Is there trust within your organization? Do you feel respect and transparency from your peers and above? If not, you are no stranger to the effects of an uncommunicative, unreliable team. So the question remains: how do you measure trust?
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The leader's responsibility doesn’t stop with selecting new team members. Instead, the selection is where our commitment begins. Activating the full value of team members requires the discovery of their latent abilities. It becomes our job to enable our people to thrive.
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These four phrases are not particularly egregious but for the servant leader, these phrases unduly complicate conversations and take away opportunities to build trust. Omit these phrases from your vocabulary and elevate your servant leadership path.
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Servant Leadership is consistently seen as a weak style of leadership… In his book The Infinite Game, however, Simon Sinek speaks to a mentality that coincides with the core tenets of servant leadership and shows that the principles of servant leadership are the ones that allow for organizations, businesses, and people to succeed in their endeavors.
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Millennials have taken over the workplace. As a young individual entering the workforce, you’re trying to not only learn the ropes in your industry, you’re also figuring out who you are as an individual. They’re branching out, finding new approaches to teamwork and leadership. For me, all signs point to servant leadership.
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Have you changed in fundamental ways because of crucial moments which mattered in your life? How have you adjusted to those crucial moments? We spoke with Don Janssen about his most recent Servant Leadership Institute blog: "Moments that Matter: Sinking in Defeat or Rising to Lead.”
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If you’ve been reading and listening to Servant Leadership Institute content over the years, you’ll notice we’ve urged you to “lead with your heart...” But what does that really mean?
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Most of us have had the experience of pursuing a promotion but falling short. The lessons learned in an unsuccessful run at moving up the corporate ladder can be exactly what propels you to your next best opportunity.
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Have you ever gone through a rough patch in your life or leadership journey? In my mind, I can see a collective nod from all of you and a chorus of, “Are you kidding?” Of course you’ve had problems or challenges.
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As we head into a new year, I am challenging our team members to focus on what it truly means to Serve First. It’s easy to define all the ways we serve our families, our friends and our community, but it’s not always easy to define how we serve one another at work.
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Yesterday was our holiday party at Servant Leadership Institute. It was a wonderful time of enjoying holiday music, hearing people’s plans for the holidays, exchanging Secret Santa gifts and of course eating! Naturally, it got me thinking about dear old Santa Claus. Certainly Santa is a leader, influencing reindeer and all those elves. But is he a servant leader? Let’s examine the man as legend and you can decide.
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Recently, I have traveled through some life circumstances that have been difficult for my entire family. It has caused me to reflect quite a bit, and one of the qualities I have thought about is hope. What a beautiful word “hope” is. Even the way we say it sounds good.
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As we entered Bakersfield, the bus driver announced we were making an unscheduled stop due to mechanical issues. Greyhound was going to have to send another bus to deliver us to our final destination. Of course, this didn’t sit well with any of the passengers, but Chris, Andrea and I were too exhausted to protest. We just wanted to get back to our campus — even if it was on a back of a donkey.
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When I was in college, my immediate family lived outside the U.S., so on holiday breaks, I would go with friends to celebrate with their families. One time, I went with Chris and Andrea to Northern California for Thanksgiving; we drove up together in Chris’ Honda Civic.
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I fell in love with golf in my early 30s. It was love at first sight. I started out “worm burning” my way through the course; that’s a term used to describe a ball that hardy makes it off the ground and skims across the grass. But I believed I could be a better golfer, so I poured myself into the game. I took lessons from great teachers; I practiced, practiced, practiced, and played as much golf as possible while working full time; and I read every golf book I could get my hands on.
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As a young veterinary manager at the San Diego Zoo, I had an opportunity to rebuild a department from the ground up. In my youthful exuberance, I thought I knew what I needed to do. So, I hired the best and the brightest professionals I could find. I wanted people with diverse talents. But I also knew many who were the best technically did not have the skills to build trusting relationships with people.
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This week, we offer you a glimpse of Vicki Floyd Clark, who will be joining us at the Servant Leader Conference 2019 and speaking with her own brand of wisdom, warmth, and humor. Vicki is a servant leader who speaks across the country, looking to influence leaders to serve and teaching them how to increase the capacity of their organizations. She is an example of one person making an impact. After viewing this clip, I was struck by a couple things:
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It happens every August or September — the morning rush of parents and kids returning to the school routine. It’s a frantic dance for many, culminating with a drop off at school or daycare or the mad dash for a parking spot at one of our local colleges and universities. Even those whose children are grown can feel it as the traffic takes on a whole new dimension. But for those who are parents, it makes you wonder — am I able? Can I do all this day after day, week after week, year after year.
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Have you ever daydreamed about something you might want to achieve, change or have in your life? Notice how often your mind will click through what it will take to achieve your desired goal, and then that little annoying voice in your head kicks in and asserts, “it’s too much to do — just never mind.”
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Our hospital manager knocked on my open office door. I looked up as she entered for our weekly meeting. Of all my activities and responsibilities overseeing the health of the animals at San Diego Zoo Global, few were more enjoyable and valuable than my one-on-one meetings with my managers. Each week, I would discover something of crucial importance. Our managers took to heart their huge job responsibilities; as a result, doing my job was much less demanding than it could have been.
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