Servant Leadership & Fighting corruption

Servant Leadership as a tool for fighting corruption and multiplying growth. Innocent Forteh The problem. A recent comment by the EU commission, declared that corruption across the EU is “breathtaking” and costs the EU economy at least 120bn euros annually (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26014387) ! 76%, of Europeans, believe that corruption is widespread according to a recent Eurobarometer survey. What is the root cause of corruption and business mal-practice? You do not need to look very far to identify the reason why. It is completely based on putting self-interest before anything or anyone else. Obsessive self-interest or desires to ‘win’ at all cost, will generally, bury any sort of principles or morality as an elevated sense of survival takes the place of any form of reason. When used literally, such as in computer lingo, the term/adjective “corrupt”, describes a system that is utterly broken. I advance that the reason why, traditional leadership seems to have been powerless in dealing with or effectively fighting corruption is due to its approach, as it’s a heart rather than a head issue. International Institutions like Transparency International have done a formidable job in combatting corruption but this is not enough. Organizations, governments and businesses need to change how the people are led. It is as basic as that, but if indeed everything rises and falls on leadership (John C Maxwell, The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership), then we need to re-think the way we do leadership! Picture this. The problem of corruption, mismanagement and various other malpractices in the market place are central issues to the effective running of any successful 21st century organization be it in Asia, Africa, Europe or the Americas. The high profile public failures, (moral and other), of leaders ranging from politicians, businessmen and sports figures begs the question of morality in the definition of wholesome leadership. Most materials on traditional leadership, unfortunately promote self-interest and the lust for power, directly or indirectly. These seldom concern themselves with issues of personal choices, in a moral way, as pertains to leadership. Somehow, performance is detached from the personal life of the leader and the spot light is focused on individual skills development for greater effectiveness and hopefully overall organizational benefits, through a ripple down effect. This in itself is not the problem but goes against simple logic. The leader is “wholesale” rather than “piecemeal”. Divide and rule therefore, as in laying emphasis only on certain aspects of the leader, has little place in the formation of an excellent and exceptional transformational leader, who has the potential of driving teams to exceptional levels of performance, in the current global village. From former American President, Clinton and his now infamous, Lewinsky scandal, to one of the greatest Ponzi schemes of all times, by ex-stock adviser Bernard L Madoff; the leadership world seems to have seen it all. Recently, the case of sportsman, Lance Armstrong took the sports world by storm, as he confessed to having used performance enhancing drugs in some of his famous races. We live in an age that expects continuous excellence and “superman” performance from its own kind. The bigger, smarter or stronger, the better. We go wild when a new world record is set by Usain bolt, the fastest man alive, and expect pristine performance out of our leaders. Believe it or not, when all is said and done, we remain mere human; an attribute that should probably be celebrated a little bit more. Are the cases of failures mentioned earlier, just a few exceptions to the rule or the rule itself? Is it possible that as leaders grow in their influence and position they seem to actually believe the rules no longer apply under the current dispensation of most widely practiced leadership styles? Should public leaders be held to a greater accountability than everyone else? Is there one, sure foolproof leadership style that not only focuses on the leader but on all stakeholders? It’s my opinion that there is a model that can contribute to dealing with the corruption ‘virus’ and it’s called servant leadership. Servant what? I strongly recommend the implementation of the servant leadership model as an effective tool to help tackle the problems of lack of responsibility and initiative, corruption, lack of innovation, inertia and various other ills and malpractices in the marketplace. While traditional leadership seeks to place power on one person, at the top, who then exercises a sort of pyramidal control, servant leadership on the other hand, is more concerned with deliberately empowering people. Power, responsibility and success are shared in an environment where people come first and the power of a positive example is key and consciously promoted. Power by itself, unregulated, generally degenerates to dictatorship. Servant leadership focuses on the development and needs of the whole man and his responsibility towards others and the organization. It transcends every bit of the person and maximizes the best from the “head” and the “heart”. It brings into play issues that have been proven to enhance performance such as good morality (solid foundation or integrity), empathy, emotional intelligence and personal responsibility. At the very core of servant leadership, is true customer service (both internal and external). I have worked in firms where staffs were directed to provide excellent external customer service, even though; the reverse was true for internal customer service. Psychologists have constantly proven that a man will generally treat others as he has been treated in the past, yet we hope to by some miracle, achieve excellent results by providing archaic leadership, whose primary focus is results. Yes, results matter but are we talking about just meeting your goals or exceeding them (wholesome success)? Are we talking about staff that care and protect their jobs, or staff that see their jobs as a sort of a cash cow? It is an open secret that a firm or organization that deliberately invests in truly developing customer service and firmly believes and invests in its people will spend less on trying to figure out what its competitors are doing. Servant Leadership, forces the leader to see the leader in others, maximize their potentials and build other servant leaders who together serve the organization and each other in an atmosphere of true team spirit and trust. That is a perfect mix for a corruption free, highly performing environment! What’s the difference? This (servant leadership) is not a new concept either in the corporate world or in leadership circles. The bible records Jesus saying “He came to serve rather than be served”. This is a beautiful model of true leadership, service, nothing more, and nothing less. If we had more leaders, modeling and leading (mentoring) through service, we’d probably have fewer cases of corruption and business mal practice. Author Kent Keith, states in his book, “The Case for Servant Leadership”, that servant leadership is ethical, practical and meaningful. Servant leadership therefore seeks to build capable model leaders out of followers rather than mindless followers, who’re there just to follow the rules and receive instruction. Author, John C Maxwell in his work, “the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership” seeks to demonstrate that growth can be achieved in either a leadership situation where there is a strong leadership and followers (“big-boss”) or where there is a strong leadership which has as objective to transform followers to leaders ( “servant leadership”). In the later, growth is multiplied rather than just added as in the former. Double digit growth, greater competitive edge/ transparency and lower levels of turnover are some direct benefits of adopting servant leadership in an organization. Other proven advantages of Servant Leadership include: • Maximizing and benefitting from the potential of the whole workforce at all the levels of the organization. A last in the line, mechanic, like anyone else in the chain, might end-up being the one who proposes that bright idea, which revolutionizes production, achieves huge savings and stream lines the process. The problem with traditional leadership in this regards is, this same mechanic may never have the opportunity to be heard, may get disgruntled and start looking for another job, while “killing” time with his current employer. • Increased competitive advantage through, increased innovation and creativity. When staff across the organization understand they are taken seriously and are directly involved in decision making as pertains to production, marketing or other key aspects of the organization, their “buy-in” to the organization and its leaders are greater. When staffs have an unforced “buy-in” into the company or enterprises’ values and leaders, they become the values of that organization, their customer service is second nature and their creativity is greatly enhanced. Who does not want to walk in such a team? • Loss prevention through the creation of ownership and greater buy-in. Servant leadership creates a very strong sense of ownership and revives a feeling of accountability. You can’t hurt an organization you love. • Increased accountability. • Greater empathy, emotional intelligence, trust and collaboration. Traditional leadership sometimes address the need for creating empathy and developing emotional intelligence as a means of being in a place to better discern and meet the needs of your staff. Servant leadership lays the onus on the leader to not only consider it as a nice principle but model and teach the same. • Increased loyalty and reduction in staff down time. Loyalty like ownership is good for business, any day. Not without road bumps! The implementation of the Servant leadership model can be difficult in a context which is traditionally used to and has come to expect, “big-boss” or autocratic leadership. This is precisely why; organizations need to consider seriously adopting transformational servant leadership as the model par-excellence for the practice of leadership. The case of specific cultural contexts should not also be ignored. In the push for the markets of the world to become more accessible, hence realizing the global village dream, the thin line between cultures is slowly being erased. I understand this is a bold statement but dominant cultures have always dominated lesser cultures and in some cases completely replaced them. Everything rises and falls on leadership (Maxwell) and the market place of the 21st century is experiencing rapid constant change with the development of tools, partnerships and technologies to ease access to new markets, increase productivity and return on investment. The one factor often ignored which is key to making the machinery succeed is the state of the human resource. The workforce unfortunately is usually seen as an expendable and hence underdeveloped and ill equipped to achieve the desired or optimal results. Forward thinking leaders will consider the necessity of adopting the servant leadership model in empowering and positioning their organizations for success in this new era.