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"The
Leader Who Serves"
by
C. William Pollard, The ServiceMaster Company
The Greenleaf Center
Indianapolis IN
June
8, 2001
It
is a special privilege for me to participate with you in this
conference on servant leadership. Over the years, I have admired
and respected what the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership
has accomplished in the lives of people and in the lives of
organizations. While I have sought to serve as I have led,
especially in the marketplace, and have taught on this subject,
I still feel that I am more of a student than a teacher.
The
process and discipline of serving as one leads is not always
natural or smooth. The perks, hierarchy and personality of
title and position that exist in normal organizational behavior
often get in the way. The leader who feels he or she has arrived
in understanding or implementing the role of a servant more
likely than not has failed to understand the scope and depth
of the subject.
Your
conferences, research and writings on this subject have played
an important role in the understanding and practice of servant
leadership. I hope my comments and examples today will be
a helpful addition.
The
context and reference point for my examples on the subject
come from ServiceMaster where for the last 24 years I have
participated in the leadership and growth of our company.
Our revenues today are almost $8 billion, we serve over 12
million customers in the US and 44 foreign countries and manage
and employ over 250,000 people.
We
have experienced a lot of change over this period of time,
e.g., 85% of the services we are delivering today we were
not doing just ten years ago - but our company objectives
have not changed. They are: To honor God in all we do - To
help people develop - To pursue excellence - To grow profitably.
The
first two objectives are end goals. The second two are means
goals. They have become our mission and organizing principle
for our business.
As
we seek to implement these objectives in the operation of
our business, they provide for us a reference point for seeking
to do that which is right and avoiding that which is wrong.
They remind us that every person, regardless of title, position,
faith, choice or label, has been created in the image of God
with dignity, worth and great potential. They have become
the basis for our single-minded focus on people as individuals,
not just part of a protected group or classification.
We do not use our first objective as a basis of exclusion.
It is, in fact, the reason for our promotion of diversity
as we recognize that different people are all part of God's
mix. And it does not mean that everything will be done right.
We experience our share of mistakes, but because of a stated
standard and reason for that standard, we cannot hide our
mistakes. They are flushed out in the open for correction
and, in some cases, forgiveness.
These objectives cause us to think and rethink about who we
are - why we work - and what is the purpose and meaning of
it all?
It was Socrates who stated that a person should first understand
oneself as a means of making a contribution to others. Know
thyself was his advice. Aristotle counseled his followers
to use one's talents to the utmost. One must have discretion
and direction. His advice was control thyself. Another great
thinker suggested service to others, especially those you
seek to lead. "Give thyself" were words spoken by
Jesus as He washed His disciples feet. In so doing, He taught
that no leader is greater than the people he or she leads.
Even the humblest of tasks is worthy for a leader to do.
Does this example fit into today's world 2000 years later?
There is certainly no scarcity of feet to wash and towels
are always available. The only limitation, if there is one,
is with the leader. Are we willing, figuratively or actually,
to be on our hands and knees, to compromise our pride and
status, to be involved and to have compassion for those we
lead and those we work with?
Now, as a business firm, we want to excel at generating profits,
creating value for our shareholders. If we don't want to play
by these rules, we don't belong in the ballgame. But we also
believe that the business firm can be a community to help
shape human character and moral behavior and to be involved
in developing people as the soul of the firm. The measure
of success of a leader in our firm cannot be limited to the
value of our shares or the profit we produce. More importantly,
it must relate to the people we work with and seek to serve.
It is from this framework and context that I would now like
to share some of our principles of servant leadership and
examples with you.
First, we should be prepared to walk in the shoes of
those we lead. In ServiceMaster this means that, as part of
leadership training, we experience what it is like to do the
hands-on service work and to feel the emotions of those we're
going to lead and manage. (Explain WeServe Day)
So when I started with ServiceMaster over 20 years ago as
Senior Vice President responsible for the legal and financial
affairs of the company, the first three months of my training
were involved in doing cleaning and maintenance tasks in hospitals,
industrial facilities and homes. For me, it was a learning
and serving experience and helped me to identify with the
needs and concerns of our service workers. It was a great
lesson in servant leadership. It has been a constant reminder
for me that I must always be prepared to serve and should
never ask anyone to do something I'm not willing to do myself.
Second, we should believe in the people we lead and
always be ready to be surprised by their potential and to
be ready to accept their difference. A colleague of mine tells
of an experience that has been a great reminder to me of this
point. It is often the custom of firms to hand out service
pins in recognition of years of service. As my friend was
involved in such an event, he was surprised by the response
of one of the recipients. The young man opened the box, took
out the beautiful sterling silver tie tack and said thanks,
and with a wide grin proudly put the service pin in his earlobe
not on his lapel.
People are different, and we should never be too quick to
judge potential by appearance or lifestyle. The firm at work
is a place where diversity should be promoted. It is the leader's
responsibility to set the tone, to learn to accept the differences
of people and to seek to provide an environment where different
people contribute as part of the whole and so to strengthen
the group and achieve unity in diversity.
Third, we should make ourselves available. Our door
should always be open. We should be out and about, talking
and listening to people at all levels of the organization.
We should always be willing to do whatever we ask of others.
At our headquarters building in Downers Grove, we have designed
our executive offices as a reminder of this principle of listening,
learning and serving. Nobody works behind closed doors. Glass
is everywhere, confirming our desire to have an open office
and open mind. No executive office captures an outside window.
The view to the outside is available to all working in the
office.
Fourth, we must be committed, not a bystander or simply
a holder of position. No enterprise can function to its capacity
nor can its people expect a healthy organizational culture
unless they can rely upon the covenants and commitments of
their leaders. This goes beyond the covenants usually contained
in a legal document. It extends to the people who day-by-day
are relying upon the leader for their future. It is fulfilling
a leader's campaign promises. It is the leader's obligation
or, as some have described it, "their posture of indebtedness".
One of the best ways I have found to communicate the extent
of this obligation is to picture it as a debt, a liability
if you will, on the balance sheet of a leader. (Here tell
story of leadership and stock ownership.)
Fifth, we must develop and nurture an environment where
people are the subject of work and not just the object of
work. (here tell the story of Olga and Nisha)
What was the difference between these two people? Yes, one
was born in Moscow, the other New Dehli, and their race and
language and nationalities were different, but their basic
tasks were the same. They both had to work for a living. They
both had modest and limited financial resources. One was very
proud of what she was doing. Her work had affected her view
of herself and others. The other was not, and she had a limited
view of her potential and worth.
The difference, I suggest, has something to do with how they
were treated, loved and cared for in their work environment.
In one case, the mission of the organization involved the
development of the person. In the other case the objective
was to provide activity and call it work.
So will the real leader please stand up? Not the president
or the person with the most distinguished title or the longest
tenure, but the role model. Not the highest paid person in
the group, but the risk taker. Not the person with the largest
car or the biggest home, but the servant. Not the person who
promotes himself or herself, but the promoter of others. Not
the administrator, but the initiator. Not the taker, but the
giver. Not the talker, but the listener.
Leadership is both an art and a science. The results of servant
leadership will be measured beyond the work place. The story
will be told in the changed lives of people. In developing
the social contract for the 21st century, the business firm
must increasingly become a community - a community that seeks
to develop human character and moral behavior. Leadership
- servant leadership - can make the difference.
Listen
as I close with these words from T. S. Eliot:
"What
life have you if you not have life together?
There is no life that is not in community.
And no community not lived in praise of God.
And now you live dispersed on ribbon roads.
And no man knows or cares who is his neighbor,
Unless his neighbor makes too much disturbance.
And the wind shall say, here were decent Godless people.
Their only monument the asphalt road,
And a thousand lost golf balls.
Can you keep the city that the Lord keeps not with you?
A thousand policemen directing the traffic,
And not tell you why you come, or where you go.
When the stranger says: "What is the meaning of this
city?"
Do you huddle close together because you love each other?
What will you answer? We all dwell together,
To make money from each other? Is this a community?
And the stranger will depart and return to the desert.
Oh my soul be prepared for the coming of the stranger.
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions."
*********
Rev.
6/5/01
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