Follow on to "Servant" post
As a follow on to my post about trying to articulate to managers of a company about Servant leadership. I ended up laying out a 4 page summary of my observations and passed it up to the CEO. In this document, I laid out Servant leadership and tried to show where the company was missing the mark and how, if it changed course and began to embrace a Servant model, that it could change the course of business history. The company is wrongly focused. Managers spend all their time worrying what their bosses think and very little time engaged with their direct reports. That upward focus has created an atmosphere where only the good news travels up and executive management has almost no idea of what is really happening to the morale of the salesforce.

My suggestion - turn from being upwardly focused and, instead, be 100% downwardly focused. Give up your power and turn down to your direct reports and empower them - take up an attitude of saying "I am going to do everything I can to make you as successful as you can be in your job - I'm going to know you and your business and when a problem arises, I am going to fight with you until we beat it." Give up your power and give it to those below you to make them better.

Seems like a pretty simple concept.

It fell on deaf ears - ears, it seems, that are simply incapable of hearing. Sort of like witnessing to a lost person - unless God ordains that they will hear - they are incapable of hearing. God sent Moses to Pharaoh to tell him "let my people go" but also added, "I will harden his heart so he will not hear you."

Management's (of this particular company) heart has been hardened - so it would seem.

The CEO called me and basically said "Thanks for sending this, I'm glad you care so much..."

The regional director came to see me and said, "Let's talk about your email and this servient...serve....serving..." I said, "Servant?" and he replied "Yeh that's it, servant leadership - I'm not familiar with that - it must be something important to you..." and then he changed the subject and never addressed that part of my email.

The local manager said "Sounds to me like servant leadership means I would have 15 bosses instead of one and i'd spend all my time trying to make everyone happy."

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It is a heartbreaking effort. Try as we may, sometimes, people just can't hear. We have to keep after it and stay true to the Word and the truth and that truth shall set you free.

Soar!