Leadership Development A New Horizon: Preparing Servant Leaders for Sustained Organizational Success

Leadership Development
A New Horizon: Preparing Servant Leaders for
Sustained Organizational Success
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Leadership Development
Introduction
A report by Bersin in October 2008 reinforced that it is more important than ever for
organizations to invest in leadership. Why? Because the investment is strategic:
…not all training drives the same level of strategic value. What companies need
most vigorously today is …talent-driven learning programs, particularly
leadership development.i
The competitive environment of today’s global venues provides a one strong reason to develop
leaders. The speed at which competitors rise requires an agility that can only be accomplished
by exercising a wide range of leadership skills across organizational functions.
In addition to the competitive landscape organizations today stand at an unprecedented
generational crossroad. The retirement of Baby-Boomers and entry of Millennials into the
workplace presents organizations with a trillion dollar question mark according to the Seattle
Times.ii Many Boomers expect to continue working well into the traditional retirement years – a
fact that provides a false sense of security for some organizations who feel they can put off
developing new leaders. The sheer number of Baby Boomers that will leave the workplace
places many organizations in jeopardy of losing key leaders at a time they need them most.
So how prepared are organizations to make a leadership transition? Only 36 percent of
companies surveyed in 2008 felt prepared to immediately fill leadership positions – See Figure 1.
Figure 1: Companies Unprepared to Fill Leadership Roles
3%
Extremely
prepared
10%
33%
19%
Prepared
Neither prepared
or unprepared
35%
Unprepared
The Challenge
Three challenges standout: (1) the need to define leadership clearly and strategically; (2) the
need to identify qualified candidates to fill current and future leadership roles; and (3) the need
for a comprehensive leadership program to cultivate and develop the leaders of tomorrow.
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Leadership Development
Leadership and the Competitive Environment – A Changing Terrain
Developing leaders the leaders of tomorrow is not a simple extension of the styles and values of
yesterday’s leader. Programs entrenched in yesterday’s ideas of leadership will be left behind in
the competitive dust of lost opportunity. Why?
Universally, it seemed that people had grown frustrated by a world dominated
by codes of what they saw as traditionally masculine thinking and behavior:
codes of control, competition, aggression, and black-and-white thinking that
have contributed to many of the problems we face today, from wars and
income inequality to reckless risk-taking and scandal.iii
The change identified by Gerzema and D’Antonio’s research quoted above cannot be ignored. A
global shift is happening in how leadership is defined. Leadership in tomorrow’s world must be
able to break gridlock through reason rather than ideology or sheer aggression. The leaders of
tomorrow must be intuitive as well as empirical, think long-term as well as short-term, and bring
about sustainable solutions rather than posturing for expediency. Another way to describe this
kind of leadership is servant leadership.
Servant leadership is interconnected and interdependent perspective on the act of leading. It
works from a win/win rather than a zero sum game. Servant leadership is decisive and resilient
and is so out of an orientation that is neither controlling nor stubborn. Instead servant
leadership operates from a clear value base that informs a leader’s decisions, reactions, plans,
and ethics.
A servant leadership approach appeals to the intrinsic motivations if people to accomplish
organizational objectives. Does it work? According to Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford
Motor Company it does. When Mulally took the helm in 2006, Ford was losing billions of dollars
and was on the brink of bankruptcy. Since Mulally stepped in, Ford has posted a profit every
year since 2009. When asked about his leadership style, Mulally responded,
At the most fundamental level, it is an honor to serve—at whatever type or size
of organization you are privileged to lead, whether it is a for-profit or
nonprofit…. Starting from that foundation, it is important to have a compelling
vision and a comprehensive plan. Positive leadership—conveying the idea that
there is always a way forward—is so important, because that is what you are
here for—to figure out how to move the organization forward. Critical to doing
that is reinforcing the idea that everyone is included. Everyone is part of the
team and everyone’s contribution is respected, so everyone should
participate….A big part of leadership is being authentic to who you are, thinking
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Leadership Development
about what you really believe in and behaving accordingly. At Ford, we have a
card with our business plan on one side and the behaviors we expect listed on
the other. It is the result of 43 years of doing this.iv
Leadership is changing – the world is changing. What does a leadership development plan look
like that aims at developing servant leaders?
7 Design Components of Effective Leadership Development Programs
1. Determine the Leadership Culture and Life Cycle Position of Your Organization
What is the leadership culture of your organization? The concept of culture is wildly popular if
not always understood. The significance of starting with a view to what makes up the way your
organization actually works is that all leadership action is done in a context and must be
appropriate to that context. To initiate a leadership development plan without understanding
the culture of the organization is like insisting that the operational norms of a McDonald’s drive
through should be the basis for developing leaders at Ruth Chris’ Steak House.
Organizational culture can be defined as:
…a pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved its
problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which has worked
well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new
members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those
problems.v
Identify your organization’s culture. What are the implicit rules of operation, relationship to
power, the nature of vendor relationships, the rules for relating to stakeholders, and the rules to
promoting up, etcetera? Will your organization’s culture support servant leadership?
Define your organization’s life cycle position. Organizational needs and focus shifts depending
on the life cycle age of the organization. Younger organizations tend to be innovative,
aggressive, sales focused, etcetera. Prime organizations are disciplined, opportunity drivers,
attentive to policies designed to maximize resources, etcetera. Aging and stuck organizations
tend to be autocratic, highly formal, and characterized by a lost sense of mission other than
profit. The skills and traits required of leaders in each life cycle stage are different. So, not only
is it important to know where the organization is at today in its life cycle but also where it
expects to be in tomorrow.
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Leadership Development
Evaluate the gaps between your current organization culture and a culture of servant
leadership. Gaps identify a shift is needed in how leaders are developed and socialized into your
organization. What does a servant leadership culture look like? Here is an insight from
Greenleaf:
…today is the urgent need, around the world, for leadership by strong ethical
persons – those who by nature are disposed to be servants (in the sense of
helping others to become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous and more
likely themselves to be servants) and who therefore can help others to move in
constructive directions. Servant –leaders are healers in the sense of making
whole by helping others to a larger and nobler vision and purpose than they
would be likely to attain for themselves.vi
If you find gaps be honest about them. Look, no organization is perfect – but everyone wants to
work for an organization that is improving the way it sees itself. Pull your people into the
process and help them own the changes that will make your organization world class in its
culture as well as its performance.
2. Identify Current and Potential Leaders within Your Organization
Start by identifying the competencies your organization needs. When developing leaders look
at the whole picture. Use dynamic management as well as leadership skills.
Identify the competencies that are needed in both poles of leadership (i.e., management and
leadership). Leadership Praxis measures these competencies using a statistically reliable and
validated 360 leadership assessment. These include:

Spirituality: the ability to define a sense of ultimate (or immaterial) reality. Spirituality
enables yourself and others to discover the essence of being, their deepest values, and
meaning by which they make decisions.

Vision Casting: the ability to define a preferred future, communicate it to others in a
way that inspires commitment, confidence, conviction and contribution in others.

Ensure Long-term Results: the ability to think strategically by integrating industry
knowledge with organizational knowledge and knowledge of your customers.

Build Strong Teams: the ability to help the members of your work translate strategic
goals and initiatives into specific responsibilities and priorities.

Managing Outcomes: the ability to establish measurable outcomes and create systems
for monitoring progress toward them that includes ethical evaluation and specific
activities.
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Leadership Development

Developing Others: capacity for building the strength and continuity of the organization
by recognizing individual potential and acting to developing them through training,
coaching, and performance evaluation.

Delegate: readiness to explain expectations, provide appropriate resources, and assist
with regular and unscheduled coaching.

Decision Making: ability to stay strategic, results oriented, and productive without
losing sight of the complexity of issues and the diverse views of others. Capable of
making implicit assumptions explicit prior to acting and anticipates potential outcomes
to all actions.

Courage: the ability to speak out in the face of opposition, acknowledge conflict, and
work openly toward strategically aligned solutions.

Resilience: ability to solicit and act on constructive feedback, challenge yourself with
tough assignments, and demonstrate resilience and courage in the face of setbacks and
opposition.
Do the work needed to correlate these competencies to the job skills needed at every level of
your organizational leadership structure. The objective in any leadership development program
is not just to identify whether these competencies exist and how to introduce them as effective
behaviors but to build a capacity for complexity in the exercise of these competencies.
Test your leaders for these competencies via your performance appraisal process and the use of
the Leadership Praxis 360 degree leadership assessment. Then assess the goals to development
and the length of time it will take for a leader to be ready to assume a position.
Potential in
Character
Chart 2: Performance Appraisal Matrix
Significant – Behavior consistently
demonstrates servant leadership values
(move 1 or more levels in the next 2-5
years)
Coach/Train
Develop &
Coach
Promote &
Coach
Good – Behavior demonstrates growth in
understanding servant leadership values
(move 1 level in the next 5 years)
Coach/Train
Develop &
Coach
Move
Sideways
Limited – A disconnect between behavior and
values regularly shows up
(has not reached promotional potential)
Coach/Train
Develop &
Coach
Hold &
Evaluate
0% - 50%
Threshold
50% - 100%
Target
100% +
Stretch
Performance
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Leadership Development
The criterion for assessing potential leaders also includes values. What are the values that
indicate a leader understands the concept of service in behavior? These values determine how
a leader relates to their environment and personnel and provide the foundation for sustained
performance.

Conceptualization – the act of looking empirically and symbolically at how things work
and an ability to forecast changes in future behavior as a result. The opposite behavior
is vanity metrics i.e., using numbers to make one look good rather than make decisions.

Awareness – entering every situation and personal interaction with one’s full attention
and emotional intelligence. The opposite is an appeal to rationalism characterized by
unilateral control, minimization of loosing and maximization of winning, and
suppression of negative feelings or feedback.

Differentiation – the recognition of one’s unique contribution both direct and indirect
and a commitment to help others discover and use their unique skills and abilities as
well as holding others responsible for their own emotional well being. The opposite is a
victimization posture that yields personal responsibility for wellbeing and performance
to forces outside oneself.

Stewardship – a commitment to utilize resources with the recognition of their cost both
real and symbolic. The opposite is an arrogance that assumes the source of all available
resources is the direct result of one’s own efforts – results in competition, oneupmanship and brinkmanship.

Foresight – the commitment to work to understand the lessons of the past in order to
change activity in the present with a view to altering the consequences of the future.
The opposite is the failure to learn from experience so that work patterns are simply
engaged with greater intensity without regard to outcomes.

Healing Community – a commitment to building an organizational culture and work
environment in which people can be their best selves who are rewarded rather than
castigated for their creativity and innovation. The opposite is a culture of one sided task
demand that fails to recognize the impact of employee engagement, commitment, and
direct and indirect contribution.

Persuasion – the realization that power is the least effective means of sustained
performance and reliance upon building systems that leverage intrinsic v extrinsic
motivations. The opposite is the use of power to cajole, threaten, and suppress
opinions or data sources that do not find its source in the person with power or
contradicts the mental models of the powerful.
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Leadership Development

Service – a commitment to the holistic development of others in work. The opposite
sees employees as expendable resources to be controlled and discarded when their
immediate usefulness is exhausted.
Developing internal talent is an advantage. Internal talent achieves productivity almost 50
percent faster than external candidates. This is particularly true for organizations in which the
knowledge of internal politics and structures is required to get the job done.
Developing leadership competencies does not occur from a singular source. A world-class
leadership development process takes deliberate advantage of serendipitous as well as formal
and informal development methods as is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Dynamics of Leadership Developmentvii
Start identifying leaders in your recruitment process. Pre-hiring assessments can be used to
eliminate candidates that do not pass a minimum threshold score in the pre-hiring assessment
screen that includes assessments, resume review, and reference reviews. Focus your time on
the more promising candidates. Automated prescreening can provide up to 42% increase in
recruiter efficiency if the right tools are in play. Use recruiting to build your bench strength of
future leaders.
3. Identify Leadership Gaps
Identifying leadership gaps is a function of individual and organizational readiness. It considers
the lifecycle stage of the organization, the competency development of candidates, and the
cultural behavior of the organization’s leaders.

Determine current and future leadership requirements

Compare those requirements with the current leadership team
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Leadership Development

Identify current leaders who may be at risk of leaving

Identify succession plans for those at risk of leaving or planning to leave

Look at leadership development pipeline

Identify gaps in skill and the time required to fill those gaps

Identify gaps in values i.e., the degree to which servant leadership values are exhibited
in future leader behaviors
Look at the sample gap analysis below. This type of summary is helpful in surveying the potential
talent pool.
Table 1: Example of Leadership Gap Analysis
ROLE
RISK OF
LEAVING
SUCCESSOR
STATUS
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
CEO
Low
Bill Turner
On target
BT needs additional business planning
work. Currently in a 1 to 3 year expat
assignment. Demonstrates command of
servant leadership values.
CFO
High
Two outside
candidates
On target
N/A
Leadership training in process complete
Q3. Grasps servant leadership values and
exhibits a commitment to behavioral
growth in the values.
On file. Exemplary performance and
values demonstrated.
VP
Operations
Low
Sue Williams
SW ready in
one year
Dir
Products
Med
Allan Rodriguez
AR ready today
If your organization uses a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) to catalogue
performance appraisals and development plans/activities this summary takes little time. If your
organization has not leveraged an HRIS this information should be on file in your personnel
office.
4. Develop Succession Plans for Critical Roles
Succession planning is not a luxury – it is a necessity even in organizations that simply do not
anticipate a change in any of its critical leadership roles. Life is unpredictable and no
organization escapes the disruption and employee trauma that occurs when key leaders leave
the organization. Succession planning is an insurance program that admits the unpredictability
of the future and prepares to thrive in spite of the potential for the unexpected. Succession
planning should be a company policy, dealt with openly and deliberately by corporate boards
and corporate officers and leaders.
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Leadership Development
Succession planning should not be limited to executive roles. As part of a leadership program,
organizations should evaluate all critical leadership roles. One survey found that whereas more
than 70 percent of large companies have succession plans at the director level, only 41 percent
have them at the manager level, and just 11 percent included first-line supervisors.
Enduring great organizations implement succession planning across all levels of the organization
– they are proactive and deliberate at getting the right people. In contrast the lack of bench
strength in other organizations creates significant vulnerabilities in the neglect of mission-critical
roles.
Coaching and mentoring has been gaining in usage as a critical element of succession planning.
The American Management Association (AMA) reported that of the 1,000 business leaders
surveyed nearly 60 percent use coaching for high-potential employees. These leaders used
primarily outside versus inside coaches because outside coaching brought greater objectivity,
fresh perspectives, higher levels of confidentiality, and a broad base of experience in many
different organizations.viii
Increase efficiency in succession planning by using technology systems to support the succession
planning process. The best technology systems provide the ability to:

Create backfill strategies that use data captured in the recruiting and performance
review processes, coupled with individual career plans

Add multiple candidates to a succession short list and view all the best options – with
necessarily adding them to the plan

Displace multiple talent profiles – from C-level to individual contributors – side by side
to quickly identify the best fit

Track candidates readiness based on skills, competencies, and performance; promote
top candidates based on relative ranking and composite feedback scores
5. Develop Career Planning Goals for Potential Leaders
Companies that support career planning for their employees gain in retention, engagement, and
protection of the leadership pipeline. 61 percent of employed college graduates surveyed by
Taleo Research in 2008 said they left their first employer because there was no potential for
career advancement or organizational opportunities. Career planning is not just the
responsibility of the individual any more if companies want to retain top talent.
If companies do not provide employees with career planning and advancement opportunities,
their competitors will. 77 percent of workers ages 36-40 (right in the middle of the pipeline for
leadership) last in new jobs less than five years. This rate of turnover represents a high cost and
loss to organizations that fail to offer career planning.
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Leadership Development
Combining employee development and career planning enables employees to explore potential
career paths and to monitor and progress through the development activities necessary to
attain them. Competencies tied to relevant development activities can be incorporated into the
performance review process and thus support succession planning.
This kind of approach to employee development recognizes that people are intrinsically
motivated and that this motivation possesses three critical elements: (1) Autonomy, the desire
to direct our own lives; (2) Mastery, the urge to get better and better at something that
matters; and (3) Purpose, the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than
ourselves.ix As a result of using leveraging intrinsic motivation, the engagement and
commitment levels of employees rises significantly. This makes it far more likely that the
organization will retain its investment and capitalize in significant returns through talent
retention and performance.
6. Develop a Skills Roadmap for Future Leaders
A skills road map provides the direction high potential employees need to direct their learning.
Connecting competencies to a skills map and identifying the type of training needed (formal as
in academic work, non-formal as in seminars, and informal as in coaching) allows the employee
and the company to track progress.
See Table 2 following as a sample skills map. In one organization the COO mounted this as a
poster outside his office and used it to conduct ad hoc coaching and mentoring sessions
encouraging key employees to pursue additional competencies that potentially positioned them
for future open positions. Notice that this skills map includes all levels of this organization’s
leadership.
7. Develop Retention Programs for Current and Future Leaders
Monetary and non-monetary rewards can be used to improve retention of any employee.
Recognize excellent performance through tools like: salary increases, bonus plans, promotions,
additional paid vacation or sick days, public recognition, acknowledgement through private
praise, and stock options. Retention is critical not only because its cost is high but because top
performance dive optimum business performance.
Conclusion
A well designed leadership development program is the key to identifying, attracting, filling, and
retaining world-class organizational leadership. The benefits of an optimized leadership develop
program include: a pipeline of leadership talent, talent aligned with corporate goals, improved
morale, increased retention, improved leadership skills, and consistent measurement through
development and performance management.
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Table 2: Sample Skills Map
Producer to
Line Manager (Supervisor)
Skills
Managing Others to Leading
Leaders (Manager)
Planning/analysis, projects, budget,
workforce planning
Leadership selection
Job Design, selection of people
Measuring progress
Delegation: assigning work
Coaching & feedback
Rewards & Motivating others
Coaching and feedback
Relationship building up, down, sideways
for the unit’s benefit’
Measuring work of others
Multilevel delegation skills
Relationship building up, down, sideways
for the unit’s benefit
Directing resources
Assigning management & leadership work
Acquisition of resources
Make decisions that are in line with
organizational culture
Leading Leaders to
Functional Leadership
(Director)
Skip-level communication skills
(upward, downward & laterally)
Understanding & valuing work
foreign to expertise
Team building & coaching
Strategic development with overall
business strategy in view
Effective delegation
Inspire buy in to organizational
culture
Functional Leadership to
Business Leadership
(C-Suite)
Set/shape organizational culture. Inspire
& support performance of direct reports
Proficiency at evaluating strategy for
capital allocation & development
purposes
Identify & select new business leaders
Strategic, cross-functional thinking
aiming at integration
Profit based v functionality based
planning
Recognize functional diversity issues
Balance future goals with present needs
Annual planning – budgets, projects
Significant shift to coaching (instruction,
performance, feedback)
Deliberate time for analysis and
reflection
Significant time for analysis and
reflection
Assessment
Communication – feedback
Communication and feedback
Leadership training and development
design & implementation
Deliberate time for learning (this
includes strategic reflection)
Deliberately appreciate staff
Foresight & Conceptualization: think
beyond function to strategic issues that
support overall business
Foresight & Conceptualization: think
like a leader adopting a long-term
perspective
Conceptualization, Differentiation, &
Service: value staff functions as mission
critical
Differentiation, Persuasion, & Service: view
coaching as mission critical
Stewardship & Service: view learning
as mission critical
Healing Community: visible integrity
Awareness & Stewardship: visible integrity,
concern & competence
Awareness, Persuasion, & Healing
Community: visible integrity, concern
& competence
Awareness, Healing Community, &
Foresight: trust, seek & listen to
feedback of staff
Fall back to familiar patterns of personal
production rather than management
Failure to distinguish between those who
can do and those who can lead
Lack of leadership maturity –
resistance to feedback
Make time available for subordinates (at
their request and yours)
Time
Application
Set priorities for unit/team
Communication time with other units,
customers, suppliers.
Shift from doing to helping others work
effectively
Persuasion: getting results through others
Differentiation: self as manager
Work
Values
Pitfalls
Awareness: success of direct reports & unit
Conceptualization: managerial work &
disciplines
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Stewardship: visible integrity, concern &
competence
Failure to listen to other’s expertise or
failure to value others
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End Notes
i
“Driving Performance: Why Leadership Development Matters in Difficult Times.” Source:
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/landing/DrivingPerformance.pdf. Accessed; 18 Mar
2014.
ii
John Gallager. “Retirement of baby boomers may reverberate in the workplace.” Source:
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2002185894_boomers21.html. Accessed; 18
Mar 2014
iii
John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio. The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and Men Who
Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013), 7.
iv
Rik Kirkland. “Leading in the 21st Century: An Interview with Ford’s Alan Mulally,” McKinsey &
Company, November 2013.
v
Edgar H. Schein. Organizational Culture and Leadership 4th ed. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass,
2010), 18.
vi
Robert Greenleaf. Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and
Greatness 25th Anniversary Edition. (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 2002), 240.
vii
Raymond L. Wheeler. An Inconvenient Power: The Practice of Servant Leadership. (Claremont,
CA: Unpublished Manuscript, 2014), 357.
viii
“Coaching: A Global Study of Successful Practices.” AMA, 2008. Source:
http://www.opm.gov/WIKI/uploads/docs/Wiki/OPM/training/i4cp-coaching.pdf. Accessed:
19 Mar 2014.
ix
Daniel H. Pink. Drive: the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York, NY: Riverhead
Books, 2009), 204.
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