Servant Leaders Can Be Identified By...

• How they treat people with respect
• Their positive attitude
• A desire to serve others
• The time they spend with their team
• Their communication and conflict resolution skills
• More one-on-one meetings with their people
• Giving and seeking feedback from their direct reports, peers, and their own leaders
• Their ability to handle bad news and not panic
• The respect people show them
• Their influence with people
• Their motivation to serve to make a difference in people’s lives
• By the high standard they hold themselves and their team
• By the way they care for people

Servant Leaders Bring A Vision That Believes

The Best Strategy to Achieve Organizational Goals and Create Competitive Advantage Is By Developing An Environment Of Caring, Mutual Trust And Respect Between The Leaders And The People And By Focusing Their Efforts And Strategy On Developing The Full Potential Of All Associates and The Business They Create A Winning Partnership.

SERVANT LEADERS LIVE THEIR VISION BY

• Treating people as the most important asset in the company
• Seeing people not as they are today but their potential
• Realizing people are more important than tasks
• Measuring their own success by the success of those they lead
• Knowing leadership is about building relationships throughout the company
• Impacting people’s lives by mentoring and coaching
• Setting goals, objectives, actions and measurements with accountability for the results
• Leading not just with their words but with their actions and modeling the behavior
• Believing it is the responsibility of leaders to make a difference in people’s lives
• Caring for, encouraging, inspiring, and motivating their people

 From the book,  The Journey to Competitive Advantage Through Servant Leadership, written by Bill

Flint. Book will  be released late November 2011.

Leaders Need To Be Humble

When most people describe a leader the word humble isn’t usually mentioned. But, for a leader to be effective they need to be humble.  Of course all of us can act and be humbled especially when we do something wrong or are caught in a very bad situation. We have seen the scene played out over and over again on TV with celebrities, politicians and business leaders in recent years that get caught doing something they shouldn’t. But, I’m talking about being truly humble when you have found success, have achieved a lot in your life and people admire you. That is when it is hard to remain humble and remain grounded.

To achieve that kind of humbleness requires a person who has developed their God-given spirit, talents and ability to put people first and their own success in perspective.  One advantage of caring about others is that it doesn’t give you time to focus on yourself, your achievements and wants. Caring about others needs and helping them find their potential becomes a good barrier for keeping selfishness out of your own life and humbleness alive.  These barriers help servant leaders:

• Feel successful because they are helping others achieve
• When success comes to be thankful for the opportunity
• Know their weaknesses and what to avoid
• Attract followers because they are real
• Try to grade their own success based on God’s standards not the worlds
• Be strong and stand up for what is right

By: Bill Flint

Our Congress: An Example Of Leadership Gone Bad

 I’m saddened by watching our Congressional leaders fight over budgets, the debt ceiling, taxes and so many subjects it makes my head spin. What is sad is that I do not see many servant leaders in Congress. It doesn’t matter whether they are Democrats, Republicans or Independents. Their decisions seem to be driven by how it makes them and their party look, getting re-elected, making the other political party look bad, stretching the truth to make if fit their beliefs. The finger pointing is almost unbearable. If they just knew or maybe better yet really cared how bad it made them and us as a country look, maybe they would work to change.  But, they all seem to talk in double speak so they never have to give a straight answer. Then if they do talk all they do is blame the other party. Real leaders never blame others. 

Servant leaders sit down and try and resolve conflict. They wouldn’t keep stoking the fire with their words of conflict and name calling. They would talk in private not air the dirty laundry on TV and radio. They wouldn’t try and always one up the other leaders. They would find ways to compromise so everyone can get a little credit for the win.  Servant leaders don’t call other people names and they do what is right for those they lead.  One thing I have noticed about those in Congress they almost always refer to each other as the Republicans or Democrats when speaking about each other. They always talk like they are all opponents instead of a team of servant leaders working together to solve our countries problems.

Servant leaders would see each congressman as a person who has ideas even though they might be different, they would show respect and most importantly they would remember that little rule that says, “Every person in any argument has a little piece of right.  If we had servant leaders our halls of Congress would be filled with voices of respect, humble attitudes and leaders doing the right thing, in the right way for the right purpose.  Now we seem to have a bunch of adults acting like children arguing on the playground. I apologize to children everywhere for comparing you to our Congress. I know a servant leader shouldn’t talk like this, but it felt good to write it. Please forgive me this one time. I couldn’t help myself.

 

Why do companies struggle selling new customers?

They don’t think "Globally".  That doesnt mean you have to sell in foreign countries, it just means expanding the markets or territories you are selling in.  For some, this could be as simple as developing prospects in neighboring states or similar markets.

Leadership and Employee Development

In today’s business world no one accomplishes success by themselves. Business success is always about having the right people with the right skills in the right jobs working together as a team all pulling in the same direction. But, in many businesses that isn’t the case. The people are talented but are struggling with getting along as a team due to poor communication, conflicts not being resolved and people working their own agenda. Successful companies have learned that communication is the glue that holds them together and that they must embrace conflict in order to find a solution and move forward.

What Is This Thing Called Strategy?

Strategic planning is one of the most important efforts a company should undertake no matter its size. It starts with the senior leadership taking a time out from their "busy being busy" schedule to take an honest look at the business and themselves. A "current state" review of what is happening in the business and what needs to change so they can develop a competitive advantage that separates them from their competitors.

Being Truthful With Yourself

Telling the truth is critical to being successful in business (and in life). It helps you take the right actions.

Trying to convince yourself that everything is ok when it isn’t is a quick road to disaster. Successful bussinesspeople know and admit when

things are less than perfect and get help to correct problems. Always be willing to admit mistakes and take action to correct them. Base your decisions on facts, NOT HOPE!

With Employees

Keeping your employees informed of the good and the bad "news" is just good business. People fear only what they don’t know. Keeping either good or bad news to yourself more often than not will backfire and cause employee problems.

With Customers

Being honest with customers is critical to forming solid business relationships. If you can’t ship - communicate! If you have a mistake, admit it and correct it. Making excuses will only make things worse.

With Vendors

Vendors are your partners and you must be clear in your dealings with them. When things are good - tell them, and when they are bad - tell them. If you have problems deal with it openly and completely.

Why Do Most Sales and Marketing Strategies Run Out Of Steam Long Term?

• Developed during a one day planning session, a sales meeting or quickly for budgeting only.
• Rarely re-visited with little time spent correcting strategies and tactics that are not working.
• Lack understanding of their current sales and marketing process and the resources needed to grow.
• Lack of focus on their customers, markets and competitors.
• Slow to react to changes in the marketplace or economy.
• Develop copycat strategies that look like their competitors. Nothing new.
• Companies don’t have the time or the people needed to develop a plan and drive its implementation.
• Lack of Real Attention: Business owners and leaders said sales growth is their number 1 or 2 priority but in their actual daily actions and activities sales growth showed up number 5 or 6 on their list.

Leadership

"No leader can possibly have all the answers . . . .The actual solutions about how best to meet the challenges of the moment have to be made by the people closest to the action. . . .The leader has to find the way to empower those frontline people, to challenge them, to provide them with the resources they need, and then to hold them accountable. As they struggle with . . . this challenge, the leader becomes their coach, teacher, and facilitator. Change how you define leadership, and you change how you run a company." ~ Steve Miller, Group Managing Director, Royal Dutch/Shell.