A Practical Guide to Using the Principles of Servant Leadership

Leadership is a calling. And servant leadership - the idea that managing with respect, honesty, love, and spirituality empowers employees - helps individuals answer that calling. Bestselling author and former Fortune 500 executive James A. Autry reveals the servant leader's tools, a set of skills and ideals that will transform the way business is done. It helps leaders nurture the needs and goals of those who look to them for leadership. The result is a more productive, successful, and happier organization, and a more meaningful life for the leader. Autry reveals how to remain true to the servant leadership model when handling day-to-day and long-term management situations, including how to:

• Provide guidance during conflict and crisis
• Assure your continued growth and progress as a leader
• Train managers in the principles of servant leadership
• Transform a company with morale problems into a great place to work

Chapter 1

In the caine mutiny, the vivid and complex World War II novel, Herman Wouk describes a destroyer as "a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots." Wouk's description is a mite cynical and perhaps overstated, but until very recently - fifteen or twenty years or so - our organizational systems were just that. They were designed to display in graphic form - organization charts, flowcharts, timetables, and immutable plans - how we were to operate our organizations and manage our people. Just follow those master plans and rules and - presto - our organizations would run. Geniuses dreamed up these systems with the assumption that any average person would be able to plug in and do a reasonably good job without risking a collapse of the organization.

And it made our jobs easier. But something happened. One, we discovered that it wasn't really working. Two, if it had ever worked, then our organizations outgrew it and, to top it off, the world of work changed so radically that the old rules could no longer apply.

In the midst of these changes came a flurry of responses - everything from Total Quality Management (TQM) to Reengineering to the Learning Organization. Changes did take place, yet in the workplace there still seems to be overwork, frustration, discontent, and, in many places, a general malaise bordering on serious morale problems.

Yet unemployment is low, and people are generally better off economically than they were before. So what's missing? I submit that what has been missing is a deeper connection with our work, a connection that transcends position and power and money, a connection that earlier generations had but that we seem not to have.

I call that connection, that deeper meaning, the spirit of work. Before getting into the meat of this book - the ideas and techniques for applying your spirit every day - let's talk a bit about that subject people have trouble talking about. Let's try to put into words something that almost cannot be put into words. Perhaps the best way to begin is with a poem.

RECESSIONS

Why do we keep on keeping on,
in the midst of such pressure,
when business is no good for no reason,
when everything done right turns out wrong,
when the Fed does something
and interest rates do something
and somebody's notion of consumer confidence does something
and the dogs won't eat the dog food?
What keeps us working late at night
and going back every morning,
living on coffee and waiting for things to bottom out,
crunching numbers as if some answer
lay buried in a computer
and not out among the people who
suddenly and for no reason
are leaving their money in their pockets
and the products on the shelves?
Why don't we just say to hell with it
instead of trying again,
instead of meandering into somebody's office
with half an idea,
hoping she'll have the other half,
hoping what sometimes happens will happen,
that thing, that click, that moment
when two or three of us
gathered together or hanging out
get hit by something we've never tried
but know we can make work the first time?
Could that be it,
that we do all the dull stuff
just for those times
when a revelation rises among us
like something borning,
a new life, another hope,
like something not visible catching the sun,
like a prayer answered?

I wish I could tell you that the way we humans most often connect with one another is through joy and celebration. Those things are important connectors, to be sure, but it is through our loss, our sadness, and our disappointments that we most often feel the deepest connections. Think about it for a minute.

Have you ever had a serious illness or a death in your family? When that happened, how did your coworkers respond? Were they there for you? Did they send you expressions of comfort, of sympathy, of support? Did they try to make things easier for you on the job during those days?

I know that for most people, the answers to the last three questions are yes, yes, and yes.

Copyright © 2004 by James A. Autry.

About the Author

James A. Autry was the president of the magazine group for Meredith Corp., responsible for such publications as Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies Home Journal. He is the author of six books, including the top selling Love and Profit: The Art of Caring Leadership. He is currently a business consultant with top corporations and has an active speaking schedule. He lives in Des Moines with his wife Sally Perderson (who is lieutenant governor of Iowa) and his son.