Servant Leadership – Make sure to tune in next week for J.C. Hunter! February 15, 2010

Friday, February 12th, 2010
by Joe

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Next Monday make sure to tune in for my interview with Servant Leadership guru, Jim Hunter. You can also sign up to receive weekly pod casts which are sent to your i-pod automatically every Monday. Servant Leadership is a leadership style that is often misinterpreted. Some people interpret being a Servant as being a slave or prisoner. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Let’s look at the two words independently: Servant – To meet the legitimate needs of another individual. I’m talking about needs not wants. A person may want more pay or want a company car, but that doesn’t mean they need them. We are very good at providing physical needs for employees: comfortable working conditions, place to park, fair compensation, office or work station and so on. However, to serve someone means we need to support their emotional and motivational needs as well. These two needs are equally legitimate and necessary to earn the minds and hearts of your employees. Ultimately to serve someone is to remove all obstacles that would prevent them from being excellent. Remove limitations and watch them grow.

Second we have the word Leader – the ability to influence a person or team to work independently towards a common goal. It’s the difference between having a person do something because they HAVE to instead of because they WANT to. Next week I will be discussing this with Jim as well as the change he’s seen over the last 25 years of coaching and teaching Servant Leadership to a number of Fortune 500 companies. You don’t want to miss it!

Jim Hunter to speak in the Fox River Valley on March 23rd! click here