7 Ways in which Servant Leadership Pays Off

Yesterday we told you how we stumbled across a major use for our software we hadn’t designed intentionally - where the solution becomes a Servant Leadership development tool.

This video goes into more details on who inspired us and on what the shift in mindset is needed to make the jump from command and control to servant leadership. 

https://youtu.be/7NWN8yczF5Y 

A lot exists out there in terms of the definition and need for leadership to change in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world and everyone understands the need for servant leadership in theory. It’s putting it into practice and creating the shift from the old ways of working in a leader capacity one where they were called to make all decisions, hold all the responsibility, approve, give orders, audit them and control every aspect of work and their people, to the new ways of work where those are no longer needed or desirable and where instead, leaders have to be open, vulnerable, inspiring, empathic and above all - helpful, that is harder to achieve.

The simple actions that a team member has to do to drive the use of our dashboard, are the essence of all the to-dos of a servant leader which all be summed up in one word: facilitation. Whoever wears the hat for the day/the retro/the team meeting needs to allow the team to see the data, ensure they discuss it and inspect it inquisitively, frame and encourage the openness of the discussion around it, ensure the team searches for solutions such as a team activity and facilitate that action taking place. From organising it to securing what resources are needed to enable the conversation when it happens. Essentially helping. Nothing traditionally “leader-y” is needed. 

The teams that led us to these changes in lens and functionality, had firmly understood that leadership is a shareable set of tasks, a function, or even a role that can be rotated and distributed between the members of a team and not the sole responsibility -and title- of one individual. They had put firm organisational permission in place for this shift and they had organised access to resources for all team members to enable this.

While many leaders are terrified by the transition to servant leadership and see this distribution of the role as a menace to their status, it directly impacts the team’s ability to perform, so if success is valuable, they ought to be happy for the shift and welcome sharing the load. 

There are immense advantages in having leaders become servant leaders and even greater ones in formally distributing the load:

1. No bottlenecks to hold the team back;
2. Decision making is no longer unilateral but diverse and includes all team members
3. The implied level of trust in each other is significantly higher and their Psychological Safety grows
4. Team members find new levels of respect as they learn more and more about the abilities of their colleagues faced with practical leadership challenges;
5. A shift in mentality from “what I have to do” to “what WE have to do”;
6. An unprecedented understanding of facilitation and help, that represents an exercise in resourcing and blocker removing that powers all interactions eventually and enables Agile work to happen;
7. The team gains flow and speed and is ultimately happier and performs better.

The best servant leaders are effective facilitators. They help. They care. They share the load. They can move as fast as Agile offers. They are Psychologically Safe They are every team member. 

Good luck rethinking leadership and teams to remain competitive with all the ones who have done so already. 

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Don't send your teams home with a laptop, a Jira and Slack account and a prayer!

Get in touch at www.psychologicalsafety.works or reach out at [email protected] and let's help your teams become Psychologically Safe, healthy, happy and highly performant.