The Path to Servant Leadership
The Great Resignation isn’t over. We are still experiencing an average of 4 million voluntary quits each month. There is a way to curb employee disengagement, high turnover, and siloed departments. Servant Leadership is the opposite of autocratic leadership. Instead of command and control, leaders support and empower. Servant Leaders focus on the development and growth of their followers.
Become someone's favorite boss: have their backs, challenge them to challenge themselves, and help them grow, not only professionally but personally. Make it your goal to create as many leaders as you possibly can—whether they're growing through the ranks of management or thriving as individual contributors in their own right.
What are the organizational benefits of Servant Leadership compared to autocratic leadership?
- 6 percent higher job performance
- 8 percent increase in positive customer service ratings
- 50 percent higher staff retention rate—It costs an average 200% of an employee’s salary to replace an employee. Turnover can kill a company!
Take your company leadership to a new level. It goes without saying, but managers play a critical role in their employees’ workplace happiness and engagement. With burnout on the rise, many important factors come into play when evaluating and improving job satisfaction among teams, including work organization and psychological safety. If approached correctly, factors like these have an impact. Good organization, for example, provides employees with clear, obtainable goals that they can work toward. This Servant Leadership upskill will help put them in a customer centric mindset and empower them to work their best. As a result, employees may see an increase in positive feedback from customers and colleagues. The type of motivation that comes from a well-organized and empowering workplace can instill a sense of trust and confidence, which will gain positive results.
If you think Servant Leadership is soft, consider the U. S. Army and Marine Corps. These organizations have strong cultures and shared values, understand the importance of teamwork, create trust among their members, maintain focus, and, most importantly, understand the importance of people and relationships to their mission success. These organizations are also in a position where the cost of failure can be catastrophic. Mission failure is not an option.
What People Are Saying
Larry C. Spears
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About the Author
Susan has 30 years’ experience coaching leaders and business owners in the fields of financial services and real estate. She is a John Maxwell International Coach, Speaker, and Trainer. She adds value to her clients as a Prosci Change Practitioner. When an organization undergoes a big change or transition, a change management model outlining the process can be helpful and often makes the difference. A change practitioner has a positive impact on staff, team members and supervisors whose roles are important for successfully implementing company changes
Bringing her wisdom, expertise, and experience to help entrepreneurs and business leaders transition from a top-down, autocratic leadership business model to a servant leadership model is truly her passion.
Working together in 12-month coaching programs, Susan helps them identify and implement their company’s core values, step-by-step, month-by-month. The result is always the development of high-performance teams headed by departmental servant leaders.
Her coaching programs are a Done-with-you approach, but she also has Done-For-You offerings.
Her book The Path to Servant Leadership: A 12-Month Guide to Implementation is a companion to the coaching program.
Susan lives in Northeast Georgia, and when not writing or coaching, enjoys activities with family, friends in her community and her church.
