BUILDING A WINNING CULTURE THROUGH SERVANT LEADERSHIP Charlotte

BUILDING A WINNING CULTURE THROUGH SERVANT LEADERSHIP Charlotte Martin Former President & COO Gateway EDI 1

WHAT IS SERVANT LEADERSHIP? • Servant leaders focus on identifying and meeting the needs of others rather than trying to acquire power, wealth, and fame for themselves. • Servant leaders are attentive to the growth and development of those they work with, including partners, employees, and customers. • Servant Leadership is a pretty intuitive concept; but it clashes with many of the values instilled by modern American culture. 2

Servant Leadership results in better service because frontline people are encouraged and empowered to develop strong relationships with customers. Servant Leadership creates high performing organizations, because it supports shared power and high involvement throughout the organization. Higher Level” --Ken Blanchard, “Leading at a 3

Key practices of Servant Leaders Be self aware ◦ Understand the impact that your words and actions have upon others. People will look to the leader for emotional cues. Listen ◦ A true Servant Leader automatically responds to any problem by listening first. To know what is happening, push less, open up and be aware. The wise leader speaks rarely and briefly. The leader teaches more through “being” than through “doing”. Help others achieve their goals ◦ The leader’s job is to facilitate and illuminate what is happening. Interfere as little as possible. Reflecting others is encouraging to people, outshining others inhibits them. 4

From CORNER OFFICE: ANDY LANSING, an interview with Andy Lansing, president and chief executive of Levy Restaurants, conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. “…. . I learned early on about a trait of good leaders, which is that I may have the idea, but I'm going to make you think that you came up with the idea and give you credit for it at the end of the day. So it’s sort of getting people to do things without letting them know what hit them, and giving them credit for it. …. I wasn’t crazy about the concept of telling people what to do and being a boss. The power of being a boss is an awesome responsibility, … I figured out that I didn’t want people to fear me and do things because of who I was. People have personal power or they have positional power. Positional power means I have power over you because I'm your boss — “I'm very important, I'm the C. E. O. You should fear me because of who I am. ” And then there’s personal power, which is what’s inside of you. I always say there are people in our company who are dishwashers who have more personal power than someone who’s a manager because they have that quality. 5

So what I figured out …is that being a manager doesn’t equal being a leader. You can have the title of manager and that’ll give you the right to walk around and spin keys on your finger or talk in a walkie-talkie or look and act important, but that’s not what gives you power. … What gives you power is how you treat people and how you lead. …. Leaders are the people you want with you when all hell is breaking loose. They have the knowledge about how to treat people with respect and dignity and how to just be a natural leader. There are those great debates — are leaders born or are they made? — And I think there are people who are just born with that natural ability that makes people want to follow them. 6

In her 1924 book, Creative Leadership, author Mary Parker Follett summed up the total leadership experience with these simple and powerful words: “Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power, but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those who are led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders. ” -Closing the engagement gap: A road map for driving superior business performance. Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study, 2007 -2008 7

Oh yeah, one more thing… One finding from a study that we conducted over the past decade, involving over 38, 000 people, especially caught our eye. It was an item (a research question) that showed up again and again as the single most important variable in contributing to the career advancement of a leader. If you said, “astutely plays the political game, ” you would be wrong. The research item was: How afraid – or not – a leader is to admitting mistakes. As we delved deeper into this phenomenon, what became clear was that there is something different about people who, when facing a setback, face it head on, admit and own the mistake(s) they made and, more importantly, grow from their mistake(s). We found that they are not afraid to be public about how they screwed up (when we say public we do not mean in front of their whole organization—although sometimes this occurs—but in front of a direct report or manager). We think of this attribute as “playing big” and it is not easy to do. It takes courage AND gumption. Why Survival is Not Enough”, Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry, President, Institute for Health and Human Potential 8

MEASUREMENTS OF SUCCESS Delivered eleven consecutive years of double digit revenue growth primarily through organic sales. Grew margin from break even to +20% average within 2 years and maintained that average for 10 years Achieved customer satisfaction ratings consistently above the 80% excellent rating. Generated employee satisfaction survey results consistently above 90% satisfied. Selected and successfully integrated five acquisitions into company with immediate ROI. Achieved ongoing customer retention of >95%. 9

Overall Satisfaction Rating by year 10

Reading materials Keith, Kent M. The Case for Servant Leadership. Indiana. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. 2008 Phillips, Donald T. Lincoln on Leadership. New York. Business Plus. 1992 Heider, John. The Tao of Leadership. Florida. Humanics New Age. 1985 Covey, Stephen M. R. The Speed of Trust. New York. Free Press. 2006 11