Leading is Learning
For the past few years I have been hearing the same old saying from some of the seasoned people in our organization "I have forgotten more than you will ever know"! When I first heard this I was confused and angry. I started digging into the root of the saying and what they were really trying to say to our younger employees. I have been trying to transform our leadership culture into one of servant leadership and I felt this was going against everything I believed in. I spent more time than I should have looking into this one saying just to try and find a solution or better yet a good come back.
I was then provided with the book Farmer Able by Art Barter and the follow up book, The Servant Leadership Journal. Farmer Able is a great read about a small farm and the problems it was experiencing through poor leadership. Through this book I found my answer. Those employees that had been with the organization for 15 years or more had simply decided to stop learning. They made the simple decision that if they were not going to be promoted they definitely were not going to attempt to lead where they were and took on the attitude of, "it's their problem".
We must continue to learn and lead no matter where we are in an organization. Once we stop trying to learn and simply begin to "forget" we have lost the battle. I also learned that I was also to blame for this problem. I was developing those who had already become leaders thinking they would take the new ideas and spread them to all their subordinates. I was wrong, there are many that have been left behind believing in false motives and failed leadership.
Art Barter has done a fantastic job in showing how an organization can crumble because of leaders not serving everyone. If the leader does not look at every piece of their organization and work towards serving the needs of everyone in their organization there will always be problems. I learned so much from this little book and am opening up a whole new realm in the 18 week journal. With the journal by my side I feel that I am getting a daily one on one with Art.
Below is a guest post from Art Barter with links to purchase these books. Go grab yours today and begin the new journey in servant leadership.
The pigs are running the farm. So begins the story of Farmer Able. Everyone on his farm -- people and animals alike -- are downright downtrodden by him. He's overbearing and compulsively obsessed with profits and productivity. He's a typical top-down, power-based manager, forever tallying production numbers in his well-worn ledgers. But the more he pushes the hoofs and horns and humans, the more they dig in their heels. That is until one day when he hears a mysterious wind that whispers: "It's not all about me." Can he turn things around and begin attending to the needs of those on his farm, thus improving their attitudes and productivity?
The following is an excerpt from chapter 22 of Farmer Able.
I AM CHICKEN
Foreman Ryder remained on the warpath. He wasn’t pondering nothin’. No, he was downright despising. It irked him that those flappy chickens flitting all over the barn lot reflected a system out of control. Juanita and the others sure sensed this. They by no means flaunted it. But there was a flap and a flutter to get out of the way when they saw Ryder coming. And now, cageless, they could elude him, which irked him even more.
Farmer Able certainly picked up on Ryder’s fuming. He tried to reason with his foreman. Look Ryder, egg production is down. The cages aren’t working. And the pen didn’t work before that. Let’s give this approach a chance. After all, for centuries chickens were free to wander around and things were just fine. What do you say?
As he offered this, Farmer Able could feel that gentle wind blowing. Could the buckram foreman sense it? No. All Ryder thought was the old man’s gone as soft as cottage cheese. Ryder was determined to harden things back up. What about the coyotes every night? Ryder countered. Those chickens will be easy pickings. We’ll just have Ernie round them up in the evenings and put them back in the henhouse, Farmer Able said. They’ll be safe.
Well that’s just great. More work for us, and we still don’t have the planting done. The chickens were all listening to this exchange with cocked heads. The word coyote certainly quivered their quills. Ryder’s got a point, Peggy quipped. Those cages, as much as we hate them, are our protection. I’m certainly not going to bwack at Ryder’s concern. There was a lot of anxious cackling from all quarters. The hens started to question the very flapping and fluttering that was so freeing. Peggy, who had been sunning herself, suddenly thought the light wasn’t so enlightening. She rationalized things: I could keep up my egg production just fine there in the dark. Why was I complaining? I had it so good back in my cage.
Madge could stand it no longer and squawked, Idon’t want to be coyote supper! And she scurried back into the henhouse. As Peggy continued to pontificate, the whole flock started to falter. They actually thought they saw coyotes behind every shadow. Ryder’s fears had become theirs. However, at that moment a miracle happened. Juanita watched Farmer Able still trying to persuade Ryder. The farmer was standing firm for them!
Seeing this allowed her to see beyond herself and discover her true nature—deep down, just yonder past her gizzard. Yes, Juanita—the one who had allowed her mind to be only as large as her cage, who had found solace in a lowly dirt smudge—remembered those chicken dreams she’d had. Suddenly, she flapped her wings and pushed out her chicken breast. Normally no chicken ever wants to show a farmer the plumpness of her pectorals, knowing that a human might start imagining certain roasting methods. But chest thumping was exactly what Juanita felt right then. What’s wagging your wattles? Peggy countered. You of all hens should know. Those cages are our sanctuary.
Juanita, madder than a wet hen, fluffed her feathers with a certain righteous indignation. Listen you dumb clucks. Don’t you see? The farmer’s giving us a chance to spread our wings. Maybe if you’re a barn swallow, that works, Peggy squawked. But we’re domesticated birds. Flight has never been our forte. And don’t you think the coyotes know this. Get away from that doorway and let us get back to what we do best. And by that you mean . . . Again Juanita plumped up, . . . get back to being a bunch of chickens?!
A gasp went up from the flock. In the book of chicken protocol, this was the #1 don’t go there. Oh, how they were derided by all the other barnyard animals and the humans labeling them as such. They were the laughingstock, the epitome of all things measly and cowardly—but woe to the chicken who ever called herself or her fellow hens this. Yet that is exactly what Juanita did. Understandably, her admonition was met with silence. For a moment, the hens didn’t know what to do. Behind them was the darkened henhouse with its compromised confines. Before them was the wide open but unknown world of the barnyard. Looking over at Farmer Able still trying to convince Ryder, Juanita added, Let’s trust the man who wants to make things right. He’ll put us in at night. He’ll keep the coyotes away. He might have made the cages, but now he’s willing to see the error of his ways and respect our chicken liberties.
Juanita’s clarion call continued to waft out over the hens. It is said that on that day, their quills stopped quivering and their combs got just a little straighter. They turned from the dim doorway of the henhouse and made their way back out into the cage-free sunshine around them. As Juanita saw the flock unfettered, she calmly exhaled and peeped to herself: Yep, if you show a little respect and care for others, you might just unlock a boldness as courageous as a chicken.
*****
Art Barter believes everyone can be great, because everyone can serve. To teach about the power of servant leadership, Art started in his own backyard by rebuilding the culture of the manufacturing company he bought, Datron World Communications. Art took Datron’s traditional power-led model and turned it upside down and the result was the international radio manufacturer grew from a $10 million company to a $200 million company in six years. Fueled by his passion for servant leadership, Art created the Servant Leadership Institute (SLI).
To learn more about Art and his new Servant Leadership Journal, as well as his book on servant leadership, Farmer Able: A Fable About Servant Leadership Transforming Organizations And People From The Inside Out, endorsed by Stephen M.R. Covey, Ken Blanchard , and John C. Maxwell , visit www.servantleadershipinstitute.com.