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Trending: Servant Leadership
The invasion of the coronavirus certainly brought angst and anxiety, but there are silver linings. Thanks to the upheaval of a global pandemic, there are a ton of new trends in the working world: Remote work, power being placed back into the hands of employees, flexible schedules, the Great Resignation, reprioritization of work goals – to name a few. All very interesting, but one of the most intriguing new (yet old) trends is servant leadership. Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy in which the goal of the leader is to serve. This premise differs from traditional leadership where the leader’s main focus is the thriving of their company or organization. Have you ever had a boss or manager who would jump in when things got crazy? Or regularly checked in with you to see if there was anything they could do to make your job easier? You probably appreciated their willingness to pitch in. Their style of leadership has certainly been around for a while, but it has the trendy new title of servant leadership. Basically, a servant leader has very high emotional intelligence and practices active listening, employs empathy and is committed to the growth of their team. A servant leader knows that they flourish when their people flourish. In other words, they rise by lifting up others. In the day to day, a servant leader will make goals clear to their team, while rolling up their sleeves and jumping in whenever needed to reach those goals. This approach fosters a level of trust and understanding among all members of the team. Another thing that is intuitive to this type of leader: knowing that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. We are all very unique humans and bring different styles, viewpoints and methods to our working life. Something that drives one employee could be completely unmotivating to another. Servant leaders recognize this and adjust accordingly. Curious to learn more about servant leadership? Flip over to our article about W2W Conference keynote speaker Ty Muse, CEO of VISIONS Federal Credit Union, or better yet, come on out to hear him speak in person on April 20! 2 By Sara Frassinelli, Spherion Staffing + Recruiting
Sources: Wikipedia | LinkedIn | https://leadx.org/articles/servant-leadership-definitionexamples-characteristics/
A few modern examples of servant leaders include:
• Cheryl Bachelder: Former CEO of Popeyes Louisiana
Kitchen who turned the brand around by serving the people who had invested the most in Popeyes • Herb Kelleher: Former CEO of Southwest Airlines known for putting employees first • Jack Welch: Beloved former CEO of General Electric who wrote, “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
And Reading’s own: • Craig Poole (above): President at Reading Hospitality, who runs the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in downtown
Reading, Poole is renowned and admired locally for his “people first” mentality. He recently was named a recipient of the Julian Star® Award by the International
Hospitality Institute, one of 10 individuals who in 2022 “lit the torch of hospitality and displayed extraordinary compassion.”
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