Calanna's Blog

Leadership theories: Servant Leadership
By Carol Houtot

Psychologists have spent years trying to come up with leadership theories that describe effective leaders. Many of them seek to describe how they manage to have ‘power’ over people but one of the leadership theories that rarely gets a mention is servant leadership – a philosophy that puts ‘people first, results second’.

Origins of servant leadership

Servant Leadership is a term that was coined by Robert Greenleaf in the early 1970’s. It describes a leadership philosophy whereby a leader seeks to achieve results by focusing on the needs of others. In a business context, this means turning the usual way of thinking on its head – it’s not about what your employees can do for you but about how you can serve them.
“The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware”. Lao Tzu
As Greenleaf wrote: “It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead”. This is not a new concept, it has been written about in many spiritual texts for centuries including in the Bible. Lao Tzu, a Chinese prophet around 500 BC also had many things to say about the idea of servant leadership.

Great leaders are not necessarily big charismatic personalities – in fact, egos are an obstacle to good leadership.

Most of the world’s millionaires are humble people moving around the community who you’d never guess are wealthy and successful – read the book The Millionaire Next Door: Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy; by Thomas Stanley for proof.
Leadership Theories: Servant Leadership in practice
Some business owners may be cynical about whether you can truly run a successful business by following leadership theories like this.

Mario Calanna is an example of a businessman who's put servant leadership in to action. He currently has a network of 8 pharmacies across two major cities with plans for further expansion. His brand represents more than pharmaceutical products – it’s focus is wellness, wellbeing and a ‘zest for life’.
Mario operates his business from a set of strong personal values and has adopted the servant leadership model as his preferred as style of leadership. As a result, he has imbued the culture of his business with the following values:
• Character: doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do regardless of whether the whole world is watching or not
• Honesty: being careful to precisely match the facts about a person, incident or circumstance with what I say, write or report
• Courage: Not letting fear or difficulty destroy confidence in a good outcome
• Loyalty: remaining faithful to those who depend on you
• Gratitude: ‘replace expectation with appreciation’ and be grateful for what you have and who you are
• Carefulness: acting with good sense by paying attention to detail and accuracy
• Determination: firmness of will to complete something once started
• Patience: waiting without getting annoyed and persevering pleasantly under challenging circumstances
• Forgiveness: letting go of bitter feelings against those who have wronged you and being willing to initiate peace
• Creativity: inventing fresh ways to overcome difficulties with a complete trust that there is enough resources & expertise to overcome any problem
• Joyfulness: creating an atmosphere of delight & happiness
• Benevolence: intentionally showing goodwill to others
Servant Leadership: Does it work?
The most significant benefit of applying the concept of servant leadership in business is the impact it has on your team. It means that everyone is focused on being responsible to each other - being on time, staying till all is done, finding a replacement if you are sick etc. In other words, looking out for others above yourself.
As Mario says “people are always a work in progress but over the years our model has attracted wonderful people who have stayed for many years. Of course we’ve had our disagreements and people have left not understanding the dynamics but overall it has enabled us to create a very strong, committed and loyal team”.

Coaching Questions:
• What are the values in your business?<>
• If you think about how you can serve your employees, what would you do differently?
• What do you want people to say about you as a leader?

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