A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
A couple of weeks ago we took a look at Jim Heskett’s HBS discussion about why servant leadership isn’t very prevalent, considering how effective it is; this week he sums those reasons up.
Servant leadership is experienced so rarely because of trends in the leadership environment, the scarcity of human qualities required, demands that the practice places on the practitioner, and the very nature of the practice itself.
It’s easy to spot the major traits that get in the way.
“Ego (that) makes it difficult to ‘want to serve'” (Randy Hoekstra), “greed” (Madeleine York), and “An unhealthy desire to control” (Judesther Marc).
There is more; ake a moment and read the summation, it’s short.
Next look at yourself in light of the expressed reasons preventing the spread of servant leadership.
Then look at your company’s culture and how well that culture fosters and recognizes those who practice servant leadership.
Now fix yourself, so you can become a model of servant leadership, and then fix whatever needs fixing in your culture so that that kind of leadership will naturally rise to the top of your organization.
A few thousand years ago a gentleman named Lao Tzu said it all quite elegantly in just 45 words.
As for the best leaders,
the people do not notice their existence.
The next best,
the people honor and praise.
The next, the people fear;
and the next, the people hate—
When the best leader’s work is done,
the people say, “We did it ourselves!”
I can’t think of a better mantra to build your management around.
These days people are told to ‘build a personal brand’ and that everything they say and do needs to be in sync with their brand. By distilling and incorporating the essence of the following quotes you’ll develop a unique brand that will differentiate you from the pack.
Let’s start with something Cecil Beaton said that offers some great basic guidance, “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”
Intelligence is something that many people believe sets them apart, but, as Rene Descartes points out, “It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.”
Sandra Carey reminds us that using it well doesn’t mean only book-learning, “Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.”
Lao Tzu took that advice several steps further several centuries before it Carey said it, “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”
Long before Tony Hsieh married happiness to corporate culture at Zappos, Herman Cain offered up this bit of wisdom, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
In case you wonder if you really are happy you can use this great yardstick from Andy Rooney, “If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.”
And Ralph Waldo Emerson was kind enough to provide a yardstick with which to measure your success through the entire span of your life, “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children…to leave the world a better place…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
If you truly want a culture of innovation, then you also need to create a culture of leadership.
Last week I commented that if the ‘i’ in leadership is capitalized it changes leadership to leadershIt.
Whereas leadership can be a great motivator, leadershIt is a guaranteed demotivator.
Visions and other leadership functions done with an eye to self-aggrandizement aren’t likely to resonate whether done by positional leaders, leaders in the instance or those who aspire.
Because initiative and leadership are synonymous, leadership needs to be pushed out of the corner office and spread throughout the organization; doing so will encourage growth, creativity and innovation.
If leadership is the fertilizer then culture is the water, without which nothing will grow, and people are the seeds from which ideas come.
By spreading leadership evenly through out your company garden and watering regularly, leaving no unfertilized or dry patches in which a seed will be stunted or die, you assure yourself a bountiful harvest that will be the envy of your competitors. (Two follow-up posts have more on this topic here and here.)
This isn’t a new idea, just a new way of phrasing it; Lao Tzu said it best 4000 years ago, “To lead the people walk behind them.”
The one thing that remains constant in all these discussions is that you always have a choice—this time it’s between leadership and leadershIt.
I’ve never watched American Idol, Survivor or Oprah, but I love the CSIs (not Miami), NCIS (both) and especially Bones. The main character is a forensic anthropologist and one of her lines really resonated with me.
Anthropology tells us that the Alpha male is the one with the crown, the most shiny baubles, the fanciest plumage, but I learned that the real alpha male is often in the shadows because he is busy shining the light on others.
I think that applies to leaders, whether male or female.
It does not apply to those who lurk in the shadows manipulating others to do their bidding.
So when you are deciding whom to follow, who’s vision to trust, skip the shiny baubles and silken words and look to see who keeps turning the spotlight on others.
Last week I wrote about HBS’ effort to legitimize leadership as a multi-faceted function worthy of scholarly pursuit as opposed to anecdotal advice.
Back in 1994 Joel Kurtzmen coined the term “thought leader” and defined it as follows,
“Thought leader is a buzzword or article of jargon used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights (thinklets).”
Back then it may have had meaning, but 16 years later its frequent use in conjunction with the leadership flavor-of-the-month has reduced it almost to meaninglessness.
“Innovative ideas” doesn’t mean restating old stuff in new ways or recycling ideas the way the fashion industry recycles styles.
More importantly, truly innovative thinking is not tied or constrained by ideologies or past actions.
A great number of leadership fundamentals were first stated 2500 years ago in China by Lao Tzu and others of his ilk.
It is good to restate them in language current to the time and place, but presenting them as original or innovative and then claiming, or accepting, the mantle of thought leader is not.
I think the greatest compliment anyone can receive is to have something they say be deemed ‘wise’ by those around them. It has happened to me a few times and, to be honest, blew me away.
So I went looking for quotes about wisdom and found so many good ones that I’ll post the rest next week.
The thing about wisdom is that it transcends street smarts and learning. As Sandra Carey says, “Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.”
Wisdom, like charity, begins at home; Gian Carlo Menotti put it this way, “A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.”
Anon clarifies that advice and takes it a step further, “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”
Plato said, “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” Maybe that explains all those talking heads and sound bites that pass for wisdom these days.
Once you achieve even a modicum of wisdom you can’t count on it being permanent. Kahlil Gibran understood that when he said, “Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.”
But, as usual, at least for me, it’s Lao Tzu who really hits the nail on wisdom’s head, “Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.” Sadly, it seems that the higher you go the fewer people take the time for enlightenment.
Initiative is the most critical ingredient in any kind of success, whether individual or organization.
C. Northolt Parkinson said, “The man whose life is devoted to paperwork has lost the initiative. He is dealing with things that are brought to his notice, having ceased to notice anything for himself.” And sometimes he doesn’t even do that.
Initiative means doing, not just noticing; Henry Ford understood that when he said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”
Initiative is what moves you forward; it’s what gets you off your butt so you can accomplish whatever you choose.
Several hundred years ago Johann Wolfgang von Goethe put it this way, “Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” Or you can follow the less poetic version from Zig Ziglar, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” (Personally I prefer Goethe; beauty in words doesn’t dilute the meaning.)
Initiative doesn’t stay with one person, no matter the position, nor does it end when the original action is complete. As Lao Tzu put it 4500 years ago, “What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.” And butterflies go on to live another whole life.
All actions should be valued, whether great or small. After all, without the humble caterpillar there would be no butterfly.
But my favorite view of initiative comes from Holbrook Jackson when he said, “Genius is initiative on fire.”
Power is interesting—an almost tangible phenomenon.
People crave power relative to their image of themselves. What seems like a small amount to you may be enormous to another.
According to Margaret Thatcher, “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
Alice Walker warns that “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
Of course, a lot of people have just quit thinking, so they don’t have to worry about their power.
Francis Bacon tells us that “Knowledge is power,” but doesn’t mention that knowledge requires more than book-leaning and texting.
Napoleon said “Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.” Wow, he would make a great hedge fund manager, don’t you think?
Abraham Lincoln warns that “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
Sadly, most have failed the test.
As usual, the best wisdom about power is old.
In the mid 1600s Blaise Pascal said, “Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just,” but it will be a cold day in hell when that happens.
But It was Lao Tzu who best summed up power 2500 years ago when he said, “He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.”
I became a thinking adult watching him deliver the news starting in 1962 and when he stepped down in 1981 I stopped watching TV news—I wanted intelligence and objectivity, not image and opinions.
How can those of us who are familiar with Cronkite convey what he did for us? How do we explain to a generation that thinks bloggers, Howard Stern and morning TV are viable news sources what Walter Cronkite gave us?
Walter Cronkite understood the meaning behind Lao Tzu’s words, “To lead the people, walk behind them.”
Here are a few of his comments that I especially like…
“I feel no compulsion to be a pundit.”
“In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story.”
“I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that.”
“We are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders.”
“America’s health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.”
“I want to say that probably 24 hours after I told CBS that I was stepping down at my 65th birthday, I was already regretting it. And I regretted it every day since.”
I hope all of you will click the link and read more about this truly unique man; our country would be different without him.
I know of no better words with which to end today then as Cronkite ended each of his news shows—
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
A couple of weeks ago we took a look at Jim Heskett’s HBS discussion about why servant leadership isn’t very prevalent, considering how effective it is; this week he sums those reasons up.
These days people are told to ‘build a personal brand’ and that everything they say and do needs to be in sync with their brand. By distilling and incorporating the essence of the following quotes you’ll develop a unique brand that will differentiate you from the pack.
If you truly want a culture of innovation, then you also need to create a culture of leadership.
I’ve never watched American Idol, Survivor or Oprah, but I love the CSIs (not Miami), NCIS (both) and especially Bones. The main character is a forensic anthropologist and one of her lines really resonated with me.
Back in 1994 Joel Kurtzmen coined the term “thought leader” and 
I think the greatest compliment anyone can receive is to have something they say be deemed ‘wise’ by those around them. It has happened to me a few times and, to be honest, blew me away.
C. Northolt Parkinson said, “The man whose life is devoted to paperwork has lost the initiative. He is dealing with things that are brought to his notice, having ceased to notice anything for himself.” And sometimes he doesn’t even do that.
