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Copyright
2005 ã weLEAD, Inc.
February 2005 Editorial
Welcome to the February
2005 weLEAD editorial
By Dr. Howard Baker
There are many characteristics that
distinguish one who is a true servant leader from one who is simply a
boss. One important distinction is
openness. Recently I was looking through
the November/December 2004 issue of Continuity
Insights magazine and came across the following quotation. It immediately brought back memories of a
former boss.
“People ask the difference between a
leader and a boss. The leader works in
the open, and the boss in covert. The
leader leads, and the boss drives.”
Now you might think that this quotation
is from a popular management guru or leadership consultant riding the current
wave of interest in servant leadership. However, you would be wrong. This is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt!
A traditional boss typically is not open
with his “subordinates” and does not like to share information with them. Such a boss often views underlings as only sources of information. Controlling acquired information is a strategy
employed by a traditional boss to maintain power over others.
Ann McGee-Cooper and Gary Looper (The Essentials of Servant-Leadership:
Principles in Practice, 2001, Pegasus Communications) state that a servant
leader shares big-picture information and coaches others by providing context
and asking thoughtful questions to help them come to decisions by
themselves. The goal of the servant
leader is to serve others. Such a leader
encourages openness and seeks to operate in a highly collaborative and interdependent
manner.
Many years ago I worked for a boss who
was just the opposite. You rarely knew what he was doing. Employees were treated like second-class
citizens and kept in the dark. For instance,
you might need to speak with him about an important matter. Calling his office
to set up a meeting might result in discovering that he had taken off that
morning to attend a week-long out-of-state conference. Only his secretary had
been told ahead of time, and she knew to say nothing to us about the trip prior
to his departure. No one else in the department had any idea he had been
planning the trip for months!
Many of his dealings with departmental
employees were done in secret and clandestinely. Often we would discover things only as they
were happening. On occasion one of us
would happen to answer a phone call from a person outside our department and
the message taken would tip us off that he was up to something. At other times we might be passing through
the office and overhear a telephone conversation that clued us in to some
covert activity.
The department had a culture of secrecy
and the result was a lack of trust. Not
only did we not trust the boss, we also didn’t trust many of our fellow
employees. Even when the boss was
“confiding” in you about some idea or project, you always wondered what he was
telling others that might be different.
My boss also had “favorites,” and he
intentionally concealed acts of favoritism. Over time his favorites would
change, based on his perceived “need” for you.
He operated with what some have termed a “Lone Ranger” mind-set. That seems to be an appropriate description
since the Lone Ranger wore a mask to conceal, which fits
Robert K. Greenleaf, a lifelong student
of organizations and organizational change, is regarded as the father of modern
servant leadership. Greenleaf emphasized
that servant leadership is not about a personal quest for power. It is about building others up and
accomplishing, in a synergistic and interdependent manner, far more than one
might accomplish alone. Servant leaders
provide information so others can do their jobs quickly and efficiently. They
promote open and frank communications.
Rather than operating through the use of coercive
power, servant leaders promote what Stephen Covey calls “principle-centered
power.” One of the principles Covey
identifies which will increase principle-centered power is openness. When
principle-centered power is employed rather than coercive power, a remarkable
transformation occurs in an organization’s culture. The principles become “the boss” and the boss
becomes the leader.
Southwest Airlines is well known for its
efforts to create and sustain a culture that subordinates self-interest to service
and the common good. Kevin and Jackie
Freiberg (NUTS!, 1996, Bard Press,
page 172) had this to say about Southwest’s culture:
“In truth, what Southwest has done has
been to make mission, vision, and values the boss. Its principles are what makes this
organization fly.”
Ann McGee-Cooper and Gary Looper had this
to say about changing from a traditional “boss” mind-set to a servant
leadership mind-set:
“When we shift our perspective, common
management expressions such as ‘subordinates,’ ‘my people,’ ‘staff’ (versus
‘line’), ‘overhead’ (referring to people), ‘direct reports,’ and ‘manpower’ no
longer seem useful or accurate. The
standard way of thinking fails to encompass a respect for people, a desire to
support others in fulfilling their potential, and the humility to understand
that the work of one person can rarely match the work of an aligned team.”
Coercive bosses want you to think and act
like a “subordinate” while servant leaders desire to partner in an open and
participative culture held together by the glue of trust.
Comments
to: hbaker@leadingtoday.org
To read more
of Dr. Baker’s articles, click
here to locate the “Baker Collection”.
About the author:
Dr. J.