Servant Leadership from Within. Finding Your Voice in the University

Transcription

1 Servant Leadership from Within Finding Your Voice in the University

2 What? Me a leader?

3 What? Me a leader?

4 MINION: Someone who is not powerful or important and who obeys the orders of a powerful leader or boss

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6 Biblical view of the Body I Corinthians 12 Unity and Diversity in the Body God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?

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8 John 17:20-23 Jesus Prays for All Believers My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

9 John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

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11 George Fox University Our Vision To be the Christian university of choice known for empowering students to achieve exceptional life outcomes. Our Mission George Fox University, a Christ-centered community, prepares students spiritually, academically, and professionally to think with clarity, act with integrity, and serve with passion. Our Values Students First Christ in Everything Innovation to Improve Outcomes Our Promise At George Fox, each student will Be Known personally, academically and spiritually.

12 George Fox University Our Core Themes: Excellence in liberal arts foundation Excellence in professional preparation Christ-centered community Local and global engagement

13 Biblical view of the Body All functions are important Many that are least visible are most essential Easy to think otherwise Easy to dismiss our role Easy to be envious

14 Wish Dreams of Community Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream But God s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparably salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. When the morning mists of dreams vanish, then dawns the bright day of Christian fellowship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

15 As followers of Christ, as servants in his story, as servant leaders, we take up the challenge: Our common work, our common mission, our common vocation, is to live into the unity that Christ calls all his followers to, here in this part of the real world, in all the messiness and jerkiness each of us contributes, and allow ourselves to be formed in the process of serving one another, thereby offering a glipse of the Kingdom that is both now and not yet.

16 The Body of Christ: Now and Not Yet David is our Destiny Chris is our Current Reality

17 Three Lenses to View Your Work Written JOB DESCRIPTION How you THINK about your work How you GO ABOUT DOING your work

18 The people who make a difference in the lives of students and staff and provide daily leadership are not the ones with the most credentials, the most fame, the loftiest titles, or the most awards. They re people like you who lead from the middle.

19 Three Key Understandings Leadership is relationship Leadership is everyone s business Leadership development is selfdevelopment (Kouzes & Posner, 2003)

20 Leadership is relationship It s not about position It s about relationships and influence It s about working and learning with everyone you touch in the organization Individuals who lead from the middle enhance those relationships Those relationships, in turn, strengthen the community

21 Leadership is everyone s business Who do you influence? What do you have to share? How do you make a difference daily?

22 Think Pair Share Who do you or can you influence? (above, below, and beside you) What opportunities do you have to support others and help them grow in this organization? What is the unique contribution and view you provide?

23 Leading from the middle A new way of thinking about collaborative leadership Leading as a peer, not a superior Using persuasion, influence, relationship skills, and wisdom to achieve the desired outcome Influencing others to accomplish things that none of them could accomplish at all or as well - individually

24 Robert K. Greenleaf Career: 38 Years at AT&T, largely in management training and development 25 Years consulting on Servant Leadership thereafter Coined the term Servant-Leader in 1970s Inspiration: Hermann Hesse s short novel Journey to the East in 1960s Account of a mythical journey by a group of people on a spiritual quest True leadership stems first from a desire to serve Essays: The Servant as Leader (1970) The Institution as Servant (1972) Trustees as Servants (1972)

25 Greenleaf: The Servant-Leader The servant-leader is servant first It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions 25

26 Servant-first and other people s priorities The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people s highest priority needs are being served. 26

27 The best test of a servant-leader Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? 27

28 Caring for the least privileged And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived? 28

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30 Ten Characteristics Listening Empathy Healing Awareness Persuasion Conceptualization Foresight Stewardship Commitment to the Growth of People Building Community Introduction > Background > Characteristics > Paradoxes > Practice > Examples > More 2008 Benjamin Lichtenwalner

31 Characteristic Breakout Breaking out Spears characteristics into 3 dimensions SERVANT-LEADER Servant Leader Listening Empathy Healing Stewardship Commitment to People Building Community Awareness Persuasion Conceptualization Foresight Introduction > Background > Characteristics > Paradoxes > Practice > Examples > More 2008 Benjamin Lichtenwalner

32 In a group where individuals lead from the middle, you ll see them... Take the time to read each other s cues and adjust their own behavior in supportive ways Demonstrate mutual respect in the way they share observations, raise questions, participate and reveal their professional selves Reinforce and support both collective and individual needs and priorities Remain resilient in periods of stress Repair breakdowns when they occur

33 Remember... A leader is anyone who engages in the work of leadership. Everyone has the potential and right to be a leader. Leadership is a shared endeavor. (Lambert, 1998)

34 Harvesting Examples THINK of a story about somebody else not you at GFU, who demonstrated an aspect of Servant Leadership. Describe it. Be very specific. NO NAMES!

35 Your Perspective Matters: Home for Sale

36 Your Perspective Matters

37 What is Trust? Positive expectation Regarding others behavior (Kramer & Lewicki, 2011) Individuals expectations, assumptions, or beliefs about the likelihood that another s future actions will be beneficial, favorable, or at least not detrimental to one s interests (Robinson, 1996)

38 What Breaks Trust? Disrespectful behaviors Communication issues Unmet expectations Ineffective leadership Unwillingness to acknowledge Performance issues Incongruence Structural issues 38 Fraser, 2010

39 What restores broken trust? Apologies Explanations Penance Forgiveness Reinstatement Creation of social structures (Kramer & Lewicki, 2011) 39

40 What grows presumptive trust? History of interactions Common group identity Common understanding of interdependence of different roles Rule-based oughts spelled out and match practice; people socialized into the oughts Strong leadership (Kramer & Lewicki, 2011) 40

41 Example: Covenant of Trust I will strive to Competence Trust Character Trust Communications Trust 41

42 Conflict: Difficult Conversations (Stone, Patton, Heen) Three conversations to understand The What Happened? Conversation The Feelings Conversation The Identity Conversation

43 Vexing and Discipleship Look upon every fellow man who tries or vexes you as a means of grace to humble you. Andrew Murray, Humility, 1895

44 Discuss: What s an aspect of trust in action we can celebrate in our circle? What s an aspect of trust we could target for strengthening? How might we go about that?

45 REMEMBER: Leaders in the middle influence the organization s agenda, BUT they control the organization s culture and the culture remains long after strategic plans and initiatives come and go.

46 Your Perspective Matters: When the Organization Gets Off Track

47 Let s get personal: In your mind, lock into a decision or change that you experienced as top-down that you believed to be out of line with the mission, vision, and/or values of the university.

48 How did you respond? Fight or flight? Go along to get along? Knuckle under? Stew, grumble, and take swipes? Lean into the work inside yourself and in the organization?

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50 Hold a mirror up to yourself and to the organization Examine yourself, your motives Ask questions Share your view Bring light not heat

51 Your Perspective Matters

52 Positive Deviance Constructive Deviance (Vadera, Pratt, & Mishra, 2013) Creative Insubordination (Haynes & Licata, 1995) Artistic Insubordination (Buskey & Pitts, 2009) Tempered Radicalism (Meyerson, 2001)

53 Tempered Radicals Committed to organization mission Negative paths: exit, surrender, assimilation Positive path: balance conformity and marginalization to make change Positive Approach: Look for small wins Seize spontaneous, unplanned opportunities Pick right moment to defend key beliefs Find allies Work quietly and selectively deep in the system

54 Tempered Radical Strategies

55 Linguistic Jujitsu example Core theme #3: Christ-centered community provides the context for the work of faculty, staff, and students Mission outcomes: Think with clarity, act with integrity and serve with passion. Outcomes are to be pervasive in our community, modeled by faculty and staff Thinking with clarity: Ability to look carefully at evidence, to realize and understand bias, to learn how to differentiate and weigh the values of competing points of view, and to recognize and hold these competing points in healthy tension. Modeled for students by faculty, staff, and administrators Key belief: All are gifted and spiritually called to service. Identify the gifts of students, faculty, staff, and administrators--equip for vocation to serve passionately within giftedness. Results: fruit of love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

56 Servant Leader Takeaways Your story of your work: Part of God s story Your role: Servant Leader Leadership is rooted in relationships We are a Farley body destined for David We are all Jerks with a glorious future Take responsibility Act, don t react Bridge, link, connect Grow trust Covenant with others Walk humbly

57 Walk the Talk Check your self-perceptions with whom? What will you commit to? What is the timeframe? What will it look like? To whom will you be accountable?