The ancient wisdom of servant leadership

In 1970 Robert K Greenleaf wrote an essay entitled ‘The Servant as Leader’, in which he asserted:

“A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong… The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.”

We may think of such an approach as a modern phenomenon, arising out of contemporary leadership theories. In fact, certain vocal autocrats of today would probably condemn servant leadership as part of the ‘wokery’ that plagues modern life.

But when a colleague sent me an excerpt from the Tao Te Ching, a book of ancient Chinese philosophy dating back as far as 300 BCE, I realised that servant leadership is possibly one of the oldest such theories and has undoubtedly stood the test of time.

We did it ourselves!

The first thing that struck me about Chapter 17 (the excerpt which @Dr Elena Hinova-McNamee sent me) was its title: “We did it ourselves!”. Those four words (and the all-important exclamation mark) convey such delight and satisfaction, a true sense of accomplishment, that the reader can instantly sense the positive impact of servant leadership.

When I think about our approach to working with clients, whether in our mentoring and coaching, or our other leadership and team development programmes, it is precisely this sense of ‘We did it ourselves!’ that we are helping clients towards. We see it as our job to guide people to find their own solutions, forge their own path to success, rather than imposing or dictating. Our role is to inspire others to greatness and recognise everything they have accomplished.

For a client to declare “We did it ourselves!” is perhaps our ultimate goal.

The right distance

How this result is achieved is also explained in Chapter 17:

The Taoist is distant,

Sparing with words.

Whatever is accomplished,

Whatever occurs,

The common folk declare:

“We did it of our own accord,

We did it ourselves!”

For servant leaders, managing this distance is an inherent challenge. Our teams need to know we are there and accessible to them, focused on their needs, but also we must provide them with the space to work and think of their “own accord”. The description here of the leader as “Sparing with words” is revealing, pointing to the need to listen more than speak.

The Chapter also speaks of the importance of trust between leaders and the led:

Wherever trust

Is lacking on high,

It is lacking below.

Shared trust is at the foundation of any successful relationship and is particularly important during difficult times (“whatever occurs”). The supportive feeling of togetherness created by servant leadership creates a powerful and positive culture, as we observed in a previous blog on the topic of servant leadership: “Servant-leaders foster a strong sense of community and teamship within their organisations, which leads to higher engagement, greater levels of trust and increased innovation. The psychological safety created by this supportive environment enhances honesty and openness, engendering a ‘speak up’ culture and enabling teams to learn collaboratively.”

Practising what we preach

It’s interesting that it was a discussion about our own culture and values at iTS Leadership that prompted Elena to send me the excerpt from Chapter 17, rather than a direct reference to our client work. But the closer I looked at the passage and thought about its meaning, the clearer I can see that, not only do we live and breathe the values of servant leadership, everything we do is aimed at helping our clients to do the same.

For any of us who like to practise servant leadership, there’s a great quote by Harry Truman (which was also used by Ronald Reagan during his Presidency):

“It’s amazing what can be accomplished when you don’t care who gets the credit.”

Helping people find THEIR solutions, play to THEIR strengths, unlock THEIR leadership superpowers is what we are all there for.  It’s not for us to get into the limelight, but to celebrate THEM in the limelight. That’s the best reward.

After all, iTS Leadership!