Servant Leadership and Team Work

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

- Andrew Carnegie

Each year in Iowa, bicyclists from all over the world converge on Iowa for a week long bike ride across Iowa, starting at the Missouri River to the West and ending at the Mississippi River to the East. RAGBRAI, Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, is more than just a bike ride, it is an epic eight-day rolling festival of bicycles, music, food, camaraderie, and community. It is the oldest, largest, and longest multi-day bicycle touring event in the world. This year there were 20,000 registered weeklong riders and 9,000 with day passes. Each night the bicyclists pass through small towns in Iowa where the atmosphere is festive, almost like a fair. This year, they passed through Grinnell, Iowa which is home to an organization I used to work for, Grinnell Mutual .

very week, CEO Jeff Menary sends a newsletter to their employees, called "The Grinnell Mutual Way". I appreciated the stories, the lessons, and all the inspiration passed on in this newsletter so much, Jeff offered to send it my way even though I was leaving the organization. Now that is, the Grinnell Mutual Way!

This week, Jeff talks about Teamwork and I was so moved not only by his incredible attitude even when things weren't going quite as planned and how Teamwork made all the difference, I knew I had to share with you! So with his permission here is this week's newsletter.

"I took last Thursday as a vacation day hoping to enjoy the Grinnell RAGBRAI activities. Since the route went right by our house on 11Th?Avenue, I decided to leave the house at 6:00 a.m. and take a half mile swim at the college pool. After that I was going to find a cup of coffee, get something to eat and then go to Central Park and join members of our local hospital’s foundation board. We were hopeful to raise money for the hospital’s annual funding of our project to provide bicycle helmets for area 3rd?graders. We didn’t expect to raise any significant amount, but the hospital’s Director of Development was required to do this and several of the board members , including me, offered to help if only to share this hot and humid job with our director.

I thought that some of the bikers would see me in my wheelchair and think that my injury was caused by a bicycle accident. Naturally if someone started a conversation with me about my injuries, I would tell my story. But I must clarify something, I have met several individuals who had severe spinal injuries while cycling and I am passionate about the importance of wearing a helmet. I took a supply of balloons to the park and made some bicycle helmets and asked bikers to buy this artwork as a donation to our fund drive. I did collect some money, but not very much. I would have been better off to have donated an amount personally that would have covered all the funds raised. This would have avoided both the afternoon heat and the costs of having a booth at this event.

?At 5:00 we closed our booth. Our fund-raising team was very hot and tired.?After that I wheeled around checking out the various vendors, purchased a protein smoothy and went home. Driving home I decided to focus on the positive things that did happen. They were:

1. The Foundation Committee bonded during this hot and humid event. Dealing with a difficult situation with a team that is working together to assist and help each other, binds a team together. Sharing a difficult experience is the permanent glue the creates a strong team.
2. As I was putting together my balloon helmets, young children asked if I could make a balloon animal for them. I honored each request; it took my mind off the rising heat.

• There was one young boy that kept coming back for more balloon animals. His first request was for a replacement that burst when it was dropped. The second request was for two balloons one for each of his younger sisters. At this time, I decided to teach him how to make some simple balloon animals. He kept coming back for more explaining that he was finding other children in the park and passing out the balloons I had just made for him. When our fund-raising team was leaving the park, I gave this young boy a package of balloons and told him how to get a pump to inflate them.
• This boy was a servant leader. He enjoyed passing out the balloons and seeing the smiles of the children when they received them. He was getting more joy out of serving others versus his personal joy of hoarding the balloons that I had made for him.

When a team has a difficult task or difficult periods in time, teams that work together sharing the stress created by the situation and then finding creative solutions to their dilemma, form a bonded team that can overcome all most all obstacles. Also, when the team leader and the team members (think about the young boy that passed out my balloons) have a servant leader attitude and philosophy, and they live it, the team can become invincible".

-- Jeff Menary, President and CEO, Grinnell Mutual

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