Servant Leader Characteristics in Action in Group Project Work

Any serious study of servant leadership will lead the student to the work of Larry C. Spears.  Spears’ work, based on the seminal work of Robert K. Greenleaf, has been focused on understanding the nature and character of servant leaders, and his publications include the following ten characteristics that he posited were “…of critical importance – central to the development of servant leaders.” (Spears, 2010, p. 27)

1. Listening – listening receptively with the purpose of identifying what others want, but also listening and reflecting on one’s inner voice
2. Empathy – learning to understand, accept and recognize the uniqueness of others
3. Healing – the intentional healing of oneself, relationships with others and making them whole
4. Awareness – includes general awareness and self-awareness with the purpose of understanding situations and context
5. Persuasion – seeking to convince others rather than coercing, building consensus
6. Conceptualization – requires the discipline and practice to have vision for the future and articulate it
7. Foresight – utilizing experience from the past within the situations of the present to predict the outcome of the future
8. Stewardship – viewing the organization in trust for the greater good of society
9. Commitment to the Growth of other people – every person has value and deserves to be invested in personally and professionally
10. Building community – lead the way to building a community in the organization

There are many different actions that leaders can take to effectively coordinate a group project to a successful outcome.  I have selected two actions that I think are critically important and that I believe highlight how the ten servant leadership characteristics proposed by Spears can be incorporated into and enacted in servant leadership.

1. Listen to the people who do the work, and act on their recommendations where possible. Dreams and a vision for the future are imperative for an organization to grow, and leaders must practice but leaders must marry conceptualization with listening to those who are fighting the good fight on the front lines.  The employees understand the work.  The front line staff will know what steps in the project can be implemented right away, and what steps will need to wait.  The employees will have done some problem solving that leadership is not even aware of and will have solutions and ideas based on objective experience rather than just conceptualization.  When employees are listened to, and heard, leaders are able to use persuasion rather than coercion because the team members become invested in implementing their own ideas and solutions.  When leaders listen there is an awareness of the skill sets and knowledge that others bring to the project and leaders can encourage and optimize the use of these skills and knowledge, thereby committing to the growth of members of the team.  An equal exchange of information and ideas between leaders and employees builds community within the team and once achieved the majority of the team members become invested in the success of the project.
2. Seek to know and understand what has been tried in the past and how. This action may be specific to environments like health care where there is often a mix of long term staff and new staff, and a lot of turnover in leadership.  Leaders need to listen and understand what has been expected of the staff in the past.  Leaders need to be awareness of the environment – if there have been a lot of projects in the past the employees may be experiencing change fatigue.  If staff were expected to participate in projects in the past with no ability to provide input into the work, a new project may present the opportunity for a leader to show empathy and facilitate healing in others and the team.  It also may be an opportunity for a leader to further develop self-awareness, being intentional about how they are coordinating the project and reflecting on why they are coordinating the project and if this meets the criteria of stewardship.  Seeking to understand what has, and has not, worked in the past, and the reasons why will assist a leader in developing foresight to know what the outcomes of this project and future projects will be.

There are many actions that could, and should be taken by leaders when coordinating a project in their context.  What actions do you think are most important?

Reference

Spears, L.C.  (2010).  Character and Servant Leadership:  Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders.  The Journal of Virtues and Leadership 1(1)     25-30.