The document discusses developing servant leaders within an organization. It defines servant leadership, outlines its benefits, and proposes including sessions on servant leadership in the organization's leadership development program. Servant leadership prioritizes serving and developing employees. The organization values developing people from within and sees servant leadership as aligned with strengthening the company by awakening and engaging employees. It provides characteristics and pillars of servant leadership and recommends validating it through employee growth.
2. While most great leaders share certain attributes
and inherent traits, even the greatest of leaders
study to sharpen and increase their skills
throughout their lives. The most effective leaders
in history were developed, not born.
Guardian Life (2021)
Developing the next generation of leaders from within
3. “The key to greatness is to look for
people’s potential and spend time
developing it.”
Peter Drucker
Developing the next generation of leaders from within
4. How might we develop
(more) Servant-leaders
from within our
organization?
Reimagine the Process
5. Servant-leadership defined
“The Servant-leader is servant
first. It begins with the natural
feeling that one wants to serve.
Then conscious choice brings one
to aspire to lead.
The best test is: do those served
grow as persons; do they, while
being served, become healthier,
wiser, freer, more autonomous,
more likely themselves to become
servants?”
Robert K. Greenleaf
6. Why is Servant-leadership relevant?
“Businesses have begun to view Servant-
leadership as an important framework that is
helpful (and necessary) for ensuring the long-
term effects of related management and
leadership approaches such as continuous quality
improvement and systems thinking.”
L.C. Spears
7. Organizational Value of Servant-leadership
“Servant-leadership is an
approach to leadership that is
beneficial for the organization
by awakening, engaging, and
developing employees as well as
emphasizing the importance of
listening to, appreciating,
valuing and empowering
people”
Lydia M. Daniels
8. Going the extra mile
Good enough isn’t always
good enough. Not when your
future and families are at
stake. That’s why Guardian is
always looking for
opportunities to help people
become their best selves.
Guardian Life (2021)
10. Recommendation:
Include in the 43-week Institute
program sessions designed to foster
Servant-leadership.
Servant-leadership is aligned with our
Institute’s developmental focus on:
Leading and inspiring others, Strategic
thinking, Acting with integrity, Coaching,
and Relationship building and our
Organizational Priorities
Guardian Leadership Institute
12. Why development
is linked to our
value system
The corporate culture at Guardian is
built on a core set of values. We truly
embody our values:
1. People Count
2. We Do the Right Thing
3. We Hold Ourselves to Very High
Standards.
We firmly believe that developing
our people from within is a way to
strengthen the company.
13. Proposed Servant-leadership Course Outline
Definition and
Personal/Organizational
Value of Servant-
leadership
Ten Characteristics Seven Pillars
Practical Application Validation Test
14. “If our goal is to reshare
our organization that
they will survive and
flourish in the new
century, our most
immediate task is to
share ourselves.”
C. Michael Thompson
Ten Characteristics of the
Servant-leader
Listening
Empathy
Healing
Awareness
Persuasion
Conceptualization
Foresight
Stewardship
Commitment to the
growth of people
Building Community
Ten Characteristics
15. “A Servant-leader is a person
of character who puts people
first. He or she is a skilled
communicator, a
compassionate collaborator
who has foresight, is a systems
thinker, and leads with moral
authority.”
James Sipe & Don Fick
Seven Pillars
16. Moral Authority (Conscience)
“Moral authority is another way to
define servant leadership because it
represents a reciprocal choice between
leader and follower. If the leader is
principle centered, he or she will
develop moral authority. If the follower
is principle centered, he or she will
follow the leader. In this sense, both
leaders and followers are followers.
Why? They follow truth. They follow
natural law. They follow principles.
They follow a common, agreed-upon
vision. They share values. They grow to
trust one another.”
R. K. Greenleaf
Conscience teaches us that
ends and means are
inseparable
Conscience
introduces us
into the
world of
relationships
Conscience inspires us to
become part of a cause
worthy of our
commitment
The essence
of moral
authority or
conscience is
sacrifice
18. Validation Test
“The best test is: do those
served grow as persons; do
they, while being served,
become healthier, wiser, freer,
more autonomous, more
likely themselves to become
servants?”
20. When you reflect on
those leaders in your
life who shaped you
and who supported
your personal
development, what
impressions do you
have about including
Servant-leader
sessions within our
Leadership Institute
to develop more
leaders within
Guardian Life?
Hinweis der Redaktion
Continued Study:
Center for Creative Leadership. (2021, May 2). The leadership gap: How to fix what your organization lacks. https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/leadership-gap-what-you-still-need/
Slide Notes:
READ: Thank you for joining us today, honored that you chose to be here. It’s a privilege to share with you, NexGen Leadership, a Servant-leader formation recommendation to support future-proofing our organization from the anticipated leadership gap, a serious shortage of next generation leaders. “Common causes of the leadership gap contributing to a leadership shortage include generational shifts in the workforce due to the retirement of many Baby Boomers, changes in the nature of work itself, recruiting wars for high-potential talent and poor organizational practices identifying, selecting, and developing talent” in many organizations (Center for Creative Leadership). The following recommendation is aligned with Guardian Life’s focal point on developing leaders from within, our Core Values, our Organizational Priorities and our Leadership Institute’s focus.
As we go along, please let me know if you have any questions or if there are areas that I can clarify. I look forward to the dialogue and feedback, at the end of the presentation, I’m going to ask you to consider implementing this recommendation for a July 1, 2021 effective date. Let’s begin.
Continued Study:
5 CEO’s Who Use Servant Leadership in Their Companies. Professional Tales. Retrieved May 3, 2021, from https://professionaltales.com/5-ceos-who-use-servant-leadership-in-their-companies/
5 Companies That Embrace Servant Leadership. Berrett-Koehler. Retrieved May 1, 2021, from https://medium.com/@BKpub/5-companies-that-embrace-servant-leadership-cf18114ee891
Guardian Life. Developing the next generation of leaders from within. Retrieved May 3, 2021, from https://www.guardianlife.com/careers/financial-representative/training
7 servant leadership examples in business (and the principles behind them). Skillpacks. Retrieved May 1, 2021, from https://www.skillpacks.com/servant-leadership-examples-in-business/
Slide Notes:
[READ: the quote ---it’s posted on Guardian Life website.]
READ: A common debate in leadership courses is whether leaders are born or they’re made, our organizational belief is that the most effective leaders in history were developed.
I’ll pause for a moment so we can all reflect on remarkable leaders we’ve known personally or who we’ve learned about through our studies.
Historical leaders such as: Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela, come to mind.
Business leaders, perhaps those CEO’s profiled in Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great, are leaders who were developed; I reflect on Bill Gates, Orpah, Fred Smith at FedEx, Herb Kelleher the founder of Southwest Airlines, Bill Marriott former CEO of Marriott hotels, John Nordstrom founder of Nordstrom stores, George Zimmer formerly with the Men’s Warehouse, and Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A. These men and women were highly effective as Servant-leaders.
(Back in 2005 I reached out to George Zimmer while attending Marquette University and asked if he’d be available for an interview about leadership, he accepted the invitation and shared his story and insights on leadership.)
Continued Study:
Drucker, P. F. (2006). Classic Drucker: Essential wisdom of Peter Drucker. Harvard Business Review. (p.59). https://store.hbr.org/product/classic-drucker-essential-wisdom-of-peter-drucker-from-the-pages-of-harvard-business-review/1681
Blank, W. (2001). The 108 skills of natural born leaders. AMACOM.
Slide Notes:
READ: Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, shared that [read quote]. This approach aligns with our organizational belief that leaders can be developed.
While there are 108 Skills of a Natural Born Leader, even the author of this book, notes that no one is born a leader but rather they are developed.
Slide Notes:
Purpose slide. Prompt consideration, reflection, and imagination of what could be.
READ: As well as it’s working now, I ask you to consider, how might we intentionally develop (more) Servant-leaders within Guardian Life?
Pause/solicit responses.
Before moving on, let’s take a moment to reflect on Robert Greenleaf’s statement [read statement]. What does that mean to you?
OBSERVE:
Gauge room to determine if they understand what a Servant-leader is. Are they conferring on the definition? Do they have an cursory understanding?
This is an active dialogue slide, although, if someone asks, what is a Servant-leader or how does it differ from other leadership philosophies, move to next slide promptly.
Continued Study:
Spears, L. C. (2003). Understanding the growing impact of servant-leadership. In H. Beazley, J. Beggs & L.C. Spears (Eds.), The servant-leader within: A transformative path. Paulist Press. (p.13).
Slides notes:
READ: Robert K. Greenleaf, the founder of the philosophy of Servant-leadership notes [read quote].
As we look at the two images on the right, you’ll see how a traditional leader differs from a Servant-leader. The inverted pyramid illustrates how the hierarchy is changed in an environment where Servant-leadership is present.
Continued study:
Spears, L. C. (2003). Understanding the growing impact of servant-leadership. In H. Beazley, J. Beggs & L.C. Spears (Eds.), The servant-leader within: A transformative path. Paulist Press. (p.21).
Slide Notes:
[Don’t read slide, allow the audience to read while I pose the question below.]
READ: My question for this team is, do you believe Servant-leadership and developing future Servant-leaders is relevant to what we do everyday here at Guardian Life?
Servant-leadership is often viewed as the foundation of quality improvement programs (e.g. Kaizen) and Systems Thinking, two mindsets we’ve previously discussed. Additionally, we have a strong focus on Dr. Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset here at Guardian, do you think that Servant-leadership and it’s focus on personal development is aligned with what we’ve embraced about moving from fixed mindsets to growth mindsets?
Continued Study:
Daniels, L. M. (2016). Servant leadership and non servant leadership organization triple bottom line reporting. Walden University ScholarWorks. (p. 22).
Slide Notes:
READ: One of the best overviews of [read quote].
This refers to the unlocking of human potential and it’s positive impact on an organization, an individual’s personal development and ultimately I believe on our clients and stakeholders.
Continued Study:
Guardian Life: Going the extra mile: Why we are different. https://www.guardianlife.com/about-guardian/why-we-are-different
Slides notes:
READ: At Guardian Life we go the extra mile and our leadership team looks for opportunities to help people become their best selves. This personal development is a strong focus of our nationally recognized learning organization. (Congrats to our Learning and Development Team for once again for achieving Training magazines 2020 Top Training Award.)
Continued Study:
Horsman, J. H. (2018). Servant-leaders in training: Foundations of the philosophy of servant-leadership. Palgrave MacMillan. (p. viii).
Slide Notes:
READ: Our organization has considerable experience with building out successful personal development processes, I’d like to suggest to you that [read quote] and that this involves [read diagram starting with Self Discovery].
Continued Study:
Guardian Life:
What is your leadership style? https://www.guardianlife.com/careers/financial-representative/leadership-style
Developing the next generation of leaders from within. https://www.guardianlife.com/careers/financial-representative/training
Slides Notes:
READ: After speaking with several colleagues and leaders throughout our organization, our recommendation is as follows:
Include in the 43-week Leadership Institute program sessions designed to foster Servant-leadership. Servant-leadership is aligned with our Institute’s developmental focus on: Leading and inspiring others, Strategic thinking, Acting with integrity, Coaching, and Relationship building and our Organizational Priorities as you’ll see in a moment.
Slide Notes:
READ: I’ll pause for a moment as we consider our three Organizational Priorities (Growth, Mutuality, and Culture) and specific areas of focus.
Continued Study:
Guardian Life: A company that values employees will invest in them. https://www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/career-development.
Slide Notes:
READ: One additional consideration as we think through alignment with our current Institute program, our Organizational Priorities (Growth, Mutuality Culture) and and how this can benefit the organization, our employees and clients.
Our focus on personal development is strongly linked to our Core Values [read 1-3] and as you contemplate the proposed course outline in a moment, I encourage you to reflect on how developing our people from within, with a focus on being a Servant-leader, is a way to strengthen our company.
Continuing Study:
Sarder, R. (2016). Building an innovative learning organization: A framework to build a smarter workforce, adapt to change, and drive growth. Wiley.
Sipe, J. W. & Frick, D. M. (2015). Seven pillars of servant leadership: Practicing the wisdom of leading by serving. Paulist Press.
Spears, L. C. (Ed.). 1998. The power of servant leadership. Berrett-Koehler.
Slide Notes:
READ: The proposed course outline includes [read blocks].
Discussing the definition of Servant-leadership and the value it brings to one’s personal life and our organization prompts rich dialogue immediately at the start of the course. Asking Servant-leaders in training to share reflections on Servant-leaders who’ve shaped their lives can be a powerful opening that dives into patterns, trends, assumptions, beliefs, and values. One learning goal is to explore other leadership styles and approaches and to compare and contrast with Servant-leadership. One recommended prompt: is leadership an art or science or blend of both? We’ll ask participants to evaluate their position.
Next we’ll focus on the ten characteristics of Servant-leaders that are prevalent throughout Robert K. Greenleaf’s writings: Listening, Empathy, Healing, Awareness, Persuasion, Conceptualization, Foresight, Stewardship, Commitment to the growth of people and Building Community (Spears, 1998, pp. 5-8). We’ll ask Servant-leaders in training to identify their strengths and any potential gaps, as well as their job competencies and how these characteristics are applied to their roles. At this stage we’ll connect Servant-leaders in training with a mentor who’’ meet with them on a weekly basis. “Mentoring can be an extremely effective way to pass down lessons learned, insights, values, techniques, and more” (Sarder, 2016, p. 108)
Our next session will focus on the Seven Pillars of Servant-leadership, it’s often viewed as a “how to” book that explores “implementing a culture of Servant Leadership” (Sipe, 2015, p. ix). We’ll evaluate the Seven Pillars: Person of Character, Puts People First, Skilled Communicator, Compassionate Collaborator, Has Foresight, Systems Thinker and Leads with Moral Authority and consider leaders in the business world who demonstrate these principles (p.5).
The next session we’ll provide various scenarios to individual participants and also practice synthesizing the principles in group settings.
We’ll ask participants to share “moments of truth” they’ve experienced -- “the point of contact with a leader’s character, as revealed in his or her actions” (Sipe, 2015, p.21).
Finally, the Servant-leaders in training and their mentors in the last session will reflect on the sessions and how the participants applied the characteristics and pillars learned during the course to real world scenarios and we’ll evaluate the responses.
Each of these foundational blocks is one session.
Continued Study:
Chan, K. W. (2016). Servant leadership cultivates grith and growth mindset in learners. Servant leadership: Theory & Practice, 3(2).
Guardian Life. Empathy Lab. https://www.guardianlife.com/about-guardian/inclusion-and-diversity
Spears, L. C. (2003). Understanding the growing impact of servant-leadership. In H. Beazley, J. Biggs & L.C. Spears (Eds.), The servant leader within: A transformative path. (pp. 16-19).
Thompson, C. M. (2000). The congruent life: Following the inward path to fulfilling work and inspirational leadership. (p.9).
Slide Notes:
READ: I’ll take a moment to share with you the Ten Characteristics of a Servant-leader.
Leadership is not just “a set of competencies to be learned, just so many blocks to be checked” rather, “it is the ‘integrated human being’ among us—the individuated, mature, and developing man or woman—who is most fit for the task of leadership, we must look more carefully at the role the inner life plays in becoming that person” (Thompson, 2000, p.140). “A servant leader has a growth mindset, and makes a conscious effort to develop self-effectiveness in areas of listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and community building” (Chan, 2016, p.1). During this session we’d ask participations to reflect on, who they have worked with in their career who demonstrated Servant-leadership characteristics and how did that person shape who they are today? We’ll ask the Servant-leaders in training to reflect on their strengths and areas of potential improvement.
Continued Study:
Sipe, J. W. & Frick, D. M. (2015). Seven pillars of servant leadership: Practicing the wisdom of leading by serving. Paulist Press. (p.4).
Thompson, C. M. (2000). The congruent life: Following the inward path to fulfilling work and inspired leadership. Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Slide Notes:
READ: “Organizational leadership has been said to require, above all else, ‘a taste for paradox, a talent for ambiguity, a capacity to hold contradictory propositions comfortably in a mind that relishes complexity’” (Thompson, 2000, p. 148).
During the sessions we’ll also introduce paradox scenarios into the lessons to further the Servant-leaders comprehension and knowledge.
Continued Study:
Greenleaf, R. K. (2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power & greatness. Paulist Press. (pp. 5-8).
Slide Notes:
READ: One of the Seven Pillars is Leading with Moral Authority. We may want to create a session that focuses primarily on this skillset as it’s critical for our financial representatives and insurance sales executives to live our Core Values everyday and to build trusted relationships with colleagues and clients.
Slide Notes:
READ: The Servant-leadership sessions will provide an opportunity to review numerous video snippets of Servant-leaders in action in films and news clips so our Servant-leaders in training witness practical application of the characteristics. Additionally, we’ll also view traditional leadership and compare/contrast how a Servant-leader could approach similar scenarios. We’ll bridge the gap between theory/philosophy and practice with these scenario reviews and evaluations.
Continued Study:
Spears, L. C. (2003). Understanding the growing impact of servant-leadership. In H. Beazley, J. Beggs & L.C. Spears (Eds.), The servant-leader within: A transformative path. Paulist Press. (p.13).
Slide Notes:
READ: Our final session of the Servant-leadership program will focus on the best test and we’ll ask participants to consider how they’ve grown during the course as well as how they’ve helped others to grow. Additionally, we’ll ask the mentors to continue with their 1:1 meetings and to continue discussing being a difference-maker during those conversations.
Continued Study:
Resources in addition to the books referenced on this slide:
Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership https://www.greenleaf.org/
The Spears Center for Servant-Leadership http://www.spearscenter.org/
Slide Notes:
READ: If the Servant-leadership sessions are approved for inclusion in the Leadership Institute, these exceptional resources are available to support the Servant-leader in training journeys.
Slide Notes:
READ [left side question, then ask…] Do you have any questions about Servant-leadership or the recommended sessions? Have we covered everything you need during this overview to make a decision to approve including Servant-leadership sessions in the Leadership Institute program? Your feedback is welcomed. Thank you for your time today.
End.
References:
Blank, W. (2001). The 108 skills of natural born leaders. AMACOM.
Center for Creative Leadership. (2021, May 2). The leadership gap: How to fix what your organization lacks. https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/leadership-gap-what-you-still-need/
Chan, K. W. (2016). Servant leadership cultivates grit and growth mindset in learners. Servant leadership: Theory & Practice, 3(2). https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=sltp
Daniels, L. M. (2016). Servant leadership and non servant leadership organization triple bottom line reporting. Walden University ScholarWorks. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/2923/
Drucker, P. F. (2006). Classic Drucker: Essential wisdom of Peter Drucker. Harvard Business Review. (p.59). https://store.hbr.org/product/classic-drucker-essential-wisdom-of-peter-drucker-from-the-pages-of-harvard-business-review/1681
5 CEO’s Who Use Servant Leadership in Their Companies. Professional Tales. Retrieved May 3, 2021, from https://professionaltales.com/5-ceos-who-use-servant-leadership-in-their-companies/
5 Companies That Embrace Servant Leadership. Berrett-Koehler. Retrieved May 1, 2021, from https://medium.com/@BKpub/5-companies-that-embrace-servant-leadership-cf18114ee891
Greenleaf, R. K. (2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power & greatness. Paulist Press.
Guardian Life. Developing the next generation of leaders from within. Retrieved May 3, 2021, from https://www.guardianlife.com/careers/financial-representative/training
Guardian Life. Going the extra mile: Why we are different. Retrieved May 2, 2021, https://www.guardianlife.com/about-guardian/why-we-are-different
Guardian Life. A company that values employees will invest in them. Retrieved May 4, 2021, https://www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/career-development
Guardian Life. Empathy Lab. Retrieved May 4, 2021, https://www.guardianlife.com/about-guardian/inclusion-and-diversity
Guardian Life. What is your leadership style? Retrieved May 4, 2021, https://www.guardianlife.com/careers/financial-representative/leadership-style
Guardian Life. Developing the next generation of leaders from within. Retrieved May 4, 2021, https://www.guardianlife.com/careers/financial-representative/training
Horsman, J. H. (2018). Servant-leaders in training: Foundations of the philosophy of servant-leadership. Palgrave MacMillan.
Sarder, R. (2016). Building an innovative learning organization: A framework to build a smarter workforce, adapt to change, and drive growth. Wiley.
7 servant leadership examples in business (and the principles behind them). Skillpacks. Retrieved May 1, 2021, from https://www.skillpacks.com/servant-leadership-examples-in-business/
Sipe, J. W. & Frick, D. M. (2015). Seven pillars of servant leadership: Practicing the wisdom of leading by serving. Paulist Press.
Spears, L. C. (Ed.). (1998). The power of servant leadership. Berrett-Koehler.
Spears, L. C. (2003). Understanding the growing impact of servant-leadership. In H. Beazley, J. Beggs & L.C. Spears (Eds.), The servant-leader within: A transformative path. Paulist Press.
Thompson, C. M. (2000). The congruent life: Following the inward path to fulfilling work and inspired leadership. Jossey-Bass Publishers.