A general presentation on Servant Leadership and how to apply concepts in a not for profit volunteer organization

1. Servant Leadership
Presented by:
Susan Parente
PMP, CISSP, PMI-RMP, ITIL, MS Eng. Mgmt.
Parente@s3-tec.com
Kevin Riley
PMP, BS, MBA
Kevin.Riley@thehar ord.com
November 2013

2. Servant Leadership
Objec ves:
• What is Servant Leadership?
• How Servant Leadership works
• When is Servant Leadership most effec ve
• Examples of Servant Leadership
• Model for Project Management Leadership
2

3. 3
Inspira on Modern Day Servant Leadership
Robert K. Greenleaf
* See References
• Career:
o 38 Years at AT&T, largely in management training and development
o 25 Years consul ng on Servant Leadership therea er
o Coined the term Servant-Leader in 1970’s
o Founded Center for Applied Ethics (now Greenleaf Center for Servant-
Leadership)
• Inspira on:
o Hermann Hesse’s short novel Journey to the East in 1960’s
o Account of a mythical journey by a group of people on a
spiritual quest
o True leadership stems first from a desire to serve
• Essays:
o The Servant as Leader (1970)*
o The Ins tu on as Servant (1972)*
o Trustees- as Servants (1972)*

5. 5
Defini ons – Servant and Service
Defini ons of Servant:
•One who serves, or does services, voluntarily or on compulsion; a person
who is employed by another for menial offices, or for other labor, and is
subject to his command; a person who labors or exerts himself for the
benefit of another, his master or employer; a subordinate helper… a
person in the service of another.
•One who expresses submission, recognizance, or debt to another:
 a person working in the service of another…
 in a subordinate posi on…
 a person who is hired to work for another…
Defini ons of Service:
•An act of assistance or benefit; a favor
•An act of helpful ac vity; help; aid.
•Work done by one person or group that benefits another
•The performance of work or du es for a superior or as a servant
•Be of service, to be helpful or useful

6. Leadership Defini on
Defini ons of Leader:
• a person or thing that leads.
• a guiding or direc ng head, as of an army, movement, or poli cal
group.
• One that leads or guides.
• One who is in charge or in command of others.
• One who heads a poli cal party or organiza on.
• One who has influence or power, especially of a poli cal nature.
• a person who rules or guides or inspires others
• a person who is in front or goes first
• a person who is the head of, organizes or is in charge (of something)
• The head …of any body… as of a tribe, clan, or family; a person in
authority who directs the work of others…
Introduction > Background > Characteristics > Paradoxes > Practice > Examples > More
†

9. Contras ng Leadership Styles
Type Description Key Features
Authentic
Leadership
Centers on knowing and acting on what is true and
real inside the leaders self, team, and organization,
along with knowing and acting on what is true and
real in the world.
Leaders who are con ident, hopeful,
optimistic, and resilient individuals
deeply aware of how they think and
behave.
Transformational
Leadership
Leader works as a model and a motivator, encouraging
the followers to work not because of an exchange of
value but for the love of their work.
Leaders who inspire and knows his
followers by strengths and
weakness to assign them to the right
job; and challenges them to work at
their best in their ield of expertise.
Transactional
Leadership
De ined as the in luence of a leader toward his
subordinates using reward and punishment as a form
of motivational medium.
Leader may offer something
valuable like increased salary,
incentives, and promotion to his
subordinate.
Situational
Leadership
Introduced by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey in
the ‘60s. The model states that leaders should utilize
different leadership styles according to the situation
they are in.
Differences in individual
competence and attitude require
leader to vary leadership style.
Servant
Leadership
Describes servant leaders as individuals with a natural
inclination to serve. Such people make a conscious
choice to lead to serve rather than lead to gain power
or acquire material possessions.
Leaders exhibiting listening,
empathy, healing relationships,
awareness, persuasion,
conceptualization, foresight,
stewardship, human resource
development, and building
community characteristics 9

10. 10
Servant Leadership - Insights & Quotes
“A company is stronger if it is bound by love
rather than by fear.”…Herb Kelleher founder
of Southwest Airlines
Ken Blanchard: Servant Leadership works.
“Servant Leadership is about ge ng people to
a higher level by leading people at a higher
level.”
Robert Greenleaf : Leadership ought to be
based on serving the needs of others and
helping those who are served to become
“healthier, wiser, truer, autonomous and likely
to become “servants”.
Lao-Tzu wrote about servant leadership in the
fi h-century BC: “The highest type of ruler is
one of whose existence the people are barely
aware….

11. 11
Servant Leadership – Volunteer Org. Example
Board of Directors
▪ Listening
▪ Commitment
▪ Healing
Sustainability &
Transi on Plans
▪ Stewardship
▪ Commitment
▪ Build
Community
▪ Awareness
▪ Persuasion
▪ Conceptualiza on
▪ Foresight
• Organiza on Focus
• Humble
• Opportuni es for
Improvement
• Best for Chapter
• Voice of Members
• No job too big/small
Volunteers and Members
▪ Development
▪ Healthier Thinking
▪ Autonomy
▪ Freedom & Open
▪ Encouragement
▪ Value
▪ Awareness
▪ Mentoring
▪ Acceptance

13. • SAS (#1 on the list of Best Companies
to Work For)
• Wegmans Food Market (3)
• Zappos.com (6)
• Nugget Market (8)
• Recrea onal Equipment (REI) (9)
• Container Store (21)
• Whole Foods Market (24)
• QuikTrip (34)
• Balfour Bea y Construc on (40)
13
• TD Industries (45)
• Intel (51)
• Aflac (57)
• Marrio Interna onal (71)
• Nordstrom (74)
• Men’s Wearhouse (87)
• CH2M Hill (90)
• Darden Restaurants (97)
• Starbucks (98)
Servant Leadership – Forbes Top 100

14. 14
Servant Leadership – Other Examples
Bake a cake
Hang up your clothes

15. PM Leadership Role
• Determine purpose and vision
• Development and influence of the team
• Expand or maintain core competencies of the team
• Sustain an effec ve work culture
• Follow ethical prac ces
• Established balance controls
• Project mechanism for knowledge transfer across parts
of project
• Moral reasoning
• Sustain stakeholder rela onships
• Create resonance and serve stakeholder interests
• Emo onal intelligence (monitor your and others
feelings/emo ons)
• Ascribe to PM tools, management processes, and best
prac ces
15

16. Leadership Challenges for PM’s
16
• Uncontrollable variables
• Personal skills and leadership capabili es
• Staffing with skilled resources
• Team interac on for finite period.
• Limited team skills
• Developing high performing teams
• Func onal vs. Project Team Management
• Hard or measureable elements
• So skill communica ons, quality, and risk
• Stakeholder expecta ons
• Technical/engineering vs. Leadership Skills

17. 17
PM’s can increase posi ve project outcomes by:
•Listening intently to project team members
•Being aware of the needs of the project team members
•Understanding and empathizing with project team
members
•Being forward thinking in addressing issues
•Convincing rather than coercing project team members to
respond to instruc ons
•Commi ed to serving project team members
•Commi ed to the growth of team members
•Crea ng a sense of community among team members
•Being intui ve in facing situa ons arising during the
project
•Striving to maintain good rela onships with the project
team members
Servant Leadership Applica on

20. 20
Target operating model
Websites:
 Greenleaf Center: www.greenleaf.org
 Spears Center: www.spearscenter.org
 Consul ng / Development: www.JamesHunter.com
 Modern Servant Leader: h p://modernservantleader.com/
Assessment:
 Are you a Servant Leader? Try this assessment:
h p://modernservantleader.com/servant-leadership/leadership-assessment/
Books:
 Servant Leader (Greenleaf, 1977)
 Servant Retrospect and Prospect (Greenleaf, 1980)
 The Servant (Hunter, 1998)
 The Servant Leader (Autry, 2001)
 Prac cing Servant Leadership (Spears & Lawrence, 2004)
 World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle (Hunter, 2004)
Servant Leadership References

22. Things to PonderThings to Ponder
• How does this change your ideas about leadership? If so, in
what ways?
• What servant leadership make the most sense to you ? What
about least sense?
• How different would the world be if most leaders were
servant leaders?
22