Movie The Servant
Karlyn Hemmerling
Early in my career, I was exposed to a great example of servant leadership in the fire service. Many captains I worked with would stay in the office doing paperwork while the rest of the crew cleaned the living quarters, washed the apparatus and performed the other menial work that comes with non-emergency tasks at the firehouse.
Leader-Leader: This type of leader is one that enjoys being in charge. They live to lead and to make sure that others know it. King Saul was a Leader-Leader. He liked his title more than he liked the people he served. Leader-Leaders are everywhere. They seek positions and desire to be on top and first. They are marked with pride, control and arrogance. Unfortunately, the western culture breeds this kind of leader, even within the Church. They lead so that people will follow them. It is a top-down leadership style that puts people in their place. Their primary job is to amass personal accomplishments, and make sure no one climbs higher than them. King Saul did whatever possible to keep David from power. White-knuckled leaders grasp their position with everything they have.
Servant-Leader: This type of leader desires to be a servant, but is not willing to let go of the title of leader. A Servant-Leader is actually an oxymoron. Jesus expects us to take the low position of a servant, not the high position of a leader. Jesus taught on being last and being a servant. Nowhere did he talk about being a Servant-Leader. It is a modern, man-made term that allows leaders to think they can have best of both worlds. A Servant-Leader is one who is willing to be a servant, but does not want to be treated like a servant. Peter was a Servant-Leader. He desired to follow Christ and be a disciple, but when others identified him as a follower, he denied Jesus. He loved power. Being an out-front-leader was easy for Peter, but being a broken, surrendered follower of Christ was not part of the plan. He changed after Pentecost and realized that being a Servant-Leader was not the answer.
Raise others up. Not only did Jesus lay himself down to raise us up, but he dignified everyone around him. Sacrificial leadership does the same. A sacrificial leader goes out of her way to lift up the downtrodden and promote other leaders, even at the cost of her own comfort or platform.
Learn from the people you lead. When I asked my Twitter followers for examples of Christ-like leadership, one woman described her pastor, who regularly sits under the teaching of other staff, simply to learn from them. What a great example! This practice not only enriches and humbles the leader, but it affirms and dignifies the team as well.
Jesus, being in very nature God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but humbled himself and took the form of a servant (Philippians 2). For Christian leaders, this is the answer to our pride, and the shape of our call.
Sharon Hodde Miller is a writer, speaker, pastor's wife, and mom of two boys. In addition to recently completing her Ph.D, her first book will be released later this year with Baker Books, and she blogs at SheWorships.com. You can connect with Sharon on Twitter.
Here I am sitting in my hotel room while looking at my half-empty wine glass and the stars outside while preparing for my last Professional Scrum Master (PSM) class for the year 2017 and pondering about all of the classes I have facilitated over this year. PSM has been a transformational course for me because it has changed me by seeing how it has changed the life of many of my students.
Starting from the end of 2017, Scrum.org has put more emphasise on servant-leadership for Scrum Masters. After all the Scrum Guide explained that the Scrum Master is the servant leader of the Scrum team and the organisation she belongs.
The difference between servant leader and other types of leader, servant leader is a servant first than a leader first. Being a servant leader means you are committed to putting your personal interest last. In other words, servant leadership is a commitment to humility. Being a servant leader is not about your success but it is about the success of those you are serving. You are not the center of the attention, the people whom you are serving should be the center of the attention.
We are currently living in the world where people like to brag about their success on social media, servant leadership is not about bragging your personal success. If you brag about your success or your capability as a Scrum Master or about the project you delivered successfully using Scrum, I am sorry to say that is not servant-leadership. None of that success belongs to you, it belongs to those you are serving and you have no rights to claim it as yours and brag about it.
I often get questions about the career path of a Scrum Master in a company from others, it seems they're concerned as a Scrum Master they will stay in the same position for the rest of their life. The growth of a Scrum Master should not be seen by her rank in the organisation chart but by the impact of her service. While there are many leaders in the company who fight their way up in the organisation ladder, I am sorry to say but servant leadership is not about fighting your way up in the organisation chart. By keeping this in mind you will be laser-focused to serve others and stay away from corporate politics, stay neutral and unbiased. It takes great humility to put yourself last to make a way for others to be successful.
A servant-leader is the kind of leader who is proactive to get to the heart of the problem so that she can make other people awesome rather than making conclusions based on what she sees. By focusing on the greatness of others, we will be less judgmental towards others and we will make others feel safe being around us. A servant leader focuses on creating an environment where people can thrive and become the best version of themselves rather than an environment where people become defensive and have low self-esteem.
We have lived under the beliefs where the workplace is the place about work only and outside of that system is where we can be fully human. Many companies promote the concept of work-life balance because they believe workplace is about work and outside of that system is about life. You don't have a life in the workplace. In this belief, people need to shut down their human side and leave it behind at home every time they enter the workplace.
A servant leader has the courage to tell the truth even though it will make others uncomfortable or even resistant. She does not sugar coat any of the messages she sends because she wants her people to improve and have a new experience. She walks the talk and every bit of her message has integrity in it.
The truth may not be what people are used to hearing in the past because the truths create no space for politics. A servant leader is not playing it safe and does not have any fear to tell the truths because she knows her goal is the greatness of others. A servant leader will tell the truths regardless how difficult it may be for her to do it. Sometimes it may cost her job.
A servant leader is unbiased and does not have any favorites, otherwise, it will lower the quality of the service she brings to the whole organisation. Telling the truth never feels comfortable for many people because we are afraid that the truth will hurt others or it will cost us our future in the workplace. Sometimes we only tell our boss what he wants to hear because we are afraid to be punished or will not get his recognition.
A servant leader is different. A servant leader is genuine, she has no hidden motives and no personal interest in her message.The truth spoken will bring the people and the organisation she is serving to a new height not to hurt them. The truth will push people to think differently rather than staying at status quo or being comfortable in a comfort zone. A servant leader creates an environment where people can feel safe telling the truth and telling the truth is the norm.
We have seen from the previous points above how servant leader focuses on serving others for the greater good. A servant leader is also a leader who has the humility to be open about her own vulnerability. A servant leader has the humility to say that she does not have all of the answers to all of the problems and any advise she gives does not serve as the absolute truth.
A servant leader has the humility to not brag about herself and at the same time is open about her imperfection. Many think that when a leader is open about her vulnerability, it is a sign that she is weak. Some may even say she is useless. After all, in corporate settings, we are measured by our capability, so being open about our own vulnerability in the public is automatically seen by others as our incapability as a leader.
Being open about our own vulnerability is a form of service to others so that others can feel safe to be open about theirs too. This is the only way we can get trust from the people we are serving. We can serve others to be greater when we have gained their trust and they are open to their own vulnerability.
People will feel comfortable and have no fear of judgment when the leader has the courage to be open about her own vulnerability. People will trust the leader and will feel safe to be open about their own vulnerability when the leader demonstrate openness about her vulnerability to her people first. By demonstrating openness about our own vulnerability, we are creating the impression that "it is human to be imperfect and it is not wrong to be human at work".
It takes humility to be a servant leader. It is not easy to be a servant leader when servant-leadership is not the standard applied by many companies or leaders in our society. It is personally never been easy for myself. I personally still struggling to be a servant leader until today. It is not easy being a servant leader. But I believe being a servant leader is what make us different compared to other leaders and what can bring a difference to this world. I used the guidelines above as an impetus for myself to keep on improving my servant-leadership skills. I hope it can help you too.
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