As we discussed back in Chapter 11, Improving Our Team Dynamics to Increase Our Agility, knowledge work has created a shift in where the knowledge within our organization resides. Our teams become the intersection for many different streams of information as they work out what their customer needs.
As leaders, our knowledge of how to perform those tasks becomes more redundant over time, especially as our teams continually improve their process. In fact, one tongue-in-cheek definition of the term knowledge worker is anyone who knows more about the work they perform than their managers.
The management of knowledge workers has to become more supportive in style, and that support needs to revolve around the central theme of how can we set this up for success? A leader needs to consider both the organization's perspective and our people's perspective to create the necessary alignment.
Much of the leadership role now becomes about setting up the right environment and then getting out of the way. This transforms the role of manager to that of a leader who ensures that our specialists understand their objectives and are provided with the environment and support they need to carry out their tasks. Managers no longer need to define and distribute work, at least not at the task level.
Our sense of the leadership role is inverted to one where the leader exists to serve the needs of his/her people and gives rise to the term Servant Leadership.
Leaders serving their people and organization is not an entirely new concept. Literature refers to it as far back as ancient China. This is from the philosopher Lao Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching: "A leader is best when people barely know he exists; when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves."
In the modern era, we view the late Robert K. Greenleaf as the champion of Servant Leaders through his essay, Essentials of Servant Leadership, and through his work in setting up the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.
The leader's role now becomes the following:
- Setting the challenge
- Cultivating culture
- Ensuring team engagement