Servant Leadership

Srinath Ramakrishnan

Agile Coach

@rsrinath

Leadership

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Origins of Servant Leadership

• Servant-leadership is about: – Serving others, not yourself

– Not leading by title

– Helping people develop and perform as highly as possible

– Promoting genuine team ownership and harnessing the collective power of a team

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What is Servant Leadership

• As a servant leader, you're a "servant first" , who

– focuses on the needs of others, especially team members, before you consider your own.

– acknowledges other people's perspectives

– gives them the support they need to meet their work and personal goals,

– involves them in decisions where appropriate

– builds a sense of community within your team.

leading to higher engagement, more trust, and stronger relationships with team members and other stakeholders and increased innovation.

What do Servant leaders do?

• Devote themselves to serving the needs of organization members.

• Focus on meeting the needs of those they lead.

• Develop employees to bring out the best in them.

• Coach others and encourage their self expression.

• Facilitate personal growth in all who work with them.

• Listen and build a sense of community.

Characteristics of Servant Leaders

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• make a deep commitment to listening intently to them and understanding what they're saying.

• give people your full attention, take notice of their body language, avoid interrupting them before they've finished speaking, and give feedback on what they say.

• Servant leaders strive to understand other people's intentions and perspectives.

• Value others' perspectives, and approach situations with an open mind.

Characteristics of Servant Leaders

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• Healing relates to the emotional health and "wholeness" of people, and involves supporting them both physically and mentally.

• People should have the knowledge, support and resources they need to do their jobs effectively

• Ability to look at yourself, think deeply about your emotions and behaviour, and consider how they affect the people around you and align with your values

• Know your strengths and weaknesses and

asking for other people's feedback on them.

• Servant leaders use persuasion – rather than their authority – to encourage people to take action.

• They aim to build consensus in groups, so that everyone supports decisions.

Characteristics of Servant Leaders • Ability to "dream great dreams," so that you

look beyond day-to-day realities to the bigger picture.

• Develop long term focus so that you stay motivated to achieve the more distance goals without getting distracted

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• Ability to predict what's likely to happen in the future by learning from past experiences, identifying what is happening now

• Learn to trust your intuition – if your instinct is telling you that something is wrong, listen to it!

• Taking responsibility for the actions and performance of your team, and being accountable for the role team members play in your organization.

• Lead by example by demonstrating the values and behaviours that you want to see in others

Characteristics of Servant Leaders

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• Servant leaders are committed to the personal and professional development of everyone on their teams.

• Providing opportunities for people to interact with one another across the company - organizing social events such as team lunches, designing your workspace to encourage people to chat informally away from their desks, and dedicating the first few minutes of meetings to non-work-related conversations.

Qualities of a Servant Leader

Value Diverse opinion

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• A servant leader values everyone’s contributions and regularly seeks out opinions from a wide group of diverse people.

• The servant leader recognizes the value that others bring to solving a problem

Cultivate a culture of trust

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• A healthy culture encourages open, robust debate. • It allows for alternative opinions – allows everyone to have a say.

Develops other leaders

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• A servant leader empowers others • Encourages others in their learning, developing and becoming leaders

Helps People with Life Issues

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• A servant leader cares about the people who work in the organization. • Helping people with life issues implies trust, respect and a professional

association.

Encourages

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• The hallmark of a Servant leader is encouragement. • A true Servant leader says “Let’s go do it” and not “You go do it”

Sells instead of Tells

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• The leadership style is shifting to a participatory style of management from an authoritarian style earlier.

• Persuasive leaders understand that the “Why” is more important than the “What” and the “How”

Thinks YOU, not ME

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• Servant leaders who focus on others are all about empowerment. • Empowerment improves customer experience and makes employees feel like

a part of the business.

Think Long Term

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• A servant leader is thinking about the next generation, the next leader, the next opportunity.

• The servant leader considers strategies and actions that will help future leaders build on a solid foundation

Act with humility

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• Humility is a recognition of your own capabilities and need for others. • With humility, you understand that you are a small part of something much

bigger.

Scrum Master as a Servant Leader

• A Scrum Master is not master of the team, but a master at encouraging, enabling, and energizing people to gel as a team and realize their full potential.

• A Scrum Master is a servant-leader whose focus is on the needs of the team members and those they serve (the customer), with the goal of achieving results in line with the organization's values, principles, and business objectives

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Scrum Master as Servant Leader

• As a servant-leader, the Scrum Master is responsible for: – Setting up Scrum as a servant process, not a commanding

process – Guiding the Development team towards self-organization – Leading the team through healthy conflict and debate – Teaching, coaching and mentoring the organization and team in

adopting and using Scrum – Shielding the team from disturbance and external threats – Helping the team make visible, remove and prevent

impediments – Encouraging, supporting and enabling the team to reach their

full potential and abilities – Creating transparency by radiating information via e.g. the

product and sprint backlog, daily Scrum, reviews and a visible workspace

– Ensuring a collaborative culture exists within the team.

Finally..

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVMBJ9kvl2g

References • http://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/05/01/why-isnt-servant-

leadership-more-prevalent/#7c4da734c36a

• https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/servant-leadership.htm

• http://www.aabri.com/LV2010Manuscripts/LV10052.pdf

• http://www.appleseeds.org/Blanchard_Serv-Lead.htm

• https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2014/august/the-art-and-science-of-servant-leader

• http://davidburkus.com/2010/04/servant-leadership-theory/

Thank you

@rsrinath https://in.linkedin.com/in/srinathramakrishnan