Learning to Manage
Aruna Seegolam, an experienced operations and administrative professional and doctoral candidate, shares insights and inspiration on her journey toward effective leadership and management.
Learning to Manage
Ep. 1 Servant Leadership
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Welcome to Learning to Manage, the podcast, where you embark on a journey with me toward becoming an effective leader. I'm Aruna Seegolam, MBA, and I'll be sharing my learning journey of effective leadership and management.
I believe strongly in professional development and I'm a lifelong student. I'm currently in the second half of my doctorate in business administration with a concentration in strategic management. I also work full-time as an administrative and special projects director and I've been managing employees for seven years.
I've been that sucky toxic manager, and now I actively work to learn how to lead with intention and compassion. Whether you're leading a team, managing projects, or navigating the complexities of organizational dynamics, join me as I learn strategies and get the inspiration needed to excel in a leadership role.
This is Learning to Manage.
The topic of this episode is servant leadership. Servant leadership comes naturally to those who follow this philosophy. Servant leaders want to serve their team. They empower their team and they care about others individual growth. Khan et al. describes servant leadership as other centeredness, which I think is completely accurate. Blanchard and Broadwell state that servant leaders put responsibility in the hands of employees and respond to the needs of those employees. This is starkly different from the dynamic of leaders taking on all of the responsibility, which comes with all of the glory, and instead expecting responsiveness from their employees.
But here's my take on it. Servant leadership doesn't always work in the corporate world. Why? In my opinion, servant leadership is lonely for a servant leader working in a culture where transformational leadership is the ideal. Transformational leadership describes a leader who provides the resources and support an employee needs to feel motivated and inspired to work toward an organizational goal.
Now I can argue this either way. We can play devil's advocate and say firstly that the concept of servant leadership just isn't feasible or logical for an organization. We can't put the focus on employees. Who's going to lead them? To that, I say trust your team. Trust your people. We can provide resources and support to employees, but do they feel heard? Do they feel a sense of responsibility? Do they know that they're loved and cared for as human beings? Now here's where servant leadership works. If a CEO is a servant leader, that behavior will obviously encourage others in leadership positions to behave like a servant leader. Managers or director level leaders can impart servant leadership to their employees, developing a heightened sense of camaraderie and empowerment.
These managers or director level leaders can also allow their servant leadership to be imparted to other leaders within their level. When the culture shift happens, leaders who haven't caught up yet, they're going to see the benefits and get up to speed. If a manager or director level leader stands alone in their view of servant leadership, they can protect their team by acting as a barrier from different management styles of other managers.
Servant leadership here can be contagious again because interdepartmental collaboration opens all employees up to the benefits of servant leadership. I've seen this happen firsthand in the workplace. A manager providing servant leadership to their team had other employees reach out for guidance because of what being managed under a servant leadership feels like. The employee felt empowered and cared for. This is fantastic for the employee and fantastic for the organization, but being alone is where it gets messy. And where I think servant leadership won't work. The servant leader's goals is to serve their employees, but they stand completely alone. There may not be other managers in lateral or throughout the hierarchy that view leadership in the same way.
Career wise, this stinks. While servant leaders truly only care about their employees, the workplace has become a hindrance to their professional development. Now, you're going to argue that servant leaders don't care about themselves, but in the workplace, you know that their professional development is crucial, just like any other leader's professional development.
Servant leaders don't get the opportunities because they are different. Maybe other managers disagree with their views and the servant leader could seem really misaligned from other leaders. It's just a domino effect and at the end you have a servant leader that either continues to alone or who has been bulldozed and overpowered by other leadership styles.
Here's my ask. Find a servant leader in your organization and give them the opportunity to shine. Cultivate them. Give back to them what they have always been providing to their employees. Encourage and empower them. Show them you care for them like they care for others.
Now, if I haven't convinced you to give servant leadership another thought, here's my other ask. Take one moment this week or month to be a servant leader to an employee. Empower them, flip the hierarchy and let them take responsibility. Provide the responsiveness that they need. Find the value in your relationship with them.
Thank you for joining me on this, my first episode of learning to manage. I hope you found some valuable insights and inspiration to enhance your leadership skills. If you enjoyed today's episode, please be sure to subscribe to this podcast for more discussions on leadership and management. And don't forget to leave a review to let me know how I'm doing.
If you have any questions, topics, suggestions, or stories to share about your own leadership journey, I would love to hear from you. Connect with me on Facebook or LinkedIn at Aruna Seegolam, or visit the show notes for resources and other ways to reach me. Remember, leadership is not just about directing others. It's about empowering others to reach their full potential. Until next time, I'm Aruna Seegolam signing off from Learning to Manage. Take care and keep learning, keep growing, and keep leading with purpose.
