weLEAD Online Magazine
leadingtoday.org
Copyright 2004 ã weLEAD, Inc.
The Pen Is Mightier Than the Lips
By Dr. J. Howard Baker
Three years ago, in the
very first issue of weLEAD, I put pen to paper and wrote an article entitled, Is Servant Leadership Part of Your World
View? It can be seen at http://www.leadingtoday.org/Onmag/jan01/hb-jan01.html.
Dr. Stephen Covey,
author of the best selling book, The 7
Habits of Highly Effective People, teaches that all things are created
twice. The “first creation” is of the
mind. It is the mental creation. The “second creation” is the physical creation
based on the first. Both are
necessary. The first creation is like a
blue print for the second. The authoring
and regular use of first creation based written documents, such as a mission
statement and win-win performance agreements, is a critical key in becoming a
true servant leader and in sustaining that leadership over time.
However, just like the
old slave spiritual stated, “Everybody talkin' about
Heaven ain't goin'
there...”, so it is with servant leadership.
There is such a thing
as pseudo servant leadership. A pseudo servant leader practices hypocrisy
by talking impressively about service, empowerment, and caring, while
autocratically managing and exhibiting a great deal of self service. Such are wolves in sheep’s wool who have
mastered the language of servant leadership but not the practice.
Ask yourself, “How much
do I talk about servant
leadership?” Then ask yourself, “How
much have I made public my commitments
in writing?” Finally, ask yourself, “Have I established
the means for others to safely hold me to my commitments?” Such questions provide an excellent means of
self assessment. If you find yourself
falling short, are you willing to take action and change?
Often pseudo servant
leaders will talk a lot about serving and commitment. They may establish committees to study
servant leadership. They may even create
training programs in servant leadership for those under their control. Incredible as it may appear, some even write
articles about servant leadership! Some
pseudo servant leaders actually believe they are real servant leaders. However,
the pseudo servant leader is really not personally committed to living as a true servant leader. While paying lip service to a servant
leadership mindset and culture, this type of leader often fosters a politicized
culture around them that is actually toxic to the establishment and growth of
true servant leadership.
Autocratic leaders want
others to make commitments to them in writing. Some use their writing skills to play “memo
wars” for self-protection, but they do not want to make serious commitments to others in writing. If commitments are made at all, they are
usually verbal, and often spoken when not in the presence of witnesses. Such conversations may even take place during
a chance meeting in an isolated and secure setting such as a vacant
bathroom! Such verbal commitments, like
pie crusts, are often made to be broken!
We have all heard it
said that talk is cheap. With regard to
legal situations we hear the admonition to “get it in writing”. In the auditing profession, when referring to
evidential matter, we often hear that “if it isn’t in writing, it doesn’t
exist”. All these statements can be
summed up in the saying, “The pen is mightier than the lips”.
A very effective means to begin actually practicing true servant
leadership is to put your commitments in writing.
I recommend you begin with your personal mission statement. Most people have never seen or heard of a
personal mission statement. In my
university classes I often ask my students how many have a personal mission
statement. Usually I just receive blank
looks from all the students. Only rarely
do I encounter a student who has written one.
Such a student has, nine times out of ten, taken a previous leadership
class where writing a personal mission statement was taught.
Whether you want to keep your mission statement private or make it
public, I propose that writing one is where you begin practicing true servant
leadership. Within your mission
statement you should establish your mission as one of service, caring, and
making a positive difference in the lives of others. This can be done either explicitly or
implicitly. Don’t get hung up on words. You may call it serving, servant leadership,
caring, stewardship, godly leadership, principle-centered leadership, or any
other term that is meaningful to you.
The term used is of minor importance compared to the actual commitment
to action.
I wrote my personal mission statement a number of years ago and have
not found a need to change it since. I have always made my personal mission
statement public. I share my personal
mission statement with my university students in my leadership classes every
year, and also publish it on my editorial web site at http://www.learningleader.com. I have found that making a public commitment in
writing increases my motivation to be true to my commitments in the
difficult moments!
The next step is to
create a written document stating your leadership or management
philosophy. For instance, if you are a
business manager, why not write a document stating, in some detail, your
current leadership or management philosophy?
After you write it, distribute it to your colleagues and ask for sincere
feedback. If you are a minister, write out
your pastoral philosophy and distribute it to your congregation. Again, ask for sincere feedback. If you are a
teacher, write and publish your teaching philosophy. Receive feedback from both your students and
your academic colleagues.
An excellent example of
such a document has been written by Dr. John Xavier Volker, Assistant Professor of Management,
One form of written
documentation that is extremely useful in building and sustaining trusting
relationships is the written win-win
performance agreement. Such an
agreement establishes a synergistic social
contract between you and your boss, direct report, co-worker, volunteer, church
member, or student. It can be created
between you and one other person, or between you and a group of individuals
such as a team, class, task force, or even all stakeholders of an
organization. Such performance
agreements are based on the principle of mutual benefit and contribute greatly
to long-term leadership effectiveness.
Using a performance
agreement is very different from traditional delegation. With traditional delegation you often “dump”
work on someone else without giving them sufficient input as to why you need
it, what resources are at their disposal, or even the consequences of achieving
or not achieving the desired results.
Dr. Stephen Covey has
written extensively about win-win performance agreements. In Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, on page 192, he tells
his famous “green and clean” story. It
is a humorous story of how Dr. Covey established a performance agreement with
his young son Stephen, who had volunteered to take care of the yard. As you read the story you are introduced to
each of the five elements of a win-win performance agreement—desired results,
guidelines, resources, accountability, and consequences.
We are aware that
frustration often comes from failed expectations. By explicitly documenting our expectations,
the available resources, guidelines (not methods) for achieving results, and
the logical and natural consequences of achieving or not achieving desired
results, we greatly reduce the chance of experiencing failed expectations.
An important part of a
win-win performance agreement is the element of accountability. The agreement should spell out such issues
as:
1. How do we measure
results?
2. To whom are we
accountable?
3. When and where will
the accountability take place?
Accountability should
also involve self-evaluation. We need to
establish feedback mechanisms that allow for such self-evaluation.
At the beginning of this
article I stated that we should ask any who claim to be a servant leader how
much they have made commitments in writing.
We should also ask if they have
established the means for others to safely hold them to those commitments. That is the critical final part!
Each of us must be
willing to be held accountable regarding our commitments to those we profess to
serve. We must establish relationships
that allow for mutual evaluation. This
involves the principle of integrity. Robert Greenleaf, considered the father of the modern servant
leadership model, stated that a servant leader is one whose judgment and integrity are respected. Blaine Lee, in his book The Power Principle states on page 168:
“When you match your words, feelings, thoughts, and
actions, with congruence and without duplicity, you are exercising integrity.”
The conclusion of the matter is simply stated. To demonstrate that you are a true servant
leader you must be willing to put your mission, philosophy, commitments,
covenants, and agreements in writing.
You must be willing to make such documentation available to those you
profess to serve. You must allow those
you serve to safely (without manipulation or coercion) hold you to your written
statements. If you are truly sincere, you
should encourage those you serve to look at your commitments and compare them
to your actions—and legitimately challenge any differences. As the cold war adage stated, “Trust, but
verify”. Applying that in the personal
realm, “A man watches himself best when others watch him too”.
A servant leader must “walk the talk”. Your words and actions must agree. But to facilitate others holding you to your
words, your words need to be in writing.
Are you willing to pick up the pen (or keyboard) and document your
talk? When it comes to servant
leadership, the pen is truly mightier than the lips!
Comments to: hbaker@leadingtoday.org
BACK TO weLEAD HOME PAGE
About
the author:
Dr. J. Howard Baker is Assistant Professor of Computer Information
Systems at the