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Kelvin A. Redd is the Associate Director of the Center for Servant Leadership at the Pastoral Institute in Columbus, Georgia.
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2022 Fifteenth Avenue
Columbus, GA 31901
706-649-6380
706-649-6381 fax
sl@pilink.org
www.pilink.org
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| If you would like more information
on implementing servant leadership into your department or organization, call
Kelvin Redd at the Center for Servant Leadership at the Pastoral Institute at
706-649-6380 ext. 1303. The Center for Servant Leadership offers coaching,
consultation and education resources to help you get started.
Best wishes,
Kelvin A. Redd
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3 Simple Steps:
How To Implement A Departmental Servant Leadership Program |
Are you a department or division manager or school principal? Do you work for a very large organization that has many moving parts? Have you ever wished for a servant leadership movement within your organization? And because your organization is so big, have you ever wanted to start a servant leadership program of your own but you just didn't know quite how or where to begin? If you answered yes to these questions, you're in luck because the Center for Servant Leadership has developed three simple steps to implementing and maintaining a servant leadership program within your very own department, division or school. And just think, after a short period of time, your department will be known as the "Best Department To Work For" in your organization.
Step One: Know the Philosophy
By definition, servant leadership is a lifelong journey that includes the discovery of one's self, a desire to serve others and a commitment to lead. Thus, departmental training is essential. It is an awesome gift and privilege to be a leader and it shouldn't be taken lightly. Everyone in the department should be provided valuable training in the basic knowledge of the philosophy of servant leadership. Best-selling author Jim Hunter says that "leadership is the skill of influence" and leadership, like any skill, is learned. The philosophy and skills of servant leadership can be learned and applied by all employees who have the desire to effect real change, transform, develop and advance the department into becoming the "Best Department to Work For".
Step Two: Know Yourself
Servant leaders are often considering questions such as:
- Who am I?
- Why am I here?
- What makes me unique?
- Are my actions enabling others to grow as persons?
- Are my actions motivated by honesty and love?
However, as writer and management consultant Peter Drucker points out, "Most Americans do not know what their strengths are. When you ask them, they look at you with a blank stare, or they respond in terms of subject knowledge, which is the wrong answer." In the book, First Break All the Rules, by Marcus Buckingham, "the most effective method for motivating people is to build on their strengths rather than correcting their weaknesses. The authors, researchers at the Gallup Organization, have analyzed results of interviews conducted by Gallup of over 1.7 million employees from 101 companies and representing 63 countries. When asked, only 20 percent of these employees stated that they were using their strengths everyday."
As Bill Turner says, "A person cannot be an effective leader, if he/she doesn't know who he/she is." Do you know what you're good at? Do you know what you enjoy doing? Do you know your strengths? Dr. Geil Browning, founder of Emergenetics International, says, "Your Thinking and Behavioral preferences are your strengths. They make all the difference in how you think, behave, and communicate. Go with them and you'll be more satisfied and more productive...Being in alignment with yourself at work will make you more effective and your company more profitable. Working against your innate preferences will tire you out... using a Whole Emergenetics approach; you will be more successful at bringing people together. This in turn, will help you be a stronger leader." A person on the journey to servant leadership should be intentional about his or her own self-development. When the seventy-five members of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council were asked to recommend the most important capability for leaders to develop, their answer was nearly unanimous: self-awareness.
Step Three: Know It Forever
Here is your opportunity to effect real and lasting change within your department. As your department's journey toward servant leadership continues, everyone now has knowledge of the servant leadership philosophy and a better understanding themselves (but remember it's still a journey).
Individual and group meetings are the perfect way to maintain and grow your department. And there is no better way to do this than by performing servant leadership coaching. Servant leadership coaching under a variety of titles, including professional coaching, executive coaching, life coaching among others, has emerged as a powerful force and resource for helping individuals realize their fullest potential. Coaching is being utilized extensively in departments all across the corporate world. Coaching for some is becoming highly specialized in a variety of corporate settings; yet, the basic issues related to coaching are incorporated in understanding the concepts of servant leadership coaching. Coaching is about empowering the other person and enabling the department to discover and fulfill their goals and dreams. Coaching is committed to helping others become self fulfilled in their work and their life. It is leading others to discover their fullest potential and live this out daily.
There you have it - three simple steps to implementing your very own departmental servant leadership program. The philosophy of servant leadership is ageless, everlasting and unchanging. There is no better leadership philosophy in the world that will help you confront the leadership challenges of the 21st Century.
Good Luck!
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Servant Leadership Teams
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In this workshop, participants will learn:
- The all-important first stage of developing your team.
- How to break team complacency.
- The three cornerstones of a winning team. Read more
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