Start by referring back to rule number one, performance is personal before it is organizational, and check my earlier blog entry, “Why Should Your Organization be People Centered?”

So why should your organization be servant led?  Because servant leaders clear away barriers to personal performance; they enable, in positive ways, good behaviors and sustained superior performance.  How?  By observing and interacting with their people, learning what is affecting negatively their job performance, and finding ways to remove the performance obstacles they identify.

There are two excellent books, one by James Hunter, The Servant, and the other by Ken Blanchard (the author of The One Minute Manager), The Servant Leader, which describe what servant leaders do to help their people perform at their peak.  Be aware that Ken Blanchard’s book carries with it a strong message about Christianity and Leadership, but it is also a great tool to understanding yourself as a servant leader.  Another excellent book, Hidden Value, by O’Reilly and Pfeffer, tells many stories about successful organizations.  At the heart of most of those stories is an often hidden message about being a people centered, servant led organization.

The message in each of these books is: if you as a leader do nothing other than demand high performance, without regard for the ability and willingness of your people to produce it, and without setting the stage for them, you set up your people, yourself, and your organization for poor performance.  It may not be immediate, but it will almost certainly come.

You need to create the environment within which people are motivated to do their very best.  You establish the working conditions, the compensation, and the expectations.  You establish the communications and help define the culture within your area of responsibility.  You build the team and inspire each person.  You break down the barriers in and outside the organization.  You lead by getting out of the way and turning your people loose on the challenge.

And by the way, you had better do some serious soul-searching yourself.  You need to be very self-aware, because every decision you make and action you take will be a lesson for your people.  You had better eat your own dog food, drink your own Koolaid, and walk your own talk!

If you don’t have this gift of self-awareness, if you do not have the leadership skills, you had better find someone who does.  Not everyone is gifted to be a great leader.  You may be a great entrepreneur, an effective consultant, a knowledgeable teacher, or an astute business strategist; but if you do not have the people skills and leadership gifts, find someone you trust who does!  It’s even more important than being a servant leader, to know if you are the right person for the job.

If you are not the right person for the servant leader role you cannot perform up to your own full potential, nor can your organization perform up to its potential.  And if you are the head of your organization it’s not just you, it’s your entire leadership team.  Servant leadership is not just a way for a supervisor or manager to lead, it’s a matter of culture for the entire organization.  If you establish that model, but your management team doesn’t get it or can’t or won’t do it, then you will not get the results you expect or need.

Why should your organization be servant led?  It should be servant led because servant leaders free their people to achieve superior personal performance, enabling your organization to perform up to its full potential.

Just by being an effective servant leader you are beginning to establish a very supportive, strong and positive culture, consider it a firm foundation, within your organization.  You are defining certain core competencies essential to your organization’s success.  And you are defining, by your own expectations, certain behaviors all of your people should exhibit that lead to feeling part of a team, being “on the same page”, being respected and appreciated, developing the character and integrity of your organization.  In short, you are becoming values focused, the next critical success factor for your organization’s peak performance.