PUTTING YOUR TEAM FIRST & YOURSELF SECOND (Servant Leadership & Level 5 Leadership)

According to Collins, “Level 5 leaders blend a paradoxical combination of deep personal humility with intense professional will.” It is equally about ferocious resolve, an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great.

there is nothing “weak or meek” about servant-leadership. Servant-leaders certainly produce results. True, some people place more emphasis on the “servant” side and less emphasis on the “leader” side of the term, “servant-leader.

We must believe that a Level 5 leader is inevitably a servant-leader and a servant-leader is inevitably a Level 5 leader.

 What Is Servant Leadership?

As a servant leader, you're a "servant first" – you focus on the needs of others, especially team members, before you consider your own. You acknowledge other people's perspectives, give them the support they need to meet their work and personal goals, involve them in decisions where appropriate, and build a sense of community within your team. This leads to higher engagement, more trust, and stronger relationships with team members and other stakeholders. It can also lead to increased innovation. However, servant leadership is problematic in hierarchical, autocratic cultures where managers and leaders are expected to make all the decisions. Here, servant leaders may struggle to earn respect.

Important

Remember that servant leadership is about focusing on other people's needs – not their feelings. Don't avoid making unpopular decisions or giving team members negative feedback when this is needed. Also, do not rely on it exclusively – use it alongside styles like Level 5 Leadership, where you develop an inspiring vision of the future, motivate people to deliver this, manage its implementation, and build an ever-stronger team.

How to Become a Servant Leader?

According to Larry C. Spears, former president of the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, these are the 10 most important characteristics of servant leaders:

1.      Listening.

2.      Empathy.

3.      Healing.

4.      Awareness.

5.      Persuasion.

6.      Conceptualization.

7.      Foresight.

8.      Stewardship.

9.      Commitment to the growth of people.

10.  Building community.

Key Points

You are a servant leader when you focus on the needs of others before you consider your own. It's a longer-term approach to leadership, rather than a technique that you can adopt in specific situations. Therefore, you can use it with other leadership styles such as Level 5 Leadership. Servant leaders are likely to have more engaged employees and enjoy better relationships with team members and other stakeholders than leaders who don't put the interests of others before their own. He found that these leaders have humility, and they don't seek success for their own glory; rather, success is necessary so that the team and organization can thrive. They share credit for success, and they're the first to accept blame for mistakes. They're often shy, but fearless when it comes to making decisions, especially ones that most other people consider risky.

Level 5 Leaders also possess qualities found in four other levels of leadership. Although you don't have to pass sequentially through each individual level before you become a Level 5 Leader, you must have the skills and capabilities found in each level of the hierarchy.

Let's look at each of the five levels in more detail:

Level 1: Highly Capable Individual

At this level, you make high quality contributions with your work. You possess useful levels of knowledge; and you have the talent and skills needed to do a good job.

Level 2: Contributing Team Member

At Level 2, you use your knowledge and skills to help your team succeed. You work effectively, productively and successfully with other people in your group.

Level 3: Competent Manager

Here, you're able to organize a group effectively to achieve specific goals and objectives.

Level 4: Effective Leader

It is the category that most top leaders fall into. Here, you're able to galvanize a department or organization to meet performance objectives and achieve a vision.

Level 5: Great Leader

At Level 5, you have all of the abilities needed for the other four levels, plus you have the unique blend of humility and will that's required for true greatness.

How to Become a Level 5 Leader?

It takes time and effort to become a Level 5 Leader. But the good news is that it can be done, especially if you have the passion to try. Again, it's important to realize that you don't have to progress through each level in turn in order to get to Level 5. But you do need the capabilities found in each level in order to achieve Level 5 status.

Here are some strategies that will help you grow emotionally and professionally, so that you can develop the qualities of a Level 5 Leader. These Leaders have a unique combination of fierce resolve and humility. They were the first to own up to mistakes, and the last to take credit for success.

You can work on developing the following skills and characteristics to become a Level 5 Leader:

1.      Develop humility.

2.      Ask for help.

3.      Take responsibility.

4.      Develop discipline.

5.      Find the right people.

6.      Lead with passion.

Tip:

Use common sense in the way that you apply this idea. In some environments – that is, in high-trust, properly-managed workplaces – Level 5 Leadership is something to aspire to, demonstrate and apply. In low-trust or dysfunctional environments, however, you may need to use Level 5 Leadership more cautiously. Definitely apply this approach, but make sure that you're alert to the "corporate politics" going on around you.