How can servant leadership help you build stronger relationships with local government?

I believe it’s important to listen to the end users, ie the community the project is serving. It’s important to understand how it will benefit them. The purpose must always also be in align with one’s own values. With these to factors in place it’s easier to align the team to the outcomes. I have found that focusing on the end outcome can truly lift a team through stressful or challenging projects and can build a culture of passion to delivery the best they can for the community they serve.

Before that I think it is usefull to have a deeper feeling of your own purpose. Your purpose should align with the evolving needs and potential of the system.

Servant leaders lead by prioritising followers' needs - their motivation and direction for action, source of fulfilment, basis for measuring success. Leaders are necessary only to the extent they serve followers: needs. Servant leaders are preoccupied to understand followers' circumstances: economic, social, financial. Only by this can leaders become valuable; otherwise, they are deadweight and liability. They must have conversations that provide required solutions. Leaders understand their entitlements are privileged on problems they resolve. Local government is a mechanism whereby government interfaces with/meets citizens’ needs at local level. They can build relationships with local government by dialoguing with critical stakeholders.

In addition to active listening, it involves 'sensing' the system deeply, by tuning into the current reality of local government. This means not just hearing words, but also connecting with the underlying issues and unspoken needs. By 'listening' to the emerging future, one can tap into the collective intelligence and co-create solutions that address the root causes.

Servant Leadership enhances Public Service Motivation when putting in practice the 'walk the talk' concept of modelling when serving the stakeholders. Drawing from recent research in public agencies in China, employees appreciate the community-focused leadership style which tends to accentuate willing followership, motivation and performance, as well as enhancing the focus on the 'larger good' of the community they serve. The key is to become a role model, regardless of title and rank, by being hands on in serving others, both internally and externally. This potentially contributes to institutional change and performance improvement in the public sector (Schwarz et al., 2016).