Servant Leadership: Serve to Be Great

We all possess expertise we could share to help others gain from our knowledge and experience. How do you improve the lot of others by giving freely of knowledge capital? How do you “increase the size of the pie” so many more can have a slice?

I observed just such sharing recently during a workshop designed to drive out the requirements of business users. The presenter was long in the tooth and grey of the hair too. His words were inspiring while simple - all of them derived from a most basic diagram of seven boxes with a few words in each and some lines drawn between them. He explained what the boxes meant and how they applied to the business in simple terms, using words like “things”, “items” and “relationships” to guide a full day and half workshop with the help of a scribe who captured all the lively conversation as everyone followed interesting threads to their most logical conclusions.

The business users were drawn into the realm of data-driven design without ever knowing it - and they probably still don’t know they received a gift that day. They left armed with new knowledge, terms and skills, not to mention the benefit of over thirty years of experience passed to them in Vulcan mind-meld fashion in less than ten hours.

Why did the presenter do this? Was he trying to impress someone? Was he trying to display like a male peacock his multi-coloured feathers of knowledge? Was he trying hard to win business for his firm by pulling knowledge from his business associates or using it to further his career? Was he trying to increase the stock value of his company for the next quarterly report?

No. His reasons were much more altruistic than these. He simply wanted to share knowledge and use his experience to ensure nothing was missed in the definition of business need. He merely wanted to let his colleagues understand the process so they could contribute in ways they would come to understand would help them and those around them in the short and long term.

This method of helping others will serve you well once you are comfortable speaking from a base of knowledge and experience, proven results, and a sincere desire to, as they say, pay it forward.

You’ve had mentors and coaches, you have admired those who have inspired you to reach greater heights. When you are comfortable with yourself, when you know from observation that others need help in areas you know like the back of your hand - become a mentor, a coach… a servant leader. Give of yourself.  Give to others.

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Thank you for reading the inaugural post in this newly minted Web Log:  “Servant Leadership:  Serve to be Great”.  I am so delighted and honoured to be part of the PMI Leadership Institute Masters Class (LIMC) 2015 along with my colleagues whose names you see at the top of this blog.  

We are all in the business of managing projects in our work lives, and I dare say, in our private lives as well.  Project management is also about project leadership and leadership in general, whether that is at work, at home, in a volunteer role with your local church group or charity.  Authentic leadership is about serving those you lead and helping them achieve their goals and become servant leaders too.  But you must do that within the context of who you are - and sometimes a voyage of self-discovery is needed just to know that!

Where do you thrive? What strengths do you possess that you can leverage? What areas for improvement are you aware of that will help you understand your own behaviour?

Are you an inspiration to your teams?  Do they take positive action autonomously based on the understanding you have conveyed?

Watch this space for more thoughts on servant leadership, and please share your own!  We are looking forward to a fruitful conversation among ourselves and with you!