Servant Leadership -- How Does It Help Achieve Organizational Excellence?

At the end of May, Robert. B Camp published a book entitled The Servant Leader: How to Create a Productive Organization By Serving Those Being Led -- a compelling exploration of servant leadership in practice. The book delves into how truly effective leaders prioritize humility, foster growth in others, and remove obstacles to enable success. A servant leader, Camp asserts, sets the vision and paves the way for others to follow.

When I spoke with Robert this month, I asked him: "What is 'servant leadership,' and how does it benefit an organization?" Here is his complete response: 

Lean is about leadership.  

When employed effectively, Lean works from the top of the organization down.  While conventional "command and control" leadership can get a Lean transformation off the ground, it can’t sustain one.  Sustainable Lean is achieved when leaders set direction and goals, then use their authority to remove obstacles from the paths of the people they hold accountable for achieving those things.  This demands a mindset shift: leaders must see themselves not above, but in service to, their teams.

In this upside-down way of looking at leadership, one realizes that leadership isn’t about power and control.  It’s about clearing the path for one’s subordinates so that they can do their jobs more effectively and excel.

Early in my book, the reader meets Thomas Harding, a director endeavoring to be a servant leader.  We learn that, as a leader, “Thomas feels his highest calling [is] to grow those below him; to prepare them to be the best they possibly [can be].  As a result, he [is] far more worried about his people’s careers than his own.”  

The reader also learns that Thomas adheres to a strict hierarchy of principles:

• His priorities are: 
• Morality (following a moral code)
• Organization (achieving the best outcome for his company)
• Subordinates (clearing their paths so his people can shine)
• Self (Striving to be his best in service of others)
• He always completes assignments, but often well beyond expectations.
• He seeks to make his people’s lives easier by eliminating bureaucratic obstacles.
• He listens to his people, but also communicates what’s going on.
• He strives to develop subordinate leaders who mirror his own behaviors. 

Robert’s perspective invites reflection -- What do you think of his view of servant leadership? Is servant leadership part of your organization's culture? Is it part of your Lean initiative? 

Sustaining Lean = Long-Term Leadership

Just this month, Robert B. Camp published a new book titled Sustainable Lean: The Story of a Cultural Transformation, and I talked to him about some of the topics addressed in the book. Most Lean initiatives begin with noble intentions but often plateau or fail to maintain the gains. It’s commonly known among consulting circles that 80% to 85% of all first-time attempts at a Lean transformation fail, and I asked Robert: Why does this occur? Here is his complete answer:

Lean comes from a culture, originally developed at Toyota, that understands that plotting a strategy requires taking the “Long View” -- looking for the best long-term solution, irrespective of what might be best in the short-term.

Making a decision to launch a Lean transformation is a strategic decision. It is a life-changing transformation, the equivalent of leaving the doctor’s office with the emphatic “lose weight or die.” You can’t perform a Kaizen event or two, any more than you can lose a pound or two, and declare victory. Making the decision to embark on a Lean transformation is making the decision to change life habits, and not just on the shop floor.

What most leaders don’t understand (and, frankly, most transformation experts are afraid to tell them) is that for Lean to work, leaders have to change. Leading Lean is not achieved by hiring a well-known consultancy or appointing a Continuous Improvement Coach -- It is achieved by effective leadership from the top.

Leading Lean means learning about the philosophies of Lean and the tools that issue from them. It means changing the way in which processes are measured and goals achieved. It means being transparent and living the life before you ask others to. It means holding everyone in the organization accountable for achieving expectations. It means a lot of mentoring and coaching and going to see for yourself.

Mostly, leading Lean is about a personal commitment to change.

What do you think of Robert's ideas? Have any of you been involved in a Lean transformation that has stalled or failed because key champions have left the company or the emphasis was solely on tools?