Servant Leadership from Within Finding Your Voice in the University

What? Me a leader?

What? Me a leader?

MINION: Someone who is not powerful or important and who obeys the orders of a powerful leader or boss

Biblical view of the Body I Corinthians 12 Unity and Diversity in the Body …God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?…

John 17:20-23 Jesus Prays for All Believers

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

George Fox University Our Vision • To be the Christian university of choice known for

empowering students to achieve exceptional life outcomes.

Our Mission • George Fox University, a Christ-centered community,

prepares students spiritually, academically, and professionally to think with clarity, act with integrity, and serve with passion.

Our Values • Students First • Christ in Everything • Innovation to Improve Outcomes Our Promise • At George Fox, each student will Be Known – personally,

academically and spiritually.

George Fox University

Our Core Themes:

• Excellence in liberal arts foundation

• Excellence in professional preparation

• Christ-centered community

• Local and global engagement

Biblical view of the Body

All functions are important Many that are least visible

are most essential Easy to think otherwise Easy to dismiss our role Easy to be envious

“Wish Dreams” of Community “Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream … But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves … the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparably salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together–the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. When the morning mists of dreams vanish, then dawns the bright day of Christian fellowship.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

As followers of Christ, as servants in his story, as servant leaders, we take up the challenge:

Our common work, our common mission, our common vocation, is to live into the unity that Christ calls all his followers to, here in this part of the real world, in all the messiness and “jerkiness” each of us contributes, and allow ourselves to be formed in the process of serving one another, thereby offering a glipse of the Kingdom that is both now and not yet.

The Body of Christ: Now and Not Yet

David is our Destiny Chris is our Current Reality

Three Lenses to View Your Work

Written JOB DESCRIPTION

How you THINK about your work

How you GO ABOUT DOING your work

The people who make a difference in the lives of

students and staff and provide daily leadership –

are not the ones with the most credentials, the most fame, the

loftiest titles, or the most awards.

They’re people like you who lead from the middle.

Three Key Understandings

Leadership is relationship

Leadership is everyone’s business

Leadership development is self-development

(Kouzes & Posner, 2003)

Leadership is relationship It’s not about position It’s about relationships and

influence It’s about working and learning with

everyone you touch in the organization

Individuals who lead from the middle enhance those relationships

Those relationships, in turn, strengthen the community

Leadership is everyone’s business

Who do you influence?

What do you have to share?

How do you make a difference daily?

Think—Pair—Share Who do you or can you influence? (above, below, and beside you)

What opportunities do you have to support others and help them grow in this organization?

What is the unique contribution and view you provide?

Leading from the middle A new way of thinking about

collaborative leadership

Leading as a peer, not a superior

Using persuasion, influence, relationship skills, and wisdom to achieve the desired outcome

Influencing others to accomplish things that none of them could accomplish – at all or as well - individually

Robert K. Greenleaf Career: 38 Years at AT&T, largely in management training and

development

25 Years consulting on Servant Leadership thereafter

Coined the term Servant-Leader in 1970s

Inspiration: Hermann Hesse’s short novel Journey to the East in 1960s

Account of a mythical journey by a group of people on a spiritual quest

True leadership stems first from a desire to serve

Essays: The Servant as Leader (1970)

The Institution as Servant (1972)

Trustees as Servants (1972)

Greenleaf: “The Servant-Leader”

The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…

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Servant-first and other people’s priorities

The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.

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The best test of a servant-leader

Do those served grow as persons?

Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?

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Caring for the least privileged

And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?

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Ten Characteristics

Listening Empathy Healing Awareness Persuasion Conceptualization Foresight Stewardship Commitment to the Growth of People Building Community

Introduction > Background > Characteristics > Paradoxes > Practice > Examples > More

† © 2008 Benjamin Lichtenwalner

Characteristic Breakout

Servant Leader

Breaking out Spears characteristics into 3 dimensions

Awareness

Persuasion

Conceptualization

Foresight

Listening

Empathy

Healing

Stewardship

Commitment to People

Building Community

SERVANT-LEADER

Introduction > Background > Characteristics > Paradoxes > Practice > Examples > More

† © 2008 Benjamin Lichtenwalner

In a group where individuals lead from the middle, you’ll see them . . . Take the time to read each other’s cues and

adjust their own behavior in supportive ways

Demonstrate mutual respect in the way they share observations, raise questions, participate and reveal their professional selves

Reinforce and support both collective and individual needs and priorities

Remain resilient in periods of stress

Repair breakdowns when they occur

Remember . . . A leader is anyone who engages in

the work of leadership.

Everyone has the potential and right to be a leader.

Leadership is a shared endeavor.

(Lambert, 1998)

Harvesting Examples THINK of a story about somebody else—not you—at GFU, who demonstrated an aspect of Servant Leadership. Describe it. Be very specific.

NO NAMES!

Your Perspective Matters: Home for Sale

Your Perspective Matters

What is Trust?

Positive expectation Regarding others’ behavior (Kramer & Lewicki, 2011)

Individuals’ “expectations, assumptions, or beliefs about the likelihood that another’s future actions will be beneficial, favorable, or at least not detrimental to one’s interests” (Robinson, 1996)

What Breaks Trust?

Disrespectful behaviors Communication issues Unmet expectations Ineffective leadership Unwillingness to acknowledge Performance issues Incongruence Structural issues

Fraser, 2010

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What restores broken trust?

Apologies

Explanations

Penance

Forgiveness

Reinstatement

Creation of social structures (Kramer & Lewicki, 2011)

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What grows presumptive trust?

History of interactions Common group identity Common understanding of interdependence of different roles Rule-based “oughts” spelled out and match practice; people socialized into the “oughts” Strong leadership (Kramer & Lewicki, 2011)

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Example: Covenant of Trust

I will strive to…

Competence Trust

Character Trust

Communications Trust 41

Conflict: Difficult Conversations (Stone, Patton, Heen)

Three “conversations” to understand

• The “What Happened?” Conversation

• The Feelings Conversation

• The Identity Conversation

Vexing and Discipleship

Look upon every fellow man

who tries or vexes you

as a means of grace

to humble you.

Andrew Murray, Humility, 1895

Discuss:

•What’s an aspect of trust in action we can celebrate in our circle?

•What’s an aspect of trust we could target for strengthening? How might we go about that?

REMEMBER: Leaders in the middle influence the organization’s agenda, BUT

they control the organization’s culture—

and the culture remains long after strategic plans and initiatives come and go.

Your Perspective Matters: When the Organization Gets Off Track

Let’s get personal: In your mind, lock into a decision or change that you experienced as “top-down” that you believed to be out of line with the mission, vision, and/or values of the university.

How did you respond?

Fight or flight?

“Go along to get along”?

Knuckle under?

Stew, grumble, and take swipes?

Lean into the work—inside yourself and in the organization?

Hold a mirror up to yourself and to the organization Examine yourself, your motives

Ask questions

Share your view

Bring light not heat

Your Perspective Matters

“Positive Deviance”

Constructive Deviance (Vadera, Pratt, &

Mishra, 2013)

Creative Insubordination (Haynes &

Licata, 1995)

Artistic Insubordination (Buskey & Pitts,

2009)

Tempered Radicalism (Meyerson, 2001)

Tempered Radicals Committed to organization mission

Negative paths: exit, surrender, assimilation

Positive path: balance conformity and marginalization to make change

Positive Approach:

Look for small wins

Seize spontaneous, unplanned opportunities

Pick right moment to defend key beliefs

Find allies

Work quietly and selectively deep in the system

Tempered Radical Strategies

“Linguistic Jujitsu” example Core theme #3: Christ-centered community provides the

context for the work of faculty, staff, and students

Mission outcomes: Think with clarity, act with integrity and serve with passion. Outcomes are to be pervasive in our community, modeled by faculty and staff

Thinking with clarity: Ability to look carefully at evidence, to realize and understand bias, to learn how to differentiate and weigh the values of competing points of view, and to recognize and hold these competing points in healthy tension. Modeled for students by faculty, staff, and administrators

Key belief: All are gifted and “spiritually called” to service. Identify the gifts of students, faculty, staff, and administrators--Equip for vocation to serve passionately within giftedness.

Results: fruit of love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

Servant Leader Takeaways Your story of your work: Part of God’s story Your role: Servant Leader Leadership is rooted in relationships We are a “Farley” body destined for “David” We are all “Jerks” with a glorious future Take responsibility Act, don’t react Bridge, link, connect Grow trust Covenant with others Walk humbly

Walk the Talk Check your self-perceptions with whom? What will you commit to? What is the timeframe? What will it look like? To whom will you be accountable?