Archives For servant-leadership

George Washington on Servant Leadership

January 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

It’s very easy for leaders to wield power from a place of positional authority. And if we’re not careful, we’ll use that power to demean and demoralize people and destroy a spirit of teamwork. In his book, The Five Levels of Leadership, John Maxwell tells a great story from the life of George Washington that illustrates the power of servant leadership:

One day during the American Revolutionary War, George Washington rode up to a group of soldiers trying to raise a beam to a high position. The corporal who was overseeing the work kept shouting words of encouragement, but they couldn’t manage to do it. After watching their lack of success, Washington asked the corporal why he didn’t join in and help. The corporal replied quickly, “Do you realize that I am the corporal?” Washington very politely replied, “I beg your pardon, Mr. Corporal, I did.” Washington dismounted his horse and went to work with the soldiers until the beam was put into place. Wiping the perspiration from his face, he said, “If you should need help again, call on Washington, your commander in chief, and I will come.”

Servant leadership is not just words we type on a corporate values statement. It is action. It is the humility to actually serve alongside the people who signed up to serve us. It’s the gratitude to serve people who sacrifice day in and day out. And it’s the generosity of spirit to serve those who have nothing to offer to us.

The next time you’re tempted to stay in your ivory tower and shout your encouragement from the comfort of your office chair, remember Washington. Dismount and serve.

 

In Leadership George Washington, servant-leadership, Serving
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Are You Known for “Serving” or “Being Served?”

January 22, 2012 — Leave a comment

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to sit with a group of leaders where we discussed servanthood, question asking, and communication. Our guest was Todd Sinelli, author of One Simple Word. Todd made a statement in his presentation that challenged me (or perhaps I should say “convicted me”):

“When people think of you, do they think of someone who likes to serve or someone who wants to be served?”

This is such a simple yet profound statement. It’s so easy to get caught up in the rat race of productivity that we forget to serve the people who make so much of our achievement possible in the first place. Todd noted that Jesus’ most frequently asked question is, “What can I do for you?” (Matthew 20:32, Mark 10:36, 51, Luke 18:41). As leaders, our default is often to ask what others can do for us. But when we follow Jesus’ model–”What can I do for you?”– we exhibit the true heart of a servant.

I know it’s impossible to meet every need. I also know that leaders are pulled in every direction and that it’s humanly impossible to stop and answer every request for help. But if we’re not careful, we’ll become known for “being served” rather than serving others.

So what does serving look like for leaders? Max Depree once said, “The leader is the servant who removes the obstacles that prevent people from doing their jobs.”  What are the obstacles that you could help remove that would allow your teams and volunteers to experience greater satisfaction and fulfillment? And is there a person you could serve that can do nothing for you in return?

 

In Leadership Questions, servant-leadership, Serving
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Five Ways to Fail Jesus’ Servant-Leadership Test

November 10, 2011 — Leave a comment

Ken Blanchard once said, “Leaders who are servants first will assume leadership only if they see it as the best way they can serve.” Servant leadership is not a flimsy, spineless, half-hearted leadership style that doesn’t deliver results. In fact, servant leadership isn’t a “style” at all. It’s a “nature.” It’s who you are.

There’s an interesting string of events in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus repeatedly defined servant leadership for his disciples. The disciples were hard-headed to say the least…not much different than most of us today. They were jockeying for position and Jesus had to clearly redefine what it means to follow Him and what it means to be a leader.

The process begins in Mark 9, when Jesus asked his disciples what they were discussing on the road to Capernaum. The Bible says, “The silence was deafening” (v. 34). They had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. So Jesus sits them down and says, “So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all” (v. 35). Then he illustrates his point by cradling a child in his arms and says, “Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me–God who sent me” (v. 36-37).

Did the disciples get it? Apparently not! In the very next verse John says, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn’t in our group.” Sounds a bit like the pharisees way of thinking doesn’t it? Unless you fit my mold, Jesus can’t use you. Jesus corrects John and says, “If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally” and then goes on to say, “If you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck” (v. 42).

The lesson is clear: If you want to be a servant leader, you better value children–whether they’re physically young or spiritually young. But of course, the disciples were too thick-headed to see it.

In the very next chapter, people were bringing children to Jesus “hoping he might touch them” (v. 13). How did the disciples respond? “The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: ‘Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.’ Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.” Strike two!

Continue Reading…

In Leadership Bible on Leadership, Influence, Leadership, servant-leadership, Serving
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15 Insights From Catalyst Dallas

May 14, 2011 — Leave a comment

I’ve spent the last 3 days at the Catalyst Conference in Dallas. Catalyst is such a great event loaded with great leadership teaching, fantastic worship, inspiring stories from culture-shaping leaders, and hilarious creativity. This year’s theme was “Take Courage.” Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from the event:

1.   A single act of courage is often the tipping point for something extraordinary to happen - Pastor Andy Stanley shared this thought in the opening session and then described three faces of courage:

  • Courage to stay when it would be easier to go.
  • Courage to leave when it would be easier to stay.
  • Courage to ask for help, when it would be easier to pretend that everything is okay.

Stanley observed that you never know what hangs in the balance when God says to stay while others say to go or when God says to go when it would be easier to stay. He said the only thing we should fear is waking up one day and being outside of God’s will.

2.  Our response to fear is either to seek to be safer or seek to be braver - Gary Haugen from the International Justice Mission made this observation and then observed that we want to know with certainty the path to take, how much it will cost, and be assured that it will be successful. Haugen says, “You can experience your power safely or God’s power dangerously.”

3. Creative Idea + Organization & Execution + Community Forces + Leadership Capability = Making Ideas Happen - Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance, shared this formula as a process to turn great ideas into reality.

4. We are living somebody else’s to do list. Don’t surrender to reactionary workflow - This was another great insight by Scott Belsky. He observed that most leaders live in reactionary mode and abandon the essential practice of finding quiet spaces to think and reflect. This practice helps us be proactive.

5.  You can’t equate the blessed life with the safe life. The purpose of life is not to arrive at death safely - Christine Caine, founder of the A21 Campaign, shared this principle as she championed the cause of justice.  Christine works relentless to see slaves freed.

6. Compassion is never compassion until you roll up your sleeves, cross the street, and show compassion - Another great insight from Christine Caine.

7.  Joseph’s power was not about being powerful. It was about saving lives - This quote from Donald Miller as he shared about the life of Joseph was a great reminder of the purpose of leadership, power, and influence.

8. If you’re not dead, you’re not done - These are Craig Groeschel’s words of encouragement to the older generation followed by a challenge to invest in young leaders by delegating responsibility, not just tasks.

9. You can’t speed up maturity…it takes time - Craig made this challenge to the younger generation, reminding them of the importance of maturity and faithfulness.

10. You overestimate what God wants to do in the short run and grossly underestimate what God wants to do in the long run - This was another challenge Craig Groeschel made to the younger generation.

11. If you want to be over, learn to be under with integrity - This was Groeschel’s challenge to the young generation. He also reminded the audience of Andy Stanley’s words to leaders serving under a senior leader: “Honor publicly results in influence privately.” By honoring your leader publicly, you’ll gain influence with them in one-on-one meetings.

12. Admit your failures - Although this sounds like an obvious lesson, Scott Harrison, CEO of Charity: Water, used it to powerfully illustrate the value of transparency in leadership. Scott gave an example of drilling for water and the effort failing. They posted the video to their donors and didn’t try to candy coat the failure (even though 95% of the time they are successful). This transparency has only deepened respect from donors for the organization.

13. Do you teach your people that sin is an external activity or a state of the heart? Do you train people to attack the root or the branches? - These were questions Pastor Matt Chandler posed followed by the challenge that, “Most people don’t deal violently with sin.”

14. Your fully exploited strengths are of far greater value to your organization than your marginally improved weaknesses - Pastor Andy Stanley shared these words in his closing session. Some of his ideas included:

  • The less you do, the more you accomplish
  • The less you do, the more you enable others to accomplish
  • Only do what only you can do
  • Great achievers are not well-rounded. They are men and women who play to their strengths and delegate their weaknesses. Don’t focus on being well-rounded; focus on developing a well-rounded organization.
  • Your weakness is somebody else’s opportunity
  • Stress is often related to WHAT you are doing not HOW MUCH you are doing. Your sweet spot gives you energy.

15.  Get in the habit of saying to your team, “I’ll let you decide that.” This is the greatest way to develop leaders - Andy Stanley noted that when the organization’s key leader makes all the decisions, they become the bottleneck to leadership development.

Those are my 15 insights gleaned from this year’s Catalyst Conference in Dallas.

Question: What insights could you add to the lessons above? If you attended Catalyst, what lessons would you add?

 

In Church, Culture, Leadership, Organizations, Personal Growth Church, Courage, Delegation, Execution, Failure, Leadership, Organizations, Personal Growth, Perspective, servant-leadership, Strengths
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Systems: How Disney Provides Consistently Stellar Customer Service

May 13, 2010 — 2 Comments

In a previous post, I shared my family’s unbelievable experience with Disney Customer Service. You can read about our experience right here.  So how does Disney create stellar service?

I recently read Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service by the Disney Institute. The book provides some great insight into the practical systems that drive uncommon service. Here’s a quick overview of the three ingredients that drive Disney’s service:

The Service Theme: Disney begins with a “Service Theme” which defines and communicates the purpose of the company and creates its public image. Disney’s Service Theme is: “We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages, everywhere.” In essence, a service theme declares the company’s mission and how and for whom that mission is accomplished. Your service theme “acts as a promise to your customers and a purpose for your employees.”

The Service Standards: Service standards, or service values, are the “how” of the service theme. They are the “operational criteria” that make the consistent delivery of the service theme possible. Disney has four service standards:

  • Safety: Providing for the welfare and peace of mind of guests.
  • Courtesy: Treating every guest as a VIP–a very important, and very individual person.
  • Show: Seamless and exceptional entertainment for guests.
  • Efficiency: Smooth operations of the theme parks and resorts.

The Delivery Systems: You can have a service theme and understand your service standards, but without the right delivery systems, none of it will come together. Disney uses three delivery systems to provide safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency:

  • Cast: This is Disney-speak for “employees.”
  • Setting: Setting is described as, “The environment in which service is delivered to customers, all of the objects within that environment, and the procedures used to enhance and maintain the service environment and objects. More simply, setting is the stage on which business is conducted.”
  • Process: Processes are “a series of actions, changes, or functions that are strung together to produce a result.”  Processes include things like guest flow, communication, and service attention.

So how does this entire customer service system work together? The Service Theme is like true north. Again, it provides the promise for guests and the purpose for employees. To ensure the Service Theme is being accomplished, the Service Standards and Delivery Systems are incorporated into an Integration Matrix. In other words:

  • How does the CAST deliver Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency?
  • How does the SETTING deliver Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency?
  • How do the PROCESSES deliver Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency?

Below is an example of the Integration Matrix used with Disney Vacation Club. Across the top are the delivery systems (Cast, Setting, and Process) and along the left side are the service standards (Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency):
Cast
Setting
Process
Safety
Training in property-wide and DVC safety techniques and policies
First response features; safe materials; emergency access
Traffic flow; cast response; evacuation plans


Courtesy
Build long-term relationships; be passionate about product; use performance tips
Umbrellas for guests; supervised playroom for children
One sales cast member per guest; no hard-sell techniques

Show
Sales as an onstage performance; performance training
Your home away from home; interior design; themed treats
Leave with a good taste in your mouth; sweets as last step

Efficiency
Provide critical purchase information up front
Setting supports efficient guest flow; quiet, private room for closing
Quality assurance team member at commitment

Each part of Walt Disney World has an integration matrix that shows how service standards are delivered by the cast, setting, and processes.  If you want to learn more, check out Be Our Guest or the Disney Institute.

Question:  What is missing in your organization–Service Theme, Service Standards, or Delivery Systems?  How can you improve each one?

 


In Leadership, Organizations Organizational Culture, servant-leadership
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Disney and Our Most Superior Customer Service Experience Ever

May 12, 2010 — 3 Comments

What’s the best customer service you’ve ever experienced?  Maybe it was with an online retailer, in your favorite technology store, or at a high-end department store.  Maybe it was at a local steakhouse or at a top-notch hotel.  Maybe it was even on an airline (just kidding).  I don’t know about you, but my family’s best customer service experience was at Walt Disney World.

It was 2008, and our family decided to vacation in Walt Disney World in Florida.  It wasn’t our first visit to Disney but I have to say it was the visit that redefined exceptional customer service for us.  How you ask?  Let me set the stage.

A few weeks before we headed to Disney, our daughter Ashley went to the orthodontist to have her braces removed and to get top and bottom retainers for her teeth.  We told her, “We pay for the first set of retainers, but you pay for the second set…don’t lose ‘em.”  That seemed like a fair deal until we arrived at Walt Disney World.

It was dinner time and our family was ready for a good meal.  So we headed to a restaurant in our hotel, enjoyed dinner together, and then returned to our room.  That’s when the trauma began.  Ashley suddenly realized that she left her retainers wrapped in a napkin on the table.  Immediately we rushed back to the restaurant asking if they found a set of retainers at our table.  It was too late.  The table was cleared and the retainers were nowhere to be found.

The Disney staff apologized and we returned to our room.  Ashley knew exactly what this meant…she just kissed $225 goodbye.  Nothing like a big, dark rain cloud to spoil an evening at “The Happiest Place on Earth.”  But that’s when everything changed.  About an hour after returning to our room, there was a knock at our door.  When we answered, there were two cast members (Disney speak for employees).  They entered our room with a silver platter.  When they removed the lid, there they were: Two sterilized retainers and a Mickey Mouse doll.

We couldn’t believe it.  In fact, we were utterly shocked.  They literally dug through the trash for more than 20 minutes, found both of the retainers, carefully sterilized them, and hand delivered them to our room.  I don’t know any company anywhere that digs through the trash to meet a customer’s need.

So there it is…our best customer service experience ever.  Disney at its best!  In my next post, I’ll share with you how Disney creates a system that delivers consistent, exceptional customer service.

Question:  Where was your greatest customer service experience?


In Leadership, Organizations Organizational Culture, servant-leadership
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Dave Ramsey’s Organizational Culture

May 24, 2009 — 7 Comments

I just returned from 2 1/2 days in Nashville, Tennessee with Dave Ramsey’s organization, The Lampo Group.  Myself, along with our Business Administrator and a lay leader from our church, participated in Ramsey’s Momentum Workshop. While we received some great training and thorough preparation for the Momentum campaign, our team, without a doubt, was most impressed with the organizational culture Dave Ramsey has created.

With approximately 260 employees, Ramsey has created a culture that has earned The Lampo Group, Nashville Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work” in 2006, 2007, and 2008. One of the ingredients to creating a great work environment is clear core values embraced through an entire organization. While The Lampo Group has several core values, let me highlight four of them.

1.  I Am Responsible – Ramsey has created an environment that expects every team member to be accountable for their work and performance. Every staff member that comes to work at The Lampo Group is required to read John Miller’s book, QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life. The premise of Miller’s book is that rather than asking questions that shift the blame (“why”, “when”, or “who” questions), ask questions that begin with “what” or “how”, contain an “I”, and focus on action.

For example, rather than asking, “Whose going to solve the problem?”, ask, “How can I become part of the solution?” Instead of asking, “When is somebody going to train me?”, ask, “What can I do to develop myself?” The Lampo Group does not allow victim thinking or blaming others. Responsibility and accountability is embraced at every level.

2.  No Gossip – Dave Ramsey takes this very seriously. If a staff member gossips, they receive a warning. If it happens again, they lose their job. Gossip is forbidden. Lampo’s policy is, “Negatives go up and positives go all around.” In other words, if you are talking to somebody who cannot fix the problem, then you are gossiping. Negatives go up–that is, they must be shared with your leader. Only the leader can address the negative issues. Positives on the other hand go all around. On Mondays during staff meetings, positive testimonies are often shared with the entire team. The organization has learned to celebrate victories.

3.  Share the Wealth – Dave Ramsey is committed to sharing the profits of his company. When staff members perform, they are rewarded for their efforts. And the longer they perform with excellence, the greater those profits are. One staff member told me that when she was hired, the person interviewing her didn’t make a big deal about the profit sharing benefit. However, she was pleasantly surprised after her first month on the job. Dave Ramsey believes in taking care of his employees. If you perform, you will benefit. If you don’t, you will be held accountable.

4.  Passion/Attitude/Customer Service – Every team member (and I mean EVERY team member) demonstrated passion, a positive attitude, and outstanding customer service while our team was on their campus. Each day we were greeted with smiles and enthusiasm. When we returned to our hotel rooms and when we headed to the conference each morning, books, chocolates, and gifts were awaiting us. The meals were great, the service was authentic, and the environment was very positive. And when we toured the organization’s building, we received nothing but warm reception, homemade sweets at the cafe, and humility and a positive attitude from each staff member we met. And when Dave Ramsey spoke to the group, it was obvious why the team possessed these qualities. Their leader is modeling the way.

Core values are much more than neat ideas hanging on the wall. They are shaping the behavior of Ramsey’s team. That’s how you know a value is the real deal–when it actually affects attitudes, behaviors, and practices. And at the center of the organizational culture at The Lampo Group is genuine servant-leadership.

Dave Ramsey has modeled servant-leadership and his team has embraced this value at every level. As we were leaving, we met the head of HR. One gentleman, from another church, was so impressed with the organizational culture that he asked for the man’s business card because he was considering applying for a job.

What are your core values? Are they penetrating your church or organization? What needs to change about your organizational culture? Are you leading the way?

 

In Leadership, Organizations Core Values, Leadership, Organizational Culture, servant-leadership
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