Foundations of Servant Leadership: Listen Intently, Learn Continuously

Servant Leadership is made up of many different components. At its foundation it is leadership that is based on the leader serving those around them. The leader prioritizes the needs of the team before satisfying their own needs. It turns the common hierarchal pyramid upside down so that the leader is at the bottom. The payback is an engaged, fully developed team.

There are two things that an aspiring servant leader can begin with to support their own journey and development towards being a true servant leader - Listen intently and Learn continuously. I call it the L2 approach to servant leadership. Here is a quick look at each.

Listen Intently

Effective listening skills may be the most important element of effective servant leadership. Without strong active listening skills it would be too easy to jump in too soon or miss a critical support need of those you serve. Listening takes patience and practice. A recent FastCompany article 5 Ways to Improve Your Listening Skills shared some solid ideas on actions you can take to improve in this area. Clearing your mind of any preconceived notions is the first step in hearing what is being said. Ensure that you resist the urge to solve in the moment or to formulate a response to questions or comments that you may have an opinion on. Instead stay focused on the point of view from the person you are listening too. Ask more questions to flush out all of their thoughts on the subject. Only once you have a complete understanding of their perspective do you need to take any additional steps. In many cases, just listening will resolve any issues or questions they have had. By listening intently and asking questions to learn more you will likely guide them to their own solutions. Listening serves you as much as it will serve others.

Learn Continuously

Servant leaders are always looking to further develop themselves so they can share that knowledge with others. Continuous learning broadens your horizons and opens up new doors for possibilities. Take a moment to recall the last time you were consciously learning a new skill or area of information - did you suddenly have fresh ideas on how you could use that information in your current situation or environment? Did it spur you to think in a new way about something your believed you were stuck on? I have found this to be common whenever I began to dive into subjects that I was less familiar with. This is one reason I enjoy listening to audio books. Since I need to concentrate so much on reading written word books, I sometimes miss letting my brain wander with the information it is processing. I have discovered many new ideas or possible ways of doing something while listening to a book and hearing a fresh perspective on a common subject.

Turning that learning around and teaching it back to others is an excellent way to deepen your knowledge on the subject and embed it for long-term usage in similar situations in the future. It can also increase engagement with others as they see you sharing and teaching your knowledge and not keeping it just for yourself.

While there is more to modeling a servant leader than just these two skills, they are a solid starting point to ensure that you position yourself to be seen as a leader that serves those around them. Consistently demonstrating these skills will set you apart from others and develop a level of engagement that ensure a positive environment and ongoing positive results.

How will you practice the L2 skills for servant leadership? Share your thoughts in comments.

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