Servant leadership: Half an old story | WorkplaceKaren L. Cates
The idea of servant leadership has gained popularity during the
past few years, launching a variety of books about how to unleash
the power of employees through adherence to fundamental moral and
spiritual values. Touted as a new way to combat overreliance on
management practices that place profit seeking over the well-being
of employees, servant leadership shuns so-called traditional
authoritarian models for getting things done and promotes, in part,
the following simple set of guidelines:
- Making your expectations for results clear
- Asking employees what they need to do a good job
- Helping them secure necessary resources, training and other
support
- Removing barriers
- Recognizing successes and coaching failures
- Staying out of the way
Although these edicts have merit and may well deliver results,
they tell only a fraction of the story of leadership. The
leadership philosophy that illustrates servant leadership's place
in managerial practice was more fully developed 3,000 years ago by
Lao Tzu in Tao Te Ching. His "Poem 17" captures the
complexity of leading people and need to offset servant leadership
with authoritarianism (see sidebar). With too much control, a task
stultifies as creative processes and problem-solving give way to
budgets and schedules and punishments meted out for failure. With
too much empowerment, a vision loses clarity, setting organization
goals adrift with selfish motivations. True leadership calls for
the right practices at the right time. The following represents my
modest interpretation of the concepts of Lao Tzu's "Poem 17."
1. Control. Lao Tzu speaks of the need to strategically
manage organizational hierarchy. The higher a leader's position,
the more likely he will enjoy reverence and affection. However,
lower managers work closest to support staff and mete out demands,
deadlines and, in some cases, demerits. Good leaders strategically
use hierarchy to maintain their appearance as servant leaders while
preserving their ability to make critical—and
sometimes...
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