The first week....plus an announcement

The Servant-Leadership Blog has now been up and running for one week. For those who have been visiting or are just checking us out for the first time, you will notice a few things that will change in the near future: 1) I have been the only one posting. This will change as our faculty get back on campus for the fall semester; and 2) Most of the posts have been about servant-leadership related news. This is primarily because I am just getting the how-tos of blogging down pat. As a faculty we will be exploring the very nature of servant-leadership and how it impacts the communities in which we live, work and play. It will surely be a great adventure and I encourage you to continuously check in on us. As mentioned before, we should be posting every day of the work week, at minimum.

Now for the announcement: I will be attending a seminar at the University of St. Thomas (my alma mater) for the next few days. The seminar, which is sponsored by both St. Thomas' John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Thought & Seeing Things Whole, will be exploring the theological construct of Seeing Things Whole's Three-Fold Model of Organizational Life. I'm sure there will be much blogging related to the seminar upon my return. That said, it is unlikely there will be any new posts until Thursday, August 4th. I look forward to being back blogging then.

Leaders embody Servant-Leadership

A couple of recent news stories indicate just how imbedded servant-leadership is becoming, not just in the United States, but throughout the world:

1) From Anambra state in Nigeria: Their current govenor is being lauded for his work in restoring faith and trust in the government once again. Workers are being paid, pensions are now coming regularly, and the infrastructure is being rebuilt; all thanks to a man who is referred to as a people person and servant-leader.

2) From the Community College of Baltimore County: Sandra Kurtinitis was recently hired as the new Chancellor. One of the reasons the Board of Trustees hired her? Thomas M. Lingan, the chairman of the college's board of trustees, said: "What sold me was she referred to herself as a servant-leader," Lingan said. "That was very important to us."

From Baltimore to Nigeria, servant-leadership is being embraced by leaders as they strive to provide the most effective leadership possible.

Some people think of servant-leadership as just another leadership fad that will go away with time. But the principles of servant-leadership are built on men and women of character doing what is right for an organization. As the weeks progress and other faculty members join in posting to the blog, we will be talking more about determining what it means to be a servant-leader.

Wales, Customer Service, and Servant-Leadership

In a recent article from icWales, the national website of Wales, comes an article entitled Great Customer Service means profits. There Andrew Williams, director of the Wales Institute of Customer Service, speaks very plainly about the importance of treating our employees with respect. He asks a great question when he says: "...why do so many organisations treat their employees like commodities to be used and abused?" His answer: It all goes back to poor leadership!

The skills and abilities needed to be an effective leader, as describe by Mr. Williams, are the same ones used to create a servant-leader culture in an organization. It is a great article that reinforces the global importance of creating servant-leader organizations. Plus, for those of us on this side of the pond (Atlantic), it has some wonderful sayings such as: 'so don't fob them off to somebody else'. You just don't see Americans using the word 'fob' very often! :-)

Southwest Airlines - A Servant-Leadership Culture

Many who read this blog are probably well aware of Southwest Airlines' commitment to practicing Servant-Leadership as an organization. As time goes on, I'm sure many stories will surface in suport of this fact. But I wanted to bring to your attention an article in yesterday's Juneau Empire (registration required).

Seems that Southwest is looking to move from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Boeing Field, about 9 miles away. The reason? Boeing field will charge Southwest almost $4/passenger less to use its facilities. In the meantime, Alaska Air is requesting equal access for the use of Boeing field.

Here is Southwest, once again, looking at how they can best serve their customers, and save both the company and passengers money in the process. The other advantage for consumers: Boeing Field is closer to downtown. Despite the upfront costs of moving all their equipment from Sea-Tac to Boeing, it will be nothing but a benefit for passengers, and Southwest Airlines in the long run. Companies who have the vision and willingness to ask: 'How can we better serve our customers?' and put this questions before 'How much will it cost us?' will almost always come out ahead.

Were Churchill & Reagan Servant-Leaders?

Certainly seem to be on a political streak today. But I wanted make mention that Steve Hayward has a new book due out October 4th entitled Greatness: Reagan, Churchill and the Making of Extraordinary Leaders. Despite what one may think of either Reagan or Churchill, their abilities as leaders rank among the greatest of the 20th century. It will certainly be worth a good read, especially for all of us who teach leadership classes.

Politics and Servant-Leadership, Revisited

Earlier this week I made mention of Senator Durbin's remarks in a private meeting with SCOTUS nominee Judge Roberts regarding Roberts' Catholic faith and fitness to sit on the highest court in the land. Paul over at Powerline brings us this update:

I understand that Congressman Henry Hyde has sent the following letter to Senator Richard Durbin:

I read with some interest comments attributed to you in news reports detailing your Monday meeting with the President's Supreme Court nominee, Judge John G. Roberts, Jr.

While we may disagree on various domestic and international issues, we have also found common ground over the years on numerous matters of importance to all Americans. As Catholics, we certainly share a common experience, including the awful legacy of anti-Catholic bigotry that permeated American politics well into the 20th Century.

"Irish Need Not Apply" signs were common in the storefront windows of Chicago's neighborhoods until a few years ago, a bias driven largely by the Catholic faith shared by most Irish-Americans. I want to believe that you do not wish to turn back the clock to that ugly period of our history, and that's why these comments attributed to you concern me.

No one of our faith -- or that of any other denomination or religion -- should be excluded from public office for his or her religious values. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution unequivocally prohibits such a litmus test: "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office of public trust under the United States."

"Practicing Catholics need not apply" cannot become a rallying cry of modern day religious bigots who would seek to drive from the public square all federal office candidates of faith. I hope that your question to Judge Roberts, if accurately reported, does not constitute an opening salvo in a process in which the candidate's faith will constitute sufficient justification for denying him a speedy confirmation.

Well said!! Kudos to Senator Hyde for standing up for the Catholic faith, as well as the faith of all those who seek public office.

Hope College starts a leadership program

The Grand Rapids Press has a story about a new leadership program started at Hope College in Holland, MI. See the press release here. Doug Koopman, the new director, says that "The program's goals include helping students to develop leadership and critical thinking skills, to integrate faith into their understanding of leadership, to become involved in leadership experiences in the community and to understand leadership from a scholarly perspective."

A lot of colleges and unversities are starting programs in leadership. We certainly wish Hope College the best of luck with this new endeavor.

Our prayers go out

Michelle Malkin has the moving story of one of the survivors of the terrible Boy Scout Jamboree tragedy. She has also included information for those interested in donating to the memorial fund for those who died. The Boy Scouts are one of the many great organizations teaching leadership skills to today's kids. We pray for all affected by this terrible tragedy.

Update: As if it hasn't been a trying enough week (click here)....President Bush even cancelled his trip to to Bowling Green, VA because of the heat!

What can the AFL-CIO learn from Servant-Leadership?

Yesterday the Teamsters and Service Employees International Union announced they were bolting from the AFL-CIO and beginning their own coalition (see here and here and here). Seems the AFL-CIO boss, John Sweeney wants to spend more money on lobbying Washington (they already spend $44m/yr.) and its members want to spend more money on recruitment. This graph tells the story why (click to enlarge):


The argument will rage from many corners that unions are an idea whose time has passed. What should be clear is as the boss of the AFL-CIO, Sweeney needs to be listening more closely to those who pay his salary. When an organization is suffering declining sales, membership, etc., it is time to get back to basics. When CEOs and leaders act on their own, without attempting to truly dialogue and reach consensus with those who work for them, they often suffer the same bad publicity and hit to their organizations that the AFL-CIO finds themselves mired in today.

Politics and Servant-Leadership

The mission of this blog is to discuss the role of servant-leadership in today's world. While we are not a political blog, nor do we choose to be, at times some very interesting stories develop that should be brought to light as they pertain to servant-leadership.

Today Powerline points out a story from the LA-Times Opinion page about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. Not only is he a devout Catholic, but his wife is a strong pro-life activist. It seems that Sen. Durbin asked John Roberts last week during informal meetings about how he would rule on cases that the Catholic Church considers immoral. There are some great questions that this raises. Here are just a couple:

1) To what extent will politicans play the Catholic card when public hearings begin and question his ability to separate his faith from his constitutional obligations?;

2) Will Catholic bishops, a small minority of whom became very vocal during the 2004 election regarding politicians' voting records and their Catholic faith, also begin to question Catholic judges as well?; and

3) If Roberts is confirmed, how much pressure will he receive both before and after voting on such issues as abortion and the death penalty from the vocal Catholic activists as well as from Catholic bishops?

Servant-Leadership is a tough way to lead because it requires a great deal of listening, dialogue and the use of persuasion rather than edicts; things we are not used to seeing a lot of, at least publicly, from today's politicians. Let's hope that the confirmation hearings bring out these servant-leadership principles rather than simple closed-minded rhetoric.

Special Thanks!

A special 'THANK YOU' needs to go out to Scott at Bernadot Studios for doing such a great job designing the website. Throughout this whole process he embodied the heart of a servant-leader with his willingness to go above and beyond to create exactly what we were looking for. Thanks Scott!

Welcome!

This is a new blog dedicated to the topic of Servant-Leadership. We will be exploring all things related to Servant-Leadership and its role in the lives of individuals and organizations. I encourage you to look around and enjoy the site!
Very soon several of the faculty members from our Master of Arts in Servant-Leadership program will be on board and between all of us we hope to have at least one new post daily.