It is time to rethink leadership?

Mary Blake, General Manager from Citrus Group shares her observations about the rising popularity of Servant Leadership as a method for organisations to nurture their teams during the pandemic and beyond.

As Simon Sinek has said, “Leadership is not about being in charge, it is taking care of those in your charge”. 2020 is a year that tested managers around the Globe, and I have been intrigued as to how leaders have supported their teams throughout last year and are supporting them as we emerge from the pandemic.

The NEW normal is an ever-changing series of scenarios such as rapid organisational transformation, maintaining employee engagement, ongoing or permanent flexible working arrangements, continuing digitalization and of course many hours on Zoom or Teams. The waves of constant change create employee fatigue and supporting people in this environment has become a major challenge for many organisations.

Robert Greenleaf first coined the term “Servant Leadership” in the 1970 and this movement has gained new popularity as organisations and leaders were thrust upon the murky waters of 2020 and beyond.

According to Greenleaf, A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people, as opposed to traditional leadership which involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

Servant leadership is based on turning the organisational chart on its head. Your people become the most important and the leader is there to, just as it says, serve it’s people.

- Simon Sinek

This style of leadership is about serving instead of commanding, lifting and empowering those above to great success, through continuous growth to unlock the individual potential which in turn continuous to create a sense of drive and purpose.

Servant leadership starts with an open mindset and one that is completely unselfish, where your desire is to truly serve your team, which in turn serves the organization. It requires ego’s to be checked and control to be handed over. Don’t get me wrong, servant leaders still require a number of other leadership traits such as vision, strategy, self-awareness and emotional intelligence to name a few.

There are several well-known organisations who practice servant leadership including Starbucks, Marriott International, SAS and Zappos.com. These organisations are known to be great places to work and to have inclusive, supportive cultures.

Perhaps Kenneth Blanchard describes this model the best, “Servant-leadership is all about making the goals clear and then rolling your sleeves up and doing whatever it takes to help people win” We are asked continuously how we at Citrus Group manage to have such long tenured staff in an industry that churns and burns recruiters. It is simple, our business was built on the style of servant leadership. We are there to serve our people, it is ingrained into the core of our leaders and our people. We practice it every day, with each other and with our clients. Hiring those with a servant attitude is imperative to creating an environment that is conducive to individuals achieving great success, working together to achieve and live the vision.

In a candidate rich market, it will be your leadership style that will denote the stickiness or longevity of those you bring into your team. How strong is your culture? As we move into 2021, are you ready to serve your people?

Mary Blake, General Manager, Citrus Group