever growing to do lists. More stuff. And all the while we wish for more time. We yearn for simplicity, yet keep making our daily lives more complicated. We wonder when we’ll ever get a break, but never plan to take one… The time is now.”

I encourage you to take some time out of your day and figure out your priorities! Now is the time. Stop saying yes to everything because every yes to something is a no to something or someone else. Say yes to the right things and the right people. That is what matters most!

If you would like to order a copy of Retreat to Success written by SOS partners Bill and Billy Moyer and Amber Fogarty, click here. Also, to learn more information about the DISC assessment email info@sosleadership.com.

Communicating at Work vs. Home

I recently presented a workshop for the Leadership Belton Program about effective communication. I began the workshop by asking this thought-provoking question:

Are you a better communicator at work or at home?

I expected the response to be more mixed than it was. The majority of the attendees felt that they communicate more effectively at work than at home. When we dug deeper, the group settled on the following reasons for this reality:

1) Effective communication at work is expected, and I want to exceed expectations.

2) They love me unconditionally at home, and I will be forgiven when I don't communicate as effectively as I should.

3) The time and effort I put into being a good communicator at work often drains my energy which can prevent me from giving my communication at home the time and effort it deserves. (Effective communication requires energy, and dealing with ineffective communicators can be a real energy drain; thus, I sometimes have very little energy left to communicate at my best at home.)

What else would you add to this list?

One of the constant reminders SOS Leadership provides is that leadership is an awesome responsibility. We are called to be leaders and to accept that responsibility each and every day...at work and at home.

What can you do to communicate more effectively at work and at home? What steps do you need to take to ensure that you're not giving your best effort at work and only giving what's left over at home?

Managing Your Time

I recently attended SOS Partner, Amber Fogarty’s RISE Austin session entitled: The Time Management Myth. It was very interesting to me so I wanted to share my top five takeaways from the session:

1. If you don’t know what your goals are then you can’t make the best use of your time.

2. Writing crystallizes thought – crystallized thought promotes ACTION!

3. Start your day accomplishing your main priorities (these may not always be the easiest things to accomplish on your list)

4. Take 5-10 minutes a day to plan and prioritize. Also take time to write down your clear picture for the month.

5. Procrastination is a habit, one that can be replaced as we make better choices about how we spend our time.

This session really got me thinking about the question: Do I make the best use of my time? My answer was NO! How many people can answer yes to this question? Do you feel that you make the best use of your time everyday? Amber brought up a great point when she said that most of the time we make out a daily check list of to-dos; however we have the tendency to do the easiest things first even though they may not be the most important. This allows us to feel accomplished at the end of the day simply because we see a lot of checkmarks. The problem with this is that our top priorities and top goals remain unfinished!

How many days do you find yourself doing this? Are your goals clearly defined? Do you write down a clear time picture (daily) of what your day should look like? If so, how many days a week do you accomplish your top priorities? Near the end of her session, Amber asked the attendees: Beginning tomorrow, what will you do to make better use of your time? I encourage you to evaluate the top priorities in your life and to clearly define your goals. I encourage you to make the best use of your time!

If you would like more information from Amber’s Time Management Session email info@sosleadership.com!

What Makes a Leader Great?

Yesterday we launched our Gr8 Leaders Program with a group of 8 successful women who are committed to developing their leadership skills and challenging themselves to learn, grow, network, and achieve at a higher level. This group of Gr8 Women Leaders are already phenomenal leaders, but they recognize that they can grow and become even better. They have a strong desire to learn, and they are willing to invest time, energy, and money to gain an edge and become the best version of themselves.

In our kick-off session yesterday, we had a powerful discussion about what makes a leader great. Here's the list of qualities the group came up with:

Passion
An understanding of your life's purpose and why it matters
A positive attitude
A burning desire to learn
The ability to be honest with yourself and others
A recognition of the importance of investing in others to help them grow as leaders
Gratitude (not just being grateful but being able to show it)
The ability to say thank you (and mean it)
Personal accountability
Grace and humility
Confidence in yourself and a belief in human potential
Never asking someone to do something you're not willing to do yourself
Compassion
Strong listening skills (be able to hear what is said and what remains unspoken)
Authenticity/Being true to yourself
Empathy - being able to put yourself in another's shoes
Encouragement - effectively encouraging others as they pursue their dreams and goals
An expectation of greatness (from yourself and others)
A strong voice (sharing ideas with the confidence that you have something meaningful to contribute)