Be Deliberate about Creating a Leadership Culture during Times of Upheaval

2020 gave leaders the opportunity to learn a new way to engage with their teams. Our work and home lives became literally inseparable, and many colleagues had to deal with new stresses as they helped children distance learn, cared for sick relatives, or just struggled with the stresses of life during a pandemic. Empathy moved from a supporting role in leadership philosophies to a leading tenet of fostering a strong culture, and leaders everywhere were challenged to support and encourage their teams in a deeper way. Keeping teams engaged demanded us to rise to that challenge—and gave us an opportunity to help talent learn to thrive and lead during disruptive times.

Servant leadership is a cornerstone of not just my personal philosophy, but also of Tech Data’s approach to building teams and giving young talent the tools they need to grow. Simon Sinek’s seminal work on servant leadership, Leaders Eat Last, is a tool I have used with my teams in conversations relating to personal and professional growth. Research has shown that servant leadership has a positive impact on employee performance, particularly in times of turbulence like we’ve experienced over the past year. That turbulence didn’t end when we moved into 2021. We’re still in a time of upheaval, and even when the pandemic and its realities begin to wane, we’ll be left trying to figure out how to lead in a world that will be forever different from what we once were used to. 

For those looking for a deeper way to engage and develop teams, here are a few tips that have served us well at Tech Data.

Make servant leader qualities a central tenet of your organization. We use a matrix of five values and seven behaviors that form a leadership culture of support, communication, innovation, and confidence. These behaviors focus on developing values such as collaboration, inclusion, and accountability and making them an integral part of the organization. By concretely outlining our expectations of our leadership teams, we’re able to create a cohesive environment of servant leadership that spans the company. 

Creating and maintaining a culture doesn’t happen organically. It takes dedication, structure, continual reaffirmation, and a commitment to earning teams’ trust by treating everyone with the respect they deserve. How are you creating a deliberate culture within your organization and using it to teach future leaders the values upon which you want to build? As leaders, we must constantly remind ourselves to be supportive of everyone in the organization, to put teams first, set aside egos, and create an environment of trust. We all, no matter where we sit in the org chart, need help once in a while reminding ourselves of the value system we want to establish. Without taking the time to clearly outline vision and culture, teams are left to wing it as best they can, and even senior leadership can lose sight of those core expectations. Putting those values in writing helps keep them top of mind for everyone.

Realize that professional development and personal development go hand-in-hand. If we’re transcending behavior, it has to be inside and outside of work. We can’t be one person at the office and a different person at home. What do these behaviors and values mean to us? How do we implement them and exhibit them with those we care about? How can we use these values to make ourselves better spouses, parents, friends and colleagues? How do we make sure we’re treating everyone in our lives with integrity? It’s worth spending the time to craft thoughtful responses to these questions and ask yourself how your answers can apply across all aspects of life. Then come back together and talk to your leadership teams about it with transparency and candor. A good leader doesn’t just exhibit servant leadership at work, but throughout their life. 

Learn as much as you teach. A good mentorship relationship is one in which mentors and mentees have the humility to learn from one another. Our developing leaders are encouraged to learn outside of the workplace. They bring books, articles, podcasts, and quotes to us, and we engage in creative, give-and-take dialogues about them. When you encourage people to think for themselves and question what they’re learning both within and outside of the mentorship relationship, you’re developing critical thinking skills, confidence, and good communication techniques. And when you’re open to learning from your team, it broadens your own view and gives you insight as to how your leaders think about the world and their own roles within the organization. Effective leaders are always humble enough to learn from their teams—it’s the only way to continually propel a culture of collaboration and trust. 

As we continue to navigate turbulent times, let’s be deliberate about the values we’re instilling in our leaders. How do you create a culture of service within your teams?