Stop Constraining, Start Enabling - Progressive Servant Leadership

Once upon a time, there was a big bad boss...

Over the years, I've worked with some fantastic teams with skill, drive and discipline. Management teams in many organisations say they'd like to embrace change and work differently and so along with my fellow coaches I arrive to share our experiences and support people in building new capabilities. The lucky few go on to excel and thrive. Many teams see an upward tick but it gets smothered once the coaches are gone.

Why have some of these attempts to change gone awry? What's happening to these potential high performers?

Was it all an illusion conjured up just for us coaches? Did we just forget to leave the manual behind sometimes? The answer is commonly something much more disheartening.

Many of these attempts to change have, regardless of advice, been run in an environment where managers have decided that change applies to individual teams and not either to them or the whole organisation. In the end, these managers have circled back and constrained teams back to their own agendas, working methods and unreformed organisational constructs.

Some managers are more interested in how the people under them serve their own needs or targets. Some managers are just institutionally moulded to be administrators and extract what they can from people as mere resources. To begin creating a new type of organisation, that puts people first and encourages individuals to reach their potential, these (future!) leaders must start by heeding the words of Robert Townsend:

A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs.

Being a progressive servant leader

Progressive leaders exist to serve their people, not run them. High-performing agile teams need progressive leaders to nurture and support them if they’re going to reach their potential to excel and delight.

How do you know if you are a progressive leader – or if your leaders are? What qualities and principles do progressive leaders embody and follow?

As Max de Pree said:

“The first responsibility of the leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.”

Great leaders provide a rich, appealing vision and direction, not just instruction. They aren’t simply administrators – they drive things by creating a secure and free environment in which people in their care can shine. They make sure everyone is always clear on what reality and success look like. They are servants to the needs of the team, not the other way around.

Beginning to serve needs

Servant leadership begins with the right combination of three traits:

Empowering

While leaders provide vision and direction, they should still be guided by their teams and afford them as much space to operate as possible. People thrive on creative challenges. Avoid micromanaging at all costs as it’s both demoralising and puts the sole chance of success on the micro-manager.

Balanced

This is about knowing when to intervene. It’s showing judgement and learning to read situations. Quiet persuasion through strong empathy is often the call of the day. Similarly, there are situations where strong intervention is required either with team members or with external parties (like clients or other collaborators).

Appropriate

All interventions will have some impact. Some will disrupt the balance; others will strengthen it. It’s important to bear in mind that interventions can affect the feeling of trust and empowerment within the team. An intervention should never expose a team member to reputational or other harmful effects. Remember that strong intervention has maximum effect when you walk softly, so keep your powder dry until it’s needed.

Whatever you do, as a leader you must always act in the interests of the team and not yourself. It’s important to note that the interests of the business and those of the team are not always the same and sometimes you’ll have to make a difficult choice.

Your qualities, Their expectations

What else should people expect from their leaders? How should they expect them to act? There are a few key qualities that make the foundations of a great servant leader:

Trusting

Great leaders understand the talent they’ve nurtured and supported will only thrive on the freedom to meet challenges in the way they want to tackle them. A progressive leader neither micromanages nor acts randomly from left-field, wading in whenever they see fit.

Challenging

Constructive and supportive challenge is a bedrock of professional growth. A good leader guides people through critical thinking without criticising and helps them understand if they’re on the right track.

From time to time, when things go wrong, a supportive leader helps their people through the learning opportunity. They will create a safe environment for investigation and introspection, free from blame or fear.

Open

Ever felt you could have done something different if you’d had the full picture? Ever felt you could have contributed if only you’d known?

Poor leaders are notorious for hoarding information and keeping people in the dark. In an agile environment where information and context are so central to the feedback and iteration cycle, the impact of this destructive behaviour is magnified. Open leaders share their challenges, encourage broad input and build motivation and morale by involving everyone equally and shutting no one out.

Honest

Honesty in the leader’s context can be thought of as the mirror of their own trusting. An honest leader gives feedback that can be relied upon and creates confidence and security that the context they’re creating is true. In this environment, people can take strength from their leader and focus on bringing their skills to their own challenges.

Patient

Patience is not about letting people do work in whatever time they feel. The patient leader understands that individuals adjust to new challenges and situations in their own time. They understand that new situations are cloaked in natural fear and uncertainty and they support their people calmly, with an appreciation of the time they need to adapt.

Enabling

Bringing all these leadership behaviours together creates a bold and permissive environment for people to flourish and be their best.

The progressive, enabled, successful environment

Progressive and supportive leaders provide the freedom and security to innovate and excel. In particular, people will:

Providing these freedoms and the feeling of security is a crucial to the role of the leader. I’ll be taking a deeper look at how important these two qualities in particular are in a future blog post. Keep a lookout and share your thoughts in the comments.