Where the idea comes from
Robert K. Greenleaf was an American management thinker who introduced the concept of servant leadership in his influential 1970 essay, The Servant as Leader.
What’s that? Why are The Good Apple Effect digging up some irrelevant 50 year old management speak gobbledegook?
Well, we are bringing it to your attention because we believe it is actually far from either gobble or degook.
The concept in a nutshell is this. Greenleaf believed leaders should serve the people they lead first by spending less time trying to be top dog and more time helping other people become the best they can be. His thinking was that, when people flourish, organisations flourish too.
How it works in hospitality
OK, so you are the Ops Director of a pub company and, rather than focussing on telling your Ops Managers what they are doing wrong, you spend your time helping them become better leaders. The Ops Managers then invest in helping their GMs become the best they can be. The GMs do the same with their Assistant GMs and front-line teams and then bingo, this is where the Greenleaf magic can happen. Those front-line teams create brilliant experiences for guests.
Guests in pubs, bars, hotels and cafés rarely meet the Ops Director and they probably never even know such a person exists. Why would they? But this whole servant leadership theory starts with one leader helping another leader become better, who helps another leader grow, who helps another leader grow, you get our drift, until eventually someone walks through the pub door and has a fantastic experience.
That is the ripple effect of servant leadership.
Or, as Greenleaf put it:
‘The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?’
Greenleaf’s test of leadership was simple. He believed success was not measured by how important the leader became, but by what happened to the people they led.
A message for the sceptics
There now follows a message for the sceptics of servant leadership. Yes, that’s those who may think, ‘If I develop someone really well they are more likely to leave.’
Remember this from Richard Branson:
‘Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to.’
Or let us put it another way. Bosses often worry about what happens if great people leave, when the better question may be, what happens if they stay?
For those who would like to dig a little deeper, head over to our Book Club. James Nye reviews books by Simon Sinek and James Timpson, two leaders whose thinking strongly reflects the principles behind servant leadership.
A couple of things before we finish
A couple of things before we finish this Five Minute Read.
We hear on the grapevine that some servant leaders sometimes forget to look after themselves. There is an old saying about putting your own oxygen mask on first. There is a lot of wisdom in that. You cannot give your best to other people if you have nothing left to give yourself.
And finally, as the clock ticks towards five minutes, we cannot help wondering whether servant leadership is actually the best name for it.
How about Growing People Leadership?
GPL has a nice ring to it. Perhaps not quite as nice as the ring of your till if you build your business around helping people grow.
How about you? What would you rename it?
Hopefully not gobbledegook leadership.
In summary
Servant leadership turns the usual idea of leadership on its head. Rather than concentrating on status or telling people what they are doing wrong, the focus is on helping people grow and become better at what they do. In hospitality, that can create a ripple effect from senior leaders through managers and front-line teams, ultimately influencing the experience guests receive. Greenleaf’s test was not how important the leader became, but what happened to the people they led. And for those worried that developing people means they may leave, perhaps the bigger question is what happens if they stay without being developed.
