Being a Servant Leader: Creating a Safe Zone

 

Previously published on LinkedIn.com

Last August I had the good fortune and privilege of both sponsoring and participating in a golf tournament here in Ottawa benefiting the service dog program of www.woundedwarriors.ca which was organized by Barry Finlay and his lovely wife Evelyn (www.KeepOnClimbing.com).

After the golf was over a young lady who had served our country and had loved everything about her job including the overseas deployments, stood up and related a very powerful story of what it is like to suffer from PTSD. From being proud to wear the uniform and not thinking there was a better calling she found herself losing the thing that she felt meant the most to her – her service in the military due to a medical discharge for an injury suffered in the field. She was no longer deployable and deemed to be no longer of value as a soldier. Everything she felt had defined her was taken away.

She talked about the symptoms of PTSD she experienced: the bursts of anger, the bouts of depression, and eventually attempting suicide - twice. And even being angry for being rescued from suicide the first time.

Then she talked about what her service dog Bauer has meant to her. How Bauer creates a safe zone around her. How he has become so attuned to her fears and anxieties that he will nudge up against her to bring her back into the moment. How he will pull her away from a situation that is causing her to feel stressed, as he did when she tried to attend the 2014 November 11th ceremony at the War Memorial in Ottawa (she became overwhelmed by anxiety as the crowd closed in around her so he led her to a police woman to get help). How he will put himself between her and anyone he feels is causing her anxiety to mount. How they work together every day so he can continue being her protector.

Bauer creates a safe zone for her on a daily basis and in the moment. He is trained to sense when he needs to do to make his presence felt so that she can be brought back into the moment. So she can both recognize and control her anxiety and depression. To feel that she is safe.

As I showered the next morning it got me thinking about what it means to be a servant leader and to exhibit servant leadership.

While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said:

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.

“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. 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? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?“

From https://greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/:

“servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world. <> Some of the most well-known advocates of servant leadership include Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, M. Scott Peck, Margaret Wheatley, Ann McGee-Cooper & Duane Trammell, Larry Spears, and Kent Keith.”

The philosophy of being a Servant Leader is often discussed as being one of the key ingredients necessary to create and support an Agile culture. The idea is that the role of the leader is not to tell people what to do, but rather to create an environment in which they can experiment and try new things without fear. To allow them to self-organize and self-manage. To on the one hand feel they have autonomy in their work, while on the other hand to know their leaders have their backs. That the leader should do as my good friend Rod Collins (@collinsrod) suggested - create the container and let the team worry about the content. To create a safe zone.

In your role as a leader, are you creating a safe zone for the people in your organization? Do you sense when they need you to step in and be their protector? Do they feel you have their backs?