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The Servant - Introduction

 



This week at ADMO, we started a new training with our supervisors and other manufacturing leaders. Based on a recommendation from our Molding Manager, Hugo, we asked the team to read the book "The Servant: A Simple Story About The True Essence of Leadership" by James C. Hunter. This book had been impactful to him in his past leadership training and he thought it would be helpful for our team right now.

Over the coming weeks, we will be following along with John Daily as he embarks on a journey to discover the secrets of leadership at a weeklong retreat at a remote Benedictine monastery. As we move through this process, some of the information will seem simple, but profound. Other themes might be considered risky to talk about in a business setting. The author has this to say about it:

I feared if I addressed business audiences and started talking about love, Human Resources people might go into spontaneous human combustion with cries of 'Mr. Hunter, we're trying to get sexual harassment out of the building! What are you talking about love for?' I could practically hear them lamenting (along with Tina Turner), 'What's love got to do with it?'

In the end, I made the choice to include those risky themes for one very basic reason. I simply could not be intellectually honest about servant leadership while leaving out concepts like love, humility, and selflessness.

Why? Because the great servant leaders in history talked about those very things. Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Even sports coaching legends like Vince Lombardi and John Wooden and business icons as diverse as Jack Welch and Max De Pree have spoken often of love. Herb Kelleher, who founded Southwest Airlines on the basic principles of servant leadership, utilized the advertising slogan, 'The airline that love built' for many years. Still today, this highly successful airline's New York Stock Exchange ticket symbol is LUV. 

We agree with Mr. Hunter that these topics can be risky and difficult to talk about in the business world. But, we also agree that it's imperative! While even grown-ups might get a little giggly and squeamish at the mention of the word "love" when talking about co-workers, but Mr. Hunter does an excellent job of explaining what that means. I hope you'll follow along or read the book yourself to see how he approaches it.

In the introduction, he tells us that "Servant Leadership is Simple".

Everything you need to know about leadership you already know. It all boils down to one simple little rule you learned a long time ago. And that simple rule is to treat people the way you would want to be treated. The Golden Rule. You know, be the boss you wish your boss would be, the parent you wish your parent had been more fully for you, the neighbor you wish your neighbor would be. Today I am not here to instruct you. Today, I am here to remind you.

He also tells us that "Leadership is Influence":

Leadership is an influence process. - Ken Blanchard

Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. - John C. Maxwell 

Leadership and Management are two different things. In the introduction, Mr. Hunter makes the difference very clear and defines his terms.

Management is what you do; leadership is the person you are and the influence and impact you have upon the people you come into contact with. Management is not synonymous with leadership. Leadership is synonymous with influence.

Leadership is a skill that needs practice and development. Leadership Development and Character Development are one. It's not about style or personality - it's about character.

Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character. General Normal Schwarzkopf

Leadership is character in action. - Warren Bennis

Mr. Hunter tells us that there are 3 steps to developing Character/Leadership Skills - The Three F's.

  • Foundation - Set the Standard of what great leadership looks like
  • Feedback - Identify the gaps between where you are now and where you need to be as an effective leader 
  • Friction - Eliminate the gaps between where you are now and where you need to be
The idea of servant leadership has been around for thousands of years, but is often seen as counter to our current culture. What would it be like to work in an organization where everyone was serving one another...where everyone was a servant leader? 

Some questions to consider:

  • What do you look for in a leader? What character traits, what behaviors and habits do you observe in those you are happy to follow?
  • How do you measure up against your standard of what a leaders should be?
  • Are there gaps between where you are now and where you'd like to be? What can you commit to do in order to begin eliminating those gaps?
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Location: Elgin, IL, USA

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