Serving Leaders who Shoot for the Stars…
As I reflect on 42 years of life, I look ahead to the next 42 years and wonder…who are our future leaders…who will keep this country great? All we hear about the next generation is that they are “lazy” and have an entitlement mentality. May’s Time Magazine cover (above) is entitled “The Me Me Me Generation”. Are there any servant leaders to be found?
In The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do (2009), Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller give an in-depth description of great leadership. Their book is a captivating story illustrating five elements of servant leadership–using the easy-to-remember acronym, SERVE.
One of a leader’s most important responsibilities is to envision and communicate a compelling picture of the future. Blanchard and Miller note that leadership always begins with a picture of a preferred future.
One of the lessons I learned early in my management career was that the vision for the future needs to be a shared vision…in fact, it’s more important that your team buy in to the vision than how “good” it is. In my first leadership role, I came up with a beautiful vision for the future for the HR specialists I led. To my surprise, they didn’t like it… I later learned they had their own ideas…imagine that! In the end, we developed a shared picture for the future that was more powerful than I imagined.
So, don’t feel pressured that you must be a visionary to be a leader. Servant Leaders figure out how to bring a compelling picture of the preferred future out of their team…for that, facilitation skills trump visionary skills…
For more on their five elements—comprising the acronym SERVE—click here.