Servant Leadership: Serve to Be Great

Have you ever been in a leadership position and ignored an important problem? This is something new leaders often do early on. Sometimes even experienced leaders can fall into that trap.

Why does it happen? Are you “cherry picking” the problems you will address, but focusing on those with easy solutions? Are you ignoring the tough problems because they involve confrontation with team members or maybe with those to whom you report? Or are you just so tied up in the day to day that things slip through the cracks because you are not paying attention?

If you are like many people, your instincts are telling you which are the important problems you need to deal with right now, but you are ignoring them and are taking the route of least resistance, dealing with other problems. Why? Maybe because it's easier that way. Maybe they are more aligned with the things you enjoy doing or the people with whom you like to work. Maybe because it's simply more fun. Important problems belong on your Get Done ASAP list, not your ever-lengthening To-Do list.

Be sure not to confuse urgency with importance – sometimes that looming deadline is not actually important, or the consequences of missing it are near zero. Is it an urgent problem with zero importance? Are you wasting your valuable energy on it when there are so many more important items on your list? Be aware and know what you are dealing with.

Good things happen when you deal with important problems you’ve been avoiding. Avoidance is often a signal that others see the same problem and don’t want to address it either due to the difficulty or absence of an easy solution. Be the leader who addresses those sticky important issues head on, taking an approach called for by the situation. You’ll be surprised how people will respect you for taking on those tough problems, and how open dialogue, if appropriate, will cause solutions to appear on the horizon where none existed before.

Brainstorm, use a “yes-anding” approach and reasonable solutions will turn up. Focus on the problem, not the people. Avoid negative words like no, but and however.  Use positive words like “yes”, “and”, and “also”. These words increase the realm of solutions instead of narrowing them. Filter out the solutions that will likely not work only after all they are all on the table. Avoid trashing before asking.

Avoidance may be a reasonable risk strategy, but it is not one for important problems. Follow those instincts, ignore the fear, and eliminate the procrastination. Deal with it now, because problems are not like red wine and cheese. They don’t get better with age. They invariably get worse… far worse.

So create a Get Done ASAP list and tackle those difficult problems. Mentor your team to do the same. You will soon feel a sense of relief in clearing an important item off your list, and most often will find that it was not as tough as you thought.  

“Either you run the day or the day runs you.  Don’t wish it was easier.  Wish you were better.”

“Don’t wish for fewer problems. Wish for more skills.  Don’t wish for less challenge.  Wish for more wisdom.”

   - Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur, 1930-2009

The company I work for is based in the U.S. Midwest and the magazines around the office are different than those that may be found in my living room.  This was a magazine about the outdoors and hunting. One magazine cover caught my eye.  It was a picture of a man on a horse slowly climbing a mountainside only to have his horse rear back because of a ferocious looking, growling black bear creeping around the bend towards them.  The feature article was titled, “Places of Peril: How Sporting Art Made Us Fear the Outdoors”.  It got me thinking..  In Project Management, have we been steered away from chasing our goals because of places of peril?

About Ten years ago, I was coming to the realization that my career, no matter how many twists and turns I took and how often I thought I would feel comfortable in another role, I was geared towards having Project Management be a part of my full time profession.  It just felt comfortable to me.  So, like the man on the horse, I slowly began climbing the mountainside of Project Management.  I knew I needed to start somewhere.  I joined an organization that I thought would be the best to further my career and would give me the ability to meet people that were just like me; those colleagues that shared the same drive and it was at that time when I signed up for membership with the Project Management Institute (PMI).

As the journey began, I figured the best place to start was to attend a few local Chapter meetings.  I remember the first meetings I attended and that I was very intimidated.  As I entered the conference room I looked around and convinced myself that everyone there was already well versed in this Project Management profession, they all already had created close bonds within the membership, and they weren’t looking to meet anyone new.  This was all in my head of course, but at the time I was just plain scared to leap into the fray.  I now, more than ever, felt like that man on the horse where all of the members were the bears creeping towards me just getting ready to scare me away.  Ignoring those fears as best as I could I decided to take a seat at the first open table and began introducing myself.  To my surprise, everyone was very friendly and interested in meeting new people, and sharing their own project management knowledge and support.

Months passed and by now I had felt comfortable attending these meetings and even looked forward to meeting new people.  The members were awesome, inviting, and even wanted to help a young Project Manager with finding his way.  They knew that they, too, were once like me and were similarly afraid like the man on the horse.  I also found out that the best way to fight the fear was to get more involved.  I found that I had to ignore the feelings that I was “dinner” for the black bears creeping around the bend.  At times, I even forgot about that place of peril in my mind,

Within the first year of membership, I became an active member and chairperson of a small breakfast time roundtable group.  Within four years of being a member, I was voted in as the Executive Vice President of the local Chapter and stayed on as such for four years.  And, no places of peril along the way! The first year in the organization brought me to new places within and away from the Chapter.  Specific to the Chapter, I made numerous new friends and contacts. I remembered the fear that I once had and used it as motivation to approach members who looked lost as they entered the conference room.  I made sure I headed over to a table in the conference room where I didn’t know any of the attendees.  I wanted to make these people feel welcome, just like those who did that for me ten years ago.

What I learned in my years as a member is probably what the man on the horse learned pretty quickly.  The visions that are sometimes created in our minds aren’t necessarily the truth and should not be seen as places of peril.  Sure, the artwork created in our minds can be exciting and raise our heart rates a little bit, but it’s those visions in our head that can cause us to miss some great opportunities.  What amazes me now, being closer to black bears myself in my time working in the Midwest, is that while these animals are very large and scary looking creatures, they are actually more frightened of humans than we are of them.  Next time you head into a Chapter meeting or a new group or organization, I implore you to look past the corner on the mountainside and realize that there are rewarding experiences to be found.

Over the last two years, I met a quite number of entrepreneurs looking for investors to present their ideas. A few of them were successful in finding funds for their projects. The reasons are very much linked with their leadership competencies. I became aware that the journey of an entrepreneur shows quite a few similarities with the journey of a leader.

Entrepreneurs are, by nature, people who step forward to achieve an idea. This is a fundamental leadership skill. In addition, like leaders, they need to have a great vision, need to influence people and need to engage people to achieve their goals.

Great entrepreneurs, in both social and commercial domains, often start the journey when they are dissatisfied  with the present and develop a vision for a better future. The degree of innovation, business benefit and social impact will increase the chance of engagement with others around the vision.

Good entrepreneurs engage people to achieve their goals. They find partners, ask advisors, recruit staff, engage investors and, most importantly, engage customers. This requires, asin leadership, strong influencing skills to attract people first on their vision and later with  high rates of progress and excellent value delivery.

Good entrepreneurs are also good at performing.  They plan and coordinate tasks,  and are able to break the journey down into smaller sub-journeys. They cultivate people, mentor and delegate to bring the team to peak  performance. They walk with the followers (partners, staff, investors, customers and  society) to achieve the goal.

The journey of an entrepreneur is filled with uncertainties and risks. Like leaders, entrepreneurs need to have a sense for the unknowable and be able to foresee the unforeseeable.

I believe the success of an entrepreneur is very much linked to leadership competencies. What would you share on this?

I’ve read many times that telling a story in a presentation is a compelling way to keep your audience focused on your every word. I suppose this is true as long as the story is, in fact, interesting, with a bit of a plot – you know – that beginning, middle and ending? Elizabeth Larson is a master at this. Her presentation “I Don’t Have Time for Requirements – My Project is Late Already” (a sort of Covey “Sharpen Your Saw” story) always gets rave reviews because she tells a story throughout the presentation.

A colleague of mine is a master at telling stories. I honestly don’t know where he gets them all, but they are usually related to the situation at hand. This particular gentleman is from Denmark, and refers to himself as a Viking. So, you know already that he has a very good sense of humour. I haven’t seen him wearing one of those helmets with the horns, and I don’t think he has asked to be buried along with his ship. But then again, nothing would surprise me!

A close Chechslovakian friend of my dear brother kindly taught me how to paddle a canoe many years ago. I was having trouble, of course, being only a young teenager. Instead of telling me “Hold your paddle like this.”, he would relate a story about how he remembered a person he was teaching who held his paddle such and such a way (strangely, just as I was holding it), and how this caused the canoe to tip, or another story would be the untold damage caused when he steered the canoe into another watercraft. Do you think I would remember what he said if he hadn’t told a story?

So, my premise is that if stories work for presentations, so too do they work for leading teams from behind. You’ve been there and done that. You have the battle scars and had the experience. Why not pass along those precious lessons learned to your colleagues by using engaging stories that will not only pass the message, but be memorable and entertaining?

Should all your stories be true and factual? Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes facts get in the way of entertainment. But if they are focused and brief stories that make a good point, and sometimes even have a special twist at the end as a little hidden surprise… why not use them as a leadership tool?

Well… that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

What are your thoughts? Is storytelling in your toolbox?

I found the item below in response to Kristin Jones and Rebecca Braglio’s call for stories about why you love being a project manager. I thought I would repost this story here for your reading pleasure (I hope) to make it more visible. OK – full disclosure – I wrote it. ;)

-------------------------------------------------------------------
 

A Story about an Accidental Project Manager

Once upon a time, there was a young man who began his career in technology – writing computer programs, analyzing business needs, designing and implementing computer software. He worked on things called projects, as a member of a team, or sometimes as a lone ranger on a tiny project. He loved working in technology, because he could exercise his creative cleverness and amaze the town folk with technological magic.

One day, a company with whom had just started working asked if he would move 3,000 kilometers away to manage a project to create and install a computer system for court staff so they could record offences, schedule trials, record results, collect fines, and … well.. you get the picture. Never one to say no to an opportunity, this young man, who had never managed a project in his life, said, “Yes! I’d love to do it!” Some might call this attitude foolhardy. He called it good fortune - and so began his career in project management.

He and his small team worked hard to figure out client needs, design and create a system a piece at a time, confirm it with the client, and then implement it. The project was very successful, providing what was required, and maybe a little bit more (which he later learned was called “gold plating”), within the expected budget and on time.

Since then, the subject of our little story managed many projects, always successfully. Then came a time when he noticed there was a professional organization called the Project Management Institute that had a body of knowledge called the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. He realized that his past success had been a matter of common sense (not so ubiquitous he always thought for a term with such a name) and to some extent, good luck and friendly clients. He was often heard talking to himself while holding the guide close to his chest, muttering “Where have you been all my life!” [OK… not true, but added for comedic effect]

Thus began the professionalization of our friend. After managing projects for fifteen years, he immersed himself in this warm body of knowledge, researched, studied, wrote and passed the exam known as the "PMP exam". He enjoyed rubbing shoulders with other beings who also managed projects or had an interest in the same. He liked what he read and experienced so much that he decided to volunteer with the professional organization locally and globally, never looking back, even another fifteen years later. In fact, he is still volunteering today.

He has also been spreading the good PM word within his organization and far and wide. I heard about this person one day through a sort of telepathic connection. He obviously loved what he was doing. Otherwise, why would he continue? I asked him what he loved about project management, and his answer surprised me. He said, “Project management is all about people. People who are your clients, people who are your team, people who hear about the project and are want to know more, people with their own lives outside the projects, and people working to provide for their families. People. It’s all about people.” I said, “What? It’s not all about projects?” “No, he said, without people, there would be no projects. There would be no organizations. There would be no important needs being met through projects. Projects are people. Just like life – it’s all about people. And that’s why I love being a project manager. Working with people to understand what needs to be done, to bring the team together to work toward a successful conclusion in a way that makes us proud of what we have accomplished and makes the client want to work with us again.”

And so ends this brief tale of the accidental project manager. He is still out there, an accident no more. Still being successful. But now, it is not a matter of uncommon common sense or even luck. Now it is a matter of knowledge, experience, making plans, working plans and…. well… most importantly – working with people. It’s all about people!

(Originally posted on ProjectManagement.com as a reply to this item.)

Parents have great dreams for their children. As soon as we hold our child, for the first time, it seems that an unbeatable “contract” is signed: parents - the “supplier” - will offer all available resources for the child - the “client” - to succeed. It is an “open-ended” contract as it doesn’t have clear targets, goals, ambitions, or even desires. Parents don’t know if they “raise” a doctor, a fireman or a project manager. But, with few exceptions, they know their child will be a fantastic or a great - doctor, fireman etc.. She or he has to be fantastic or great since we - the parents, the “supplier” - are all in. We offer everything and we don’t expect anything but success.

And how do we know that he or she will be great? Or that our full-of-uncertainty endeavor will be successful?

Again, with few exceptions, parents will make the supreme argument - in a magnificent, but really concerning, consensus: that we raise them to be leaders. No matter the area, field, range, territory of operations, our kids will be leaders and will do great.

In plain and simple “contract” terms, in this situation, “being a leader” translates into: get above the others, acquire and utilize your amazing competencies that some others may have also, but they cannot “use” them as you do.  You need to show the path to others, but always be “number one”. In a nutshell, be a leader first and we - as parents - can guarantee a big rate of success.

I don’t want to fight this wrong (in my opinion) attitude. Every parent has the right to dream big for his or her child. And, at the same time, he or she has the right to try to fulfill this dream in his or her own manner.

However, following “the leader first” logic in a Servant Leadership context, I was wondering:

How can we teach Servant Leadership to our children?

This question arises almost in every discussion/webinar/conference on the Servant Leadership. The whole philosophy of Servant Leadership is based on “Serve First”. A Servant Leader is a leader but without being “number one”. He or she will exercise a “paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will” (Jim Collins) in order to engage and develop others. “Get above the others” means, in a Servant Leadership context, to find the right and correct way to serve “the others” in order to become a great leader. 

Coming back to the unbeatable “contract” and its expectations, a Servant Leadership approach seems to contradict the “big dream” path. It suspiciously “reduces” personal visibility and promotes humility instead of (supposedly, a more penetrating) aggressiveness. Most of all, it rules out the power-positioned leadership (based on coercion, force and position) for an authority-situated one. Personal influence and trust are the most important currencies “traded” in this latter approach. They replace the former final and recurrent argument “I am your appointed boss”. Instead of an almighty position to make people do my will, I - the doctor, the lawyer, the project manager, etc…, will influence them to get the job done willingly. It doesn’t sound fantastic or great anymore, does it?

For me, it sounds...amazing. To have my daughter leading people to work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good is something I would be happy to promote. I am all in for helping her learn how to be “others-focused” (Jim Collins) and how to become a strong professional that will do the right thing for her people and for her organization. This way, for sure, she will build great character traits and be a...fantastic Servant Leader.       

You shouldn’t worry, the infamous question from above hasn’t been forgotten. Addressed again, but more personalized, it will be:

How can I teach Servant Leadership to my child?

Actually, paradoxically, I can’t! She has to see if this is the right journey for her. I will present her the “available” options from out-there and offer all my help (based on my experiences). And all of these (again) so she can choose the leader she wants to be. I will be a true Servant Leader for her. It is tougher this way. But - for me - it seems the right way to do it in order to leave the choice for her life to the rightful owner – my daughter.

Are you ready, as a “supplier”, to do the same in both your personal and professional life?