I have often heard of the terms “servant leadership” but had never before taken the opportunity to find material as detailed in scope as the reading for this post. I found the ideas and concepts from the Nordhouse text that details the Model of Servant Leadership (p. 232) thought provoking, encouraging, and challenging. For the purposes of this discussion I have chosen to select a principle from each of the three main components of the model, and for the purposes of my own development all three that I have selected will be, to varying degrees, difficult for me to realize in my practice.
Context and culture is listed as one of the antecedent conditions that will impact servant leaders. Nordhouse makes the statement: “… in health care… settings, the norm of caring is more prevalent…” (p. 231). I would agree that each and every person that enters a health care job or profession does so because they care about people. However, my experience in health care for the last 10 years is that it can difficult to be a servant leader in this setting, and one of the factors that contributes to the challenge is the unionized environment. Whether historical, or whether by design, or by intent I do not wish to debate here, but the context in health care in my province is that the relationship between out of scope managers/leaders and unionized employees is supposed to be adversarial. It is difficult to be a servant leader in a culture where serving others is constantly viewed through a lens of mistrust. Having been in a manager/director role now for over 10 years there is hope – I can see where consistent servant leader behaviours can break down these barriers. However, staff turnover in health care is also a constant issue so it is difficult for servant leaders to develop the long term relationships required to create trust and mutual purpose between employees and managers.
Conceptualizing is listed at the top of the Servant Leader Behaviours and of the three principles that I discuss this is, and will continue to be, the most difficult for me in my chosen career. From a personal perspective I continue to wrestle with bringing the vision and strategic plans from the senior leaders at 30,000 feet down to the front line staff at ground level in a way that is understood. From a system level, it is difficult to conceptualize the overall goals of health care when they consistently change. Governments are voted in and voted out – the overall goals change. Governments change direction – the overall goals change. Public interest groups lobby government – specific goals change. Communication up and down the lines of authority can be like the game “telephone” at times. Later on in the chapter Nordhouse discusses that one of the criticisms of the servant leader model is the inclusion of conceptualizing: “Being able to conceptualize is undoubtedly an important cognitive capacity in all kinds of leadership…” (p. 241). I am truly humbled by this statement and know that this needs to be an area of focus if I wish to improve as a leader.
The third principle that I will find challenging to consistently realize in my practice is organizational performance under the Outcomes heading of the model. First, organizational performance in health care is a difficult metric to measure. Second, as stated earlier, the culture does not encourage, and in some instances, does not even permit followers to function in a capacity that goes beyond their basic job requirements. Third, my areas of responsibility are very small in the context of the full scope of my organization. However, I have experienced and been inspired by organizations where servant leadership has changed the behaviours of individual employees and how teams function, so I remain committed to the challenge of improving the organizational performance to the extent that I am able for the sake of my patients and their families.
As I reach the end of my blog I realize that I inadvertently did not select any intrinsic challenges where I discuss how I need to incorporate or improve on my personal servant leader behaviours. Of course I know that this is far from the truth – there is much that I still need to work on in me. But change in me is a daily, sometimes moment by moment experience; influencing widespread change in a culture and change in others is not my daily experience. So I have preconditioned myself to believe that influencing individuals, groups and situations is more difficult, challenging, and, well… unlikely. So my closing question to invite further comment and discussion is this: are there others who have wrestled with this mindset? And does this mindset put limits on one’s ability to lead?
I really enjoyed reading your post. I especially liked your question about mindset. I believe our mindset dictates a lot and it’s something that I wrestle with a lot. There’s a Henry Ford quote that is one of my favourites and I learned it in a karate dojo. I was nervous about having to break a piece of wood for the first time building up to one of my early gradings. My Sensei took me aside and told me that I needed to believe that I could do it. If I didn’t believe it, then I definitely wouldn’t be able to achieve it. This is when he shared with me what Henry Ford once said; “If you think you can, then you can. But, if you think you can’t, then you can’t.” It’s something I share with my students each year as well and try to remind myself when I’m feeling doubtful and questioning my abilities to make a difference.
I work in the restaurant industry and also find one of the greatest struggles when trying to be a leader and build relationships with my team is the high-turnover in the industry. There is always another kitchen looking for a cook. Something that helps me when I’m struggling with this reality is knowing that even if I’m only leading someone for a short period of time I can still make a positive impact on them in some way.