5 Servant Leader Strategies to Boost Impact

Posted on

 

 

 

 

by Peter Economy

Research shows that this leadership style can enhance team performance and satisfaction.

Too many employees know what it’s like to work for a boss who’s more focused on the bottom line than on the people who actually get the work done. Servant leadership turns that all-too-common scenario on its head. It focuses on the needs of employees, customers, and other stakeholders instead of focusing on their own needs. Here’s a secret: Research shows that this leadership style can enhance team performance and satisfaction.

When Robert K. Greenleaf first developed the concept of servant leadership during the 1970s, others considered it too gentle for a competitive business environment. Successful organizations today understand that sustainable performance relies on people-oriented leadership. Throughout my own professional journey, I have personally witnessed these transformations, and their results clearly demonstrate their effectiveness.

Here are five practical strategies to adopt servant leadership principles that will boost your team’s effectiveness—and your happiness as a leader.

1. Listen with intent.

How often have you attended meetings where leaders solicit opinions but only pretend to listen until they can get in their own two cents? People can easily distinguish between listening that is just for show and listening that comes from true interest.

Establish routine meetings with team members that have no specific agenda and focus solely on understanding their viewpoint. When someone presents a challenge to you, avoid the instinct to propose solutions right away. Ask open-ended follow-up questions that demonstrate interest, such as: Can you tell me more about that? How is that affecting your work? You’ll be amazed at the knowledge gained when your people experience authentic listening from you.  Continue reading →

How to create leaders who coach, rather than command

Posted on

 

 

 

 

By Aneesh Raman and Teuila Hanson

 

We’re facing a career confidence crisis. Work is changing fast, yet many employees feel stuck. At LinkedIn, our data shows workforce confidence has dropped to a five-year low, and only 15% of employees say their manager has supported them with career planning in the past six months.

Managers can play a big role in righting the ship—helping employees build the new skills they need to stay relevant and develop into future leaders. But this requires a fundamental shift: transforming them from task-overseers to coaches developing talent and sparking the best ideas from their teams. There are some key steps any company can take now to develop a culture of coaching that starts with your managers—but extends well beyond them.

Start to develop your managers as coaches 

If you want your managers to become coaches, that starts by coaching your coaches. Just like elite athletes rely on coaches to reach peak performance, managers also need coaching to unlock their full potential. Coaching is a skill that needs to be intentionally developed. Executives are starting to grasp this opportunity. Nearly 80% of global CHROs agree their managers in the future will spend less time managing tasks and more time coaching teams.

Leading companies are doubling down on this already. For instance, IBM supports first? and second?line managers to grow through targeted programs, assessments, and skill-aligned badges. Manager Impact, for example, is an interactive learning experience that coaches new managers on how to lead with confidence, create meaningful employee experiences, and navigate real-world leadership challenges. Managers who complete these programs achieve significantly higher employee engagement scores, says IBM.

Continue reading →

5 tips for eliminating big egos at work

Posted on

 

 

 

 

 

by Aytekin Tank

 

 

Freud once wrote, “The ego is not master in its own house.” He argued that the ego, which controls your thoughts and behaviors, is influenced by the id (your most basic impulses) and the superego, which consists of the rules and norms of society. Having a balanced ego is key to personal well-being. Similarly, having and leading with a balanced ego is key to professional and team success.

Leaders with inflated egos can cause irreparable harm to workers and companies. Less willing to entertain contradictory ideas, they stifle innovation and make poorer-quality decisions. Because their egos crave positive attention, they’re susceptible to manipulation. What’s worse, the traits of egocentric leaders often trickle down through an organization, potentially undermining its very fabric. That’s why it’s key for leaders to practice leaving their egos at the door.

Here are five strategies for releasing your sense of self-importance and leading with less ego.

Train your active listening ability like it’s a muscle

If you’ve ever been to a therapist, then you’re familiar with active listening. A good therapist listens attentively, interprets when appropriate, and endeavors to understand what you’re saying. They don’t just hear you, but they make you feel heard. In doing so, they allow their own ego to fall away.

Like strength training at the gym, you can train your active listening ability as if it were a muscle. The core components of active listening are comprehending, retaining, and responding. By working on these skills, you can become a better active listener.

You should also get in the habit of clarifying misunderstandings in the moment, for example due to slang or technical explanations. Ask questions and seek further explanations. If necessary, request that someone break down a concept into terms a child would understand. Tune out any distractions and try to be aware of your own biases. And finally, communicate that you’ve understood what someone has said.

Active listening takes effort, but like weightlifting, it gets easier with repetition. Continue reading →

How great leaders use curiosity to drive innovation

Posted on

 

 

 

 

by Tony Martignetti

Curiosity isn’t just a good personality trait or an indulgence—it’s a leadership superpower. In a business environment where innovation dictates success, curiosity serves as the catalyst for breakthroughs and industry reinvention. Yet, despite its transformative potential, it remains one of the most undervalued tools in leadership today.

According to a Harvard Business Review study, curiosity fosters openness and collaboration while reducing decision-making errors. Yet only 24% of organizations actively encourage it, leaving a wealth of untapped potential on the table. The best leaders don’t just seek answers; they reframe problems. Instead of asking, “How do we fix this?” they ask, “What if we reimagine this entirely?” Leaders who embrace this mindset uncover opportunities for reinvention that others overlook because they only focus on immediate challenges.

Curiosity begins with observation

In the world of art and design, curiosity begins with observation. Georgia O’Keeffe once remarked, “Nobody sees a flower, really—it is so small we haven’t time, and to see takes time.” Her words offer a lesson for leaders: True insight comes from taking the time to observe and understand what others overlook. The design thinking process mirrors this ethos, emphasizing empathy, iteration, and a willingness to embrace failure. Leaders who adopt these principles uncover unmet needs and rethink stagnant paradigms.

For instance, I once worked with a biotech executive who revitalized their R&D team with a single question: “What are we missing in the data that could change the trajectory of our discovery?” This curiosity-fueled inquiry led to a cross-disciplinary exploration, resulting in a groundbreaking treatment that shifted the company’s competitive position. Continue reading →

How to Empower Employees to Think and Act Like Owners

Posted on

 

 

 

 

by Bill Fotsch

Learn how to engage employees and drive profit growth through transparency.

Let’s say you’ve spoken with your customers, as we suggest you do regularly. They’ve told you what they value. After all, it’s your customer that defines the value of your business. Now, it’s time to get excited about the economics of your business. And not just you, but everyone in the organization, from bottom to top. Why? Economics determine profits, and when employees have economic understanding, it only increases profitability.

Employees should understand the economics of business.

The economics of your business are what the customers value (offense) versus your cost to provide the value (defense). They’re also operational. They’re the hands-on metrics your employees deal with every day:

  • Call center agents focus on average handle time and customer satisfaction scores to assess service quality and responsiveness.
  • Truck drivers measure on-time delivery percentage or fuel efficiency to optimize logistics performance.
  • Staff in a restaurant tracks their table turn time to manage kitchen efficiency and profitability.
  • Software developers pay attention to deployments without bugs to measure software quality and release efficiency.
  • Nurses monitor medication error rates to ensure efficiency and safety in patient care.
  • Warehouse workers monitor orders fulfilled per hour to gauge efficiency and accuracy.

Motivation increases when employees have a stake in success.

Once your employees understand how these operating metrics impact overall company success and how they themselves contribute to those metrics, they can focus all their efforts on improving them. This empowers employees to make smart choices and act in ways that drive performance. By giving them a voice in the important metrics of your business, their level of engagement—real engagement—soars.

Imagine two employees working at the same level in the same industry. The first employee has a clear understanding of her company’s economics. She’s not trained to read financial statements, as some experts recommend. Instead, she tracks the operational metrics that drive profitability, such as units shipped—the stuff she has a hand in. Each week, she monitors and forecasts these numbers, actively working to boost them.

As her whole team does this, customers are served more profitably. Value increases. When performance improves, her quarterly bonus improves, funded by the improving financials. Transparency fuels this improvement. Continue reading →