Amplify Your Servant Leadership

Unlock the transformative strategies of servant leadership as we share the secrets to magnifying your influence, setting a course for a legacy that echoes through the halls of your organization. With a heartfelt tribute to accompany us on this leg of the journey, our last installment of the Servant Leadership Series promises to leave you with actionable insights and a renewed sense of purpose in your leadership role. We delve into the crucial steps of leading not just with authority, but with a deep understanding of the 'why' behind every action, laying the groundwork for a culture where each team member thrives and adopts the mantle of servant leadership themselves.

As our series comes to a close, I'm flooded with gratitude for your companionship along this path. The anticipation is palpable as we prepare to welcome an inspiring guest in our next episode—don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss a moment of wisdom from our upcoming conversation. It's been an incredible series, rich with lessons on uplifting others and forging authentic connections. Lead well, my friends, and may your journey be abundant with success, understanding, and a purpose that propels you and your team forward.

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Order your copy of Jon's book at RedefineYourServantLeadership.com, and don't forget to utilize the additional resources, or purchase access to the Workbook and Coaching Videos.

Send your Leadership and Business questions to Jon at podcast@leadwell.com.

For more information visit https://leadwell.com

The Leadwell Podcast gives mission-driven leaders principled and practical advice to do just that, lead well.

In each episode, your host Jon Kidwell, interviews leaders with great stories, to share strategies that help leaders navigate complex, confusing, and often down-right challenging leadership, personal growth, business, and workplace culture situations.

Jon is a nonprofit executive turned coach, speaker, author, and CEO of a leadership development company. In working with nonprofits and businesses, big and small, he realized the unique challenges leaders face when they are committed to keeping the mission and people the top priority. Those leaders’ commitment to their principles and the people they lead, plus seeing the need for more leaders who strive to do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons, is what inspired Jon to start a leadership development company dedicated to the success of mission-driven leaders and their organiza...

Transcript

Announcment

Speaker 1 0:00

Oh, hold on. Before I give you what podcast this is and why it's here, I want to let you know that I have an announcement at the very end of the podcast about a switch in the podcast format, so make sure you stay tuned all the way till the end. Okay, now back to our normal show. You're a servant leader and you're looking for ways to grow servant leadership in the people around you and in the organization you lead. Today, that's what we're going to dive into is how to amplify your servant leadership, to extend it beyond just you, to the people around you and to the organization you lead. You're going to walk away with two ways specifically to amplify your servant leadership. Let's jump in right now. Welcome to the Leadwell Podcast, where we help you redefine your servant leadership so that you can lead with even greater integrity, so you can grow your influence and so that you can deliver tremendous results for the mission that you are on.

Speaker 1 1:12

I'm your host and recent author of the book Redefine your Servant Leadership and I am so glad you are here with us today. Let me tell you about why we're doing Amplify and why this episode. About two months after the book came out. So the book released about two months ago and you've got that book, you've read through your copy, you're doing some of the activities. Maybe you went to the website, got the book resources, you are working through it and now you're probably near the end of the book. That last section of the book is called Amplify, and Amplify is really to increase the volume, to kind of extend beyond oneself If we think about it in terms of our impact. Right, it's not just me, but now we're thinking about legacy, we're thinking about how do we develop and lead others to also show up as redefined servant leaders, and so we've strategically timed this episode to come a little bit after the book, so that you've had time to read through there and we can do this section together.

Speaker 1 2:14

Before we dive into the two ways that you can amplify your servant leadership personally and the people around you or inside of your organization, in the people around you or inside of your organization, please take a moment. Like, subscribe, share this podcast. I've teed up exactly what we're going to do. And if you know a servant leader who's sitting there saying how do I get some of the ways that I go about doing these things to my team, or you know a CEO, a pastor, an executive who's leading in an organization, saying how do I bake in some of these principles and ideals into the organization? Now's the time to share that episode with them so that we can dive in.

Say the What and Why + Integrate into your Organization

Speaker 1 2:52

There are two ways that we can amplify our servant leadership, and one is by saying what we are doing and why we are doing it. And the second one is to weave them into all of the activities that we can think about inside our organization. So, really, if you think about it, one it's connecting with the people around me, and two, it's setting up the organization so that it serves the people around me and the mission and the values that we have in our organization. So let's pull them apart and let's dive into that first one. The first one how do I amplify my servant leadership, or this idea of a redefined servant leader, one that is mission-driven, one that is showing up with a servant heart because they care for people and they're focusing on relationship and that business mind where we can strategically serve and focus on results while tethering ourselves to having wonderful, healthy relationships. How do I get that around me? Well, it's by taking what you are already doing and coupling one more thing with it.

Speaker 1 3:59

If you're like me and if you're like a lot of the servant leaders that we work with, you are out there, leading by example. You are showcasing these things already. You're doing it by taking out the trash, by reminding folks about why we serve. You're pointing people to the mission. You are leading by example with an open door. You're scheduling time to meet with folks. You're sharing meals together. You are leading by example and going first on some of the challenging things in the project. And maybe, like me, you're looking around and thinking everyone has always said more is caught than taught, which is true. So I was just out here leading by example, hoping everybody would see what I was doing and then just start doing it. Like me, am I the only one that kind of went around doing all these things, just saying, if I lead by example, if I lead by example, if I lead by example, more is caught than taught and everyone will start doing these things as well. Sometimes it had to do with expectations, with showing up on time, and sometimes it had to do with the values that we had and why we did the work that we did. What I realized is that it's more is caught than taught, not, it's only caught. I was leading by example. I just wasn't coupling it with why I was doing it and what I was doing so intentionally. And this is the first way that we can begin to amplify our servant leadership, this idea of a redefined servant leader.

Speak and Teach

Speaker 1 5:32

In the team around us, we start to speak and teach what we are doing. Here's the great part about where you are and why it's going to be so great. You are already leading by example. You're showing up on time, you're early, you are delivering projects on time. Now just start talking about why you show up on time, because it's a respectful thing. It shows that I value you and the relationship that we have. I get our projects done on time because that is a service to our customers, to our clients, to my team members. Take these words, combine it with your actions and, all of a sudden, you start to walk the talk. And when you walk the talk, or talk the walk, it shows others the path so that they can do the same thing.

Speaker 1 6:23

And when we, as leaders, when we do this next piece, when we start to share the examples that we're doing, showing the path for others to follow these, and we start to tie in some of the more nuanced things that we do or don't do, especially around giving up our personal standing perhaps something like removing ourselves and then, in a private conversation, after we've removed ourself from the spotlight, after we've delegated something and allowed another leader to rise into this new growth opportunity, in a small private one-on-one, we let somebody else know why we did that, why it's important for not just me or, you said, leader of the team or the organization to be in the spotlight, but it's one where I get to kind of check my own ego and make sure that I'm not doing this for me, but I'm doing it for the mission. And it's also a thing where I can allow others to come in and I can use my position or my platform to train and to provide for other people. And we start to have these back-end conversations around why do we do all of these extras for our customers? Why do we throw in the added value? Why, if somebody comes back and it's well beyond warranty, why is it that we actually still go do the work for them? We tie it back into.

Apply the What and Why Everywhere

Speaker 1 7:46

Well, we believe in being generous and that we want this entire thing to be something that runs through us, not just to us, and we start to teach our team the ideas, the principles, the values that we believe. We earn the authority to be able to say these things by leading by example, and then we develop folks to do it themselves by combining it with words. So the first way to amplify your servant leadership is yes, walk the walk, lead by example. And leadership is yes, walk the walk, lead by example. But then combine that walk with the talk and show your folks the path and the purpose behind all of the actions that you are doing. The second one, very, very similar and actually comes after the first one, is now how do we do this organizationally? And it is taking these things that we hold so dearly the mission of the organization, why we exist, the work that we do, the values that we hold, and we start layering them into every single facet of the organization that we can think possible. If we've started with ourselves and we've done the talk with our team Now, if we haven't already done it, it is most naturally to say how do we look at kind of systematizing or processing and building processes around this so that the principles that we follow, the beliefs that we have, the values that we hold and the level of service that we provide can be baked in and replicated across the organization. This amplifies something that you may do, that your team may do, to what an organization may do.

Speaker 1 9:28

Let's look at the Barnharts. They're in the last section amplify. Let's just look at how they did this at Barnhart Crane and Rigging. So Alan and Catherine had these ideas, the ideals and the principles that they held to. They walked the walk for a long time as servant leaders, showing up mission-driven, saying that we work as unto God. That is where their mission was is for God's glory and his purposes. And then they were talking the talk. They started layering it into the organization. They even started baking it in kind of systematically to the organization. If you look at their purpose statement, they say that they exist to glorify and honor God and do constructive work for everybody involved so that they can give back to the kingdom of God. Their mission is to go into the construction kind of sector and do this type of work so that they can go fulfill the purpose elsewhere and in the construction sector, but also elsewhere.

Speaker 1 10:31

How did they take some of the things that they believed, that they valued, that they had been talking about with themselves and in smaller circles and bake them into the organization. It shows up, first and foremost, in the values that they have on the wall from servant leadership, described as trust and belonging and relationship, but also as compensation. They're tying together all of these things that they see as servant leadership, as a value of the organization, kind of telling everyone this is how we think, this is how we act here, this is how we see servant leadership. They've done the same thing in their values for excellence and quality and safety, as well as tying in what they do based on the results that they achieve in the organization by giving profits away. Their last value is profits for a purpose that they work tirelessly. They work so hard to generate good results that result in profit that then they use to pour back into the organization, into the team, and to give away all around the world.

Speaker 1 11:37

They have taken something that was theirs that they've worked out in a small group with their team and shown it to be true and started to teach, and then they've put it inside of their entire organization. Another way that they have modeled this and baked it into the organization is by inviting folks in to also give away the money that Barnhart generates and gives away. It's called Grove. They bring people in to help make the decisions, to help vet the organizations and to be stewards along with the Barnharts. They've done this inside of their home where they've said you know, we're good and we're going to be set on a middle class income. And then they've set up that system so that they don't have to think about it, worry about it all the time. They set it there and now that they're talking about it, they're amplifying it external, beyond their organization.

Speaker 1 12:28

So for all of us, we can look at ways, both individually and ourselves and the people around us, and organizationallyally. How can we amplify it? By, first and foremost, doing these things, working them out and walking them out for ourselves, and then turning to the people around us and starting to talk about it, to share, but also to layer it inside the organization. We're now inside of our sales process, inside of our marketing, inside of our marketing, inside of our payroll systems, inside of our decision making, inside of how we delegate, how we develop and how we are generous. Inside of the organization, we layer in all of the principles that we have of servant leadership so that they can be amplified to others. I hope this is helpful to you as you take this idea of if I am a servant leader and I'm looking to create, to develop, to grow servant leaders around me, on my team or in my organization, hopeful that you can take these, turn around and start applying them where you are. If you have not yet picked up your copy of Redefine your Servant Leadership, you can do that. Go to redefineyourservantleadershipcom and you will see where you can get the book. You will also see that we have some extra book resources for you to grab that are going to guide you through templates that you can fill out. So go do that right now at redefineyourservantleadershipcom.

Speaker 1 13:59

My friends, big announcement as well we are going to be changing the format of the podcast. We want to bring in leaders, mission-driven leaders who have a servant heart and a business mind, who are leading well. We're going to bring them in so that they can be with me and share all that they do and all that they know with you. Starting on our next episode, it's going to be a co-hosted, guest driven podcast where we talk about how we can lead well in a number of different ways, and we're going to bring in guests so that you get to hear from the very best out there who are leading well where they are.

Speaker 1 14:32

I can't wait to kick off next week with our first guest. Come on back and if you subscribe, like you will make sure that it shows up in your feed. Until then, thank you for coming along with me on this Servant Leadership Series, redefining your servant leadership so that you can show up and serve at greater capacity and build relationships at an even deeper depth. I'm so grateful for you. I look forward to our next episode with our guest. Until then, be well, lead on, and God bless.