Servant Leader – Dan Greer

The Power Of Healthy Relationships At Work

Dan Greer — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 16:01:20 +0000

Any effective leader today knows that developing other leaders is the only sustainable way to deliver consistent results. This is not some back door way of being nice to drive up the bottom line but totally re-evaluating what is most important for your top performers.

They want a leader and an organizational culture where trust is high and feedback is consistent without toxic blame being assigned for every failure. This HBR post was an excellent read:

“Kushal Choksi was a successful Wall Street quant who had just entered the doors of the second twin tower on 9/11 when it got hit. As Choksi describes in his best-selling book, On a Wing and a Prayer, his brush with death was a wakeup call. Having mainly focused on wealth acquisition before 9/11, he began to question his approach to work.”

The Perfect Virtual Leader

Dan Greer — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 13:36:58 +0000

In a traditional office environment there is a highly developed leadership culture that depends upon meetings and metrics. The projects are clearly identified and the project management software monitors progress.

In a virtual context an entirely new working culture has to be developed. At the top of the list is the relational skill set of the leader. Leadership now is not as transactional but highly relational.

Now your team wants to know if you really care about them and can they trust you to lead them out of this crisis. This Forbes Post is a great read:

“Leadership comes easily in an office, right? You can see people, observe their behavior, build relationships, go out for lunch, give guidance and motivate them to achieve great things. You can monitor performance, coach, share knowledge and create a positive vibe.

That’s the romantic view. Most people will have worked in offices where factors such as politics, personalities and patchy management stopped them from giving their best. ”

Why Servant Leadership Is More Important Than Ever

Dan Greer — Sun, 31 May 2020 21:41:09 +0000

When I first started my leadership journey it was in the later stages of the Industrial Age and all leaders maintained loyalty through positional authority. The leaders made all the decisions and it was the role of the followers to execute the plan, no questions asked.

The Information Age brought the value of teamwork and with it a need for leaders to work more collaboratively. The concept of Servant Leadership was born and it brought the idea that character driven leaders valued their people over themselves.

Now moving towards post Cover-19, this type of humble but confident leader will be more important than ever. This Forbes post was excellent:

“This global pandemic is a time of unprecedented challenge, and a time when servant leadership is more important than ever before. Service before self is paramount.

The pandemic is affecting us all — individually, organizationally and societally. We are having to find new ways of working, and normal business concerns are overlaid by added challenges: different ways of operating, keeping staff safe and handling sickness, layoffs, furloughs and loss of income. Wider societal impacts include adverse effects on the global economy. This all calls for a more comprehensive, communal leadership approach: leadership that is focused on serving others.”

How Bad Times Bring Out The Best In People

Dan Greer — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 14:02:10 +0000

The constant negative news lately is enough to cause all of us to be afraid and want to hide from it all. This disruption is also a wonderful opportunity for gracious people to step into the chaos with acts of kindness to help others. In my small neighborhood filled with older people, I have seen an intentional strategy develop where younger families are taking care of the needs of widows who live alone. This HBR post also reminds us of the powerful impact corporate leadership can make when we put others first:

“It’s easy to look around and see how the Covid-19 crisis has brought out the worst in some people — from hoarding thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer to crowding bars and restaurants despite public-health guidelines. But such irresponsible behavior, I believe, is more the exception than the rule. Time and again, individuals and communities have demonstrated that the worst situations tend to bring out the best in people and the organizations to which they belong. In every moment of darkness, it seems, there are countless moments of light — small gestures of compassion and connection that allow people to show who they are, how they want to live, and what matters to them.”

Every Leader Needs To Navigate These 7 Tensions

Dan Greer — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 15:28:01 +0000

Directive leadership is so old school until you need the leader to make the decision it is time to land the plane in the Hudson River. Leaders today must use Situational Leadership that moves from directive to collaboration and delegation all in the same meeting. This HBR posts is an excellent read for all leaders:

“In recent years, articles have claimed that old-style command-and-control leadership is “out” and a new way of leading is “in.” Instead of telling people what to do, leaders should ask them open-ended questions. Instead of sticking exactly to plans, they should adjust goals as new information emerges. Instead of working from the gut, a leader should rely on data to make decisions. And so forth.”

A Trusted Leader Leaves A Legacy

Dan Greer — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 15:21:35 +0000

I hate the focus in corporate leadership that is always looking at the priority for short term results at the detriment of long term success. This can be seen more clearly than anywhere else in the area of not giving value to the people on your team. If your people are mere human capital and a means to your end, then you are not leading. This Forbes post is on point:

“Legacy leavers operate in ways that build trust and transform lives. They tend to be concerned with the greater good.

One of the primary reasons successful leaders leave legacies is because they understand its impact on everyone around them. Their goal is to build relationships and accomplish something memorable that will help the organization move forward long after they are gone.”

Why Likable Leaders Seem More Effective

Dan Greer — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 18:31:17 +0000

I have valued situational leadership for at least the last 30 years. In the old days you were put into either a high results or high relationship box and your job would align with that one criteria. Situational leadership means that you need to shift styles based on the person or situation. This HBR posts brings some new research to this extremely important subject:

“In late 2007, one of us, Charn, found himself in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, preparing to fly a Kiowa Warrior helicopter over the Iraqi border. Kuwait is a stopover where U.S. soldiers finish all required training just prior to deploying into combat. The only treacherous part of Kuwait is the sand — it is deep and very fine so walking is slow and cumbersome. One morning, as he waded through the sand on the way to the airfield, he saw a sign proclaiming, “We Need Leadership, Not Likership.”

The Best Leaders Do This One Rare Thing

Dan Greer — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 19:36:32 +0000

Many ineffective people in positions of responsibility believe that information is influence. They often share company gossip or ask nosey questions because they believe the more they know, the more important they become. Great leaders share everything they can to make their people better. This post by Amy Blaschka is a home run:

‘Wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. But it transforms into something truly powerful when it is shared. Why? Because all the wisdom in the world is meaningless without application.

Yet many leaders eschew this and choose instead to hoard their insights, fearful of giving them away. They don’t understand a simple truth: sharing your wisdom doesn’t diminish your impact; it amplifies it. And today, the best way to magnify your message is to harness the power and reach of social media.”

How To Best Leverage Leadership Moments

Dan Greer — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 20:49:17 +0000

One of my core values of leadership is to leave everyone better than you found them. What this means to me is that as a leader, I need to be very intentional about seeing meaningful opportunities to make emotional deposits into someone’s life. If this is not on my agenda, I will default into tactical outcomes and miss an incredible moment. I love this post by David Naylor:

“Often when we think of leadership, we reflect on those pivotal moments in history when an iconic individual stood before a group of people and bestowed a perspective or a philosophy that challenged our thoughts and got us to question our beliefs.

When Winston Churchill said, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense,” he inspired introspection and those listening to show greater resolve.”

Why Leadership Can’t Be All About You

Dan Greer — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 13:02:12 +0000

Leaders who use other people for their own personal advantage are not really leaders at all. They are ego driven individuals who because of their ability to drive results have been give authority without the responsibility to develop others. This Forbes post shows us a better way:

“Who are your bosses from Hell? Maybe the supervisors so full of themselves you just want to scream—leaders who live large in their own egos, who demand credit for everything, proud and arrogant because, as long as they’re winning, leadership is all about them. Why do they have to be that way?”