When you’re a leader — in spite of however long you’ve been in your role or however arduous the journey was to reach there — you're simply overhead unless you’re bringing out the best in your employees. This ramps up people’s fear — fear of not hitting targets, fear of losing bonuses, fear of failing — and as a consequence employees stop feeling positive emotions and their drive to experiment and learn is suppressed.
Take for example a UK food delivery service. The engagement of its drivers, who deliver milk and bread to scores of customers every day, was dipping while management was becoming increasingly metric-driven in an effort to reduce costs and improve delivery times. Each week, managers commanded over the weekly performance debriefs with drivers and went through a listing of issues, complaints, and errors with a writing board and pen. This wasn't inspiring on any level, to either party. And, eventually, the drivers, several of whom had worked for the corporate for many years, became resentful.
This type of top-down leadership is obsolete, and, significantly, counterproductive. By focusing an excessive amount on management and finishing goals, and not enough on their employees, leaders are making it more difficult to achieve their own desired outcomes.
The key, then, is to assist individuals feel purposeful, motivated, and energized so they can bring their best selves to work.
One of the simplest ways to achieve it is to adopt the standard mind-set of a servant leader. Servant leaders read their key role as serving staff as they explore and grow, providing tangible and emotional support as they do so.
To put it brusquely, servant-leaders have the humility, courage, and insight to admit that they can benefit from the expertise of others who have less power than them. They actively look for the concepts and distinctive contributions of the workers that they serve. This is how servant leaders produce a culture of learning, and an environment that encourages followers to become the absolute best they will.
Humility and servant leadership don't imply that leaders have low vanity, or take on an attitude of servitude.
Instead, servant leadership emphasizes that the responsibility of a leader is to extend the autonomy, and responsibility of followers — to encourage them to suppose for themselves and try out their own ideas.
Here’s how to do it.
Ask how you can help employees do their own jobs better — then listen.
It sounds deceptively simple: instead of telling staff the way to do their jobs better, start by asking them how you can help them do their jobs better.
Be humble
Leaders often do not see the true value of their charges, especially “lower-level” workers.
But when leaders are humble, show respect, and ask how they can serve employees as they improve the organization, the outcomes can be outstanding.
And perhaps even more important than better company results, servant leaders get to act like better human beings.
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