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Written by Karen Smith-Will

Category: Coaching & Consulting

On Friday, September 9, 2011, my 12-year-old son and I attended President Barack Obama’s speech at my alma mater, University of Richmond in Virginia. He discussed his Jobs Plan, as a follow-up to his similar pitch to both houses of Congress the previous night. President Obama demonstrated a change management technique I call acquiring “emotional change agents,” individuals who will respond to an emotional appeal and voluntarily become ambassadors for change.

Read more: Leadership: Recruiting Emotional Change Agents: President Obama’s Jobs Plan

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Written by Karen Smith-Will

Category: Coaching & Consulting

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them."

- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene V).

Uncle Doug Eaker is a quiet man--salty at times, introspective at others and with a twinkle in his eye. Like most people, he has many stories. On today, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, I offer his story of leadership thrust upon him at age 23. He shared this with me a decade ago, on September 30, 2000, at our annual family reunion. The story will be told in several parts, including his perspective, his wife, Lena Mae's perspective, and that of his sister-in-law. Finally, there were will some statistics, for those die-hard history buffs. History serves as an important library of resources for the study of leadership.

Read more: Greatness Thrust Upon Him: Leadership at Pearl Harbor, Part I

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Written by Karen Smith-Will

Category: Coaching & Consulting

"Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth." Susan L. Taylor

Acting like a Leader: Responding to the Crisis

Doug: After that was all over and I got back home, then I volunteered for submarine duty and they sent me to San Diego. Lena Mae was already on her way away from Hawaii. They wouldn’t let us change our abode because war had already broke out. And all I could say was meet me at the YMCA in San Francisco. I couldn’t tell her when, where, or what not, because I couldn’t tell her on the radio where we would dock or when.

So we met in San Francisco, and they sent me to San Diego to catch the S-27, which was an old type submarine. As soon as I got on her, we went to the Aleutian Islands. And from the Aleutian Islands…

Lena Mae: “Well, let’s go back to Pearl Harbor. When he went to do his duty station, the girl next door and I, we didn’t know what to do.

Read more: Greatness Thrust Upon Him: Leadership at Pearl Harbor, Part II

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Written by Karen Smith-Will

Category: Coaching & Consulting

If you have been hearing about servant leadership for a while but still don’t feel like you have grasped the full concept, this list can help you get started. These resources can help leaders decide whether to take the proverbial road less traveled: that oxymoronic journey to become a servant.

Articles:

Servant Leadership: the Best-Kept Secret behind Successful Customer Experiences, by Karen Smith-Will - People sometimes still refer to dated models referring to organizations as providing products or services. But don’t be confused: every organization is a service organization.  I wrote this guest-blog for AchievedStrategies.com to describe how the servant leadership model can better align your organization to deliver quality services your customers deserve.

Become a Servant Leader: Do you have what it takes?, by John E. Barbuto, Jr. and Daniel W. Wheeler – The title says it all. This article includes some great questions to ask yourself, plus descriptions of a handful of the important competencies of servanthood.

World Class Courtesy: A Best Practices Report - This report emphasizes how servant leadership provides the backbone behind customer-service greats like Federal Express Corporation, Nordstrom, USAA, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA). Bonus: consider the introduction as a starter kit for basic customer services that should exist in every organization.

The Cross-Cultural Leader: The Application of Servant Leadership Theory in the International Context, by Maureen Hannay If you are interested in considering whether servant leadership could be successful in your culture, take a look at this article from the Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies.

Books:

Focus on Leadership: Servant-Leadership for the 21st Century Do not let the more scholarly approach of this compendium stop you from purchasing it. In addition to a kaleidoscope of perspectives on various dimensions of servant leadership, this book provides a powerful set of stories and character sketches that will encourage you to assess your own competencies.

Built to Serve: How to Drive the Bottom Line with People-First Practices This work, referred to in my blog item above, is an easy-to-read book that provides clarity on how servant leadership align people with process to generate value, based on the practices of a newer crop of customer service heavy-hitters—Southwest Airlines, United Supermarkets, Medtronics and others.

The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership If you like business fiction, this short book will give you an easy-to-read overview to the main points in Servant Leadership. Additional themes: personal retreat, My favorite quote: “Humility to me is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking about yourself less.

Website:

Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership This organization was started by Robert Greenleaf as a consultancy to apply the principles he learned through his career at AT&T. Greenleaf also held positions at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Harvard Business School, Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia.

Tools:

I am developing a Servant Leadership Competency Assessment, which should be tested in Fall 2010. It consists of over 50 distinctive competencies associated with servant leadership. If you’re interested in helping with the test or would like to comment on this bibliography, please click Contact Us and send a message. We welcome your input!