Understanding Servant Leadership

C: That’s what Servant Leadership is all about. So it makes me sad when people hear the term Servant Leadership and, as you have said, they think you’re talking about la-la land where the inmates are running the prison or trying to please everyone.

K: The problem is that they don’t understand leadership or, more importantly, Servant Leadership. They think you can’t lead and serve at the same time. Yet you can, if you understand that there are two kinds of leadership involved in Servant Leadership: strategic leadership and operational leadership.

Strategic leadership has to do with vision/direction. It’s the leadership part of Servant Leadership. The focus for strategic leadership is the “what” that ensures everyone is going in the same direction. This is all important because:

Leadership Is About
Going Somewhere—
If You And Your People Don’t Know
Where You Are Going,
Your Leadership Doesn’t Matter

Alice learned this lesson in Alice in Wonderland when she was searching for a way out of Wonderland and came to a fork in the road. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” she asked the Cheshire Cat. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” the cat said. Alice replied that she really did not much care. The smiling cat told her in no uncertain terms, “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

C: We’ve always tried to make sure everyone knows where we are heading. Then, of course, we had to make it all happen.

K: In essence, that’s what operational leadership is about: implementation—the “how” of the organization. This is the servant part of Servant Leadership. It’s what leaders focus on after everyone is clear on where they are going. It includes policies, procedures, systems, and leader behaviors that cascade from senior management to frontline employees and make it possible for the organization to live according to its vision and values and accomplish short-term goals and initiatives. These management practices create the environment that employees and customers interact with and respond to on a daily basis.

C: As Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music, “Let’s start at the very beginning—a very good place to start...” I’d love to hear what you think effective strategic leadership involves, Ken.