Servant Leaders Listen

We have a small terrace garden at our home. Among other plants, we have some fruit trees there. And we have some squirrels that frequent our garden due to the fruit trees. It is fascinating to watch the tussle that goes on between Leslie (my wife) and the squirrels. Leslie wants to protect her fruits, while the squirrels want their food.  Leslie covers up the plants with nets to protect them, but the squirrels find a way of reaching the fruits nevertheless. I admire the squirrels for one thing. You see, they have been created with their special body parts of their teeth and their paws and they use these very effectively to gain what they need to sustain their lives.

In this blog I am going to write about some body parts that we have, and challenge us to evaluate how effectively we use them in our lives.

Let us talk about listening first. Is  listening really difficult? How many of you are married?  How many of the wives think that their husbands listen well?

My blogs have been about Servant Leadership, and Listening is a key Servant Leadership attribute, and I would like to explore together why

In one of my previous blogs , I spoke about the fact that Servant Leadership is about others. Encouraging and helping others grow healthier, wiser, richer, more famous etc  than ourselves. If we have to really help some one else, we should be able to understand that person’s needs and requirements. This cannot happen unless we are able to listen. We have also seen how Servant Leadership differs from the traditional Power and Authority model of leadership. In the Power and Authority model of leadership, the leader speaks and the “subordinates” listen, and obey. Not so with Servant Leadership. Servant Leadership is about knowing and meeting the legitimate needs of others. I  am part of a movement of leaders who are concerned about corruption in society and organisations. In the outcome of our deliberations, one thing was very clear, that the root cause of this could be that many leaders of today do not understand or practice Servant Leadership. When  leaders begin to consider them selves as VIPs, and start to alienate themselves from the “others”, problems begin. Even leaders who confess to being “accountable”, end up with “one way accountability”. They would like others to be accountable to them, and them being accountable only to their superior in the organisation. The problem is that those leaders become so detached and removed from knowing the needs of their employees or team members that they reach a point where they don’t care. This leads to all sorts of actions aimed at consolidating their positions, amassing wealth and other vices that we all know about. The solution to this is a “two way accountability” that servant leadership promotes. The leaders need to be accountable to the people they are called to “serve”. This can become successful only when leaders are able to “listen” to their followers/ team members. If we are to become successful leaders, successful servant leaders, we need to be able to listen. 

When we do not listen, we convey very negative messages like I don’t care about you, I don’t understand you, You are wrong, you are stupid, you are wasting my time, etc., Traditionally, leaders have been valued for their communication and decision making skills. Servant-leaders must reinforce these important skills by making a deep commitment to listening intently to others. Servant-leaders seek to identify and clarify the will of a group. They seek to listen receptively, and respectfully to what is being and said (and not said). Listening also encompasses getting in touch with one's inner voice, and seeking to understand what one's body, spirit, and mind are communicating. It is estimated that 80% of our success in learning from other people is based upon how well we listen.

Let us ask ourselves, what kind of listener are we? In a world which is crazy after power and position, In a world which suffers due to the selfish and evil ways of the leaders, can we be different and really listen?

At the beginning of this blog I told you about the squirrels who use their body parts to sustain themselves. Are we willing to use our ears and the mind, and listen?