Introduction

In part two, we investigate two topics that are integral to true servant leadership.

The first, growing through uncomfortable, unwanted, or unwarranted events, addresses the inevitable truth that servant leaders will find conflict with other leadership styles in today’s business world. I discuss what this means for the servant leader, along with how servant leaders and companies can emerge from these events better for having experienced them. While uncomfortable, unwanted, or unwarranted, if handled correctly, these experiences can create strong teams of resilient employees whose efforts will benefit the company.

The second topic addresses the fact that leadership is awarded and can be rescinded, but service is given freely, without the need for external accreditation, and without expectation for anything in return. Regardless of whether a company embraces or rejects the servant leadership philosophy, it will be forever changed by it.

Growth Through Uncomfortable, Unwanted, or Unwarranted Events

Every servant leader faces challenges, tests, and events in their personal and professional life that are uncomfortable or unwanted. These range from discipling children to outright visceral disagreements with coworkers or supervisors. While uncomfortable, it is during these times that servant leaders grow the most.

One common task for many servant leaders is disciplining our children. Our relationship with our kids is the closest analogy we have to our relationship with God. After all, He is our Heavenly Father. (“The Lord’s Prayer”, Matthew 6:9-13) And the Bible is replete with references to God’s responsibility to us as his children. (Luke 11:13, Matthew 5:48, 12:50)

Still, disciplining our children is never fun, but it is necessary – both for them and for us. While our primary goal in disciplining our children is correcting their behavior in a fashion that fosters maturity and growth, the residual effect is that parents learn how to lovingly address performance issues and design resolutions that benefit, not injure, the child. This same skill is necessary for success as a servant leader in business. “You’re fired!” is easy. Seeking to understand why an employee may have acted outside of accepted policy and determining a path to both correct the deficiency and help the employee improve – that’s servant leadership.

And that brings us to the second, possibly even more unwanted scenario – visceral, ofttimes foundational disagreements with coworkers and supervisors. As servant leaders, we are often described as “empathetic” or “easy going.” Some coworkers and supervisors see this as an opportunity to exert themselves, even going so far as to bully servant leaders. Some will justify their actions by stressing their “alpha personality.” Others might even defend their actions, saying they are “rockstars” or “high performers.” They may validate their actions as a “hard business decision” or cite the industry as “dog-eat-dog.” These are merely excuses for bad leadership, of course, but servant leaders still need to manage them with love. After all, our neighbor in accounting is still our neighbor.

So, how do we, servant leaders, handle individuals with this type of personality?

With agape love and a whole lot of spiritual warfare.

First off, servant leaders need to recognize that our mild, tempered approach to business doesn’t justify abuse by others. Whenever someone abuses their position or abuses you, it diminishes their standing among everyone who has not signed up as one of their followers. By extension that hurts the business and eventually it’ll cost you and the business quality employees. While we accept a modicum of aggressiveness against our leadership philosophy, anything that crosses the line into abuse is unacceptable.

Dialing it back to a professional level of disagreement, servant leaders have a few common tools to help manage various stakeholders (e.g. coworkers, supervisors, clients) when these disagreements arise.

1.      Seek good counsel: In Part 1, I addressed the need for every servant leader to have a trusted counsel. Dealing with a difficult disagreement among professionals is an exceptional use of this counsel. If our counsel is broad enough, someone has experienced a similar situation and can detail their lessons learned. If there is no direct experience, then your counsel can offer diverse ideas based on their similar if not exact experiences. Rarely will a group of experienced, intelligent, God-fearing counselors fail to develop a workable solution to this type of problem.

2.      Communication: All too often in business we talk “at” each other, not with each other. Even less frequently do we each listen to what the other is saying. While we cannot control the other party’s willingness to listen to us, we can listen with the intent of understanding their perspective, reasoning, influences, and possibly hidden meanings or concerns. This type of awareness helps you, the servant leader, to counter your own biases and discover that final five percent that may make a difference. If listening doesn’t provide clues to how you can resolve the disagreement, try finding common goals.

3.      Find a Common Goal: We’ve all heard it said that all politics is local. Likewise, most business disagreements bear the earmarks of local scars. What I mean is, most disagreements occur because someone is pushing or defending something they feel is close to their people, department, or plan. Working with the coworker or supervisor to find a common goal can diffuse the emotion of the disagreement sufficiently to foster re-baselining of what caused the disagreement in the first place. Disagreements often create an “us versus them” mentality. Finding a common goal may rebrand everyone as on the “same team,” a clear benefit to both sides. If you have followed your counsel’s guidance and improved your communication, and if you can’t find a common goal or if even after find a common goal the disagreement remains acrid, it might be time to establish your defenses.

4.      Protect Your Team: Following a defensive playbook or increasing your defensive posture doesn’t mean becoming difficult or intransigent. Rather, it means creating a positive team atmosphere that transcends potential negative influences. Communicate clearly and effectively only those necessary details that your team must know. Be positive and supportive and avoid making negative or disparaging comments. Avoid emotional responses and counter them from your team. If everyone remains positive, recognizes the team’s common goal, honors the team’s established vision, then even negative emails, rumors, and outright attacks won’t phase them or their performance. Instead, they can become teachable moments about how to handle difficult situations – like the one you are in.

5.      Consider Escalation: Finally, if all else fails and you are unable to resolve the disagreement, and if the disagreement impacts your team’s or your ability to effectively operate, then you have responsibility to those in your charge and to those to whom you report to escalate the issue. To some this will seem like failure, like your leadership skill is insufficient to resolve a peer-to-peer issue. It can be even more difficult when you are escalating a disagreement you may be having with your supervisor. (I must add that escalation carries risk. Your supervisor’s actions may be condoned – even choreographed – by their superiors or others within the chain of management.) Sadly, all of this may be true. Your skill may be insufficient to resolve the issue on your own and the other party may be acting on senior-level guidance not shared with you. Either way, if you must escalate the issue, ensure you take account of everything you tried to do to resolve the issue and learn from it. Sometimes the lessons are the reason God allowed you to find disagreement in the first place. (Job 2:3)

Leadership Can Be Taken Away but Service is Given

Robert K. Greenleaf proffered a reason why service exceeds leadership in importance when he said,

This clear distinction defines the difference between a traditional servant leader and other leadership philosophies. Even if a leadership assignment is rescinded, service remains.

In fact, service was always present. Service underpins every action of a true servant leader. It is foundational, unshakable, unremovable, and unimpugnable. It is in our DNA. When everything else is stripped away, there will be service.

This fact can run contrary to other types of leadership. It can create friction with leaders who are trying to serve because they see it as beneficial to their goals, not as integral to their being. Service can be ridiculed, and servants can be marginalized, but their impact can never be mitigated. Once a servant has touched an organization, that organization will be forever changed.

There will forever be two eras: Before the servant, and after the servant.

Before the servant, a business may have been successful. Processes may have worked. Revenue may have grown. Teams may have been effective and efficient. In fact, everything may be seen as close to optimal as possible before the servant. But once the servant arrives, their empathetic, service-first approach to leadership and personnel growth often defines a new era – one punctuated by improved personal and professional growth and a general feeling that the company’s culture is improved by their presence.

This happens because servant leaders employ business techniques that resonate with employees on a basic, visceral level. Where Human Resources focuses on optimizing personnel output for the company’s benefit, servant leaders focus on empowering employees to be the best version of themselves, which ultimately benefits the company. Before the servant, employees might be seen as cogs in a grinding corporate wheel, necessary for success but contributing to the liability of the firm. After the servant, employees are either seen as integral to the company’s culture of success (for companies that embrace the servant’s leadership style) and the culture is strengthened or forever changed, or the company reverts to its original leadership culture (e.g., transactional, autocratic, laissez-faire), but remaining employees are forever changed by and remember their interaction with the servant.

This is why integrity as a servant leader is so vital. Service must be more than merely a means to climb the ladder or to appear empathetic. Service that is less than intentional, less than foundational, and lacks integrity will wilt when external pressures create crisis. To borrow a phrase, when everyone else is running from the fire (i.e., assigning blame, avoiding responsibility), servants are running toward it. Regardless of whether our leadership is assigned (or taken away), our service is always given. Therefore, businesses always benefit when a servant leader is on the roles.

Conclusion

Servant leadership is not just a leadership style; it is a transformative approach that fundamentally changes the dynamics within an organization. By embracing the principles of servant leadership, companies can navigate through conflicts and crises with empathy, transparency, and resilience. Servant leaders grow through challenges, fostering a culture of trust and collaboration that benefits both individuals and the organization as a whole.

The essence of servant leadership lies in its unwavering commitment to service, which remains steadfast regardless of external recognition or titles. This service-first mentality creates a lasting impact, leaving organizations forever changed by the presence of a servant leader. As we move forward, it is crucial to remember that true leadership is not about the power one holds, but about the service one provides. In the end, the legacy of a servant leader is defined by the positive changes they inspire and the enduring culture of service they leave behind.

There will always be two eras in any organization: before the servant and after the servant. The era after the servant is marked by enhanced personal and professional growth, a stronger sense of community, and a more resilient and empowered workforce. By prioritizing service over authority, servant leaders pave the way for a more compassionate, effective, and sustainable future for their organizations.

(AI assisted in the research for this essay.)