Since exploring servant leadership as an emerging leadership trend, we’ve found that relationships between the leader and individuals or the team are important.

Relationships are developed overtime as trust toward the leader develops.

Trust develops partly through transparency and promise keeping.

Maslow has taught us that individuals need to, and want to, advance to higher levels in the hierarchy of development, but to move up the pyramid, the needs of the lower levels must met.

Part of being a servant leader is to be committed to the growth of the individuals on your team. A servant leader assists people in their movement up the pyramid of hierarchical values.

How does this happen? You can’t tell people what to do-you must demonstrate what to do by your actions.  If people trust you, not only will they follow you, they will do what you are doing to become successful. They will model your behavior if it leads them to fulfillment and success.

Conversely, if they are experiencing difficulties, they will stop modeling your behavior and, eventually, trust will erode.

Think about how young children, toddlers, learn to do things. They watch mom and dad or an older sibling and they try to do the same thing. We show them what to do and they learn by modeling and repetition.  They become excited as they develop more skills, which encourages them to try more things.  If there is trust, minor problems and setbacks will not stop them from trying again.

But, if they repetedly and regularly get hurt or scared in the process, they will stop trying.  To much pain.

The same is true with teens and adults. If people have respect for someone in a leadership position, trust and a relationship will develop over time. If the leader appears to be successful in what they are doing, people around will model what is helping the leader to advance.

If you’re truly a servant leader, this is great news. Do the right thing, let others watch you in action and witness the results. Then help them along the path as they do what you’ve done.

There can be a manipulative, dark side to behavior modeling, which we’ll take a look at next time.

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Your comments and feedback are always appreciated.

E-Mail Stan Levanduski