Sacagawea

I happened to catch the end of “The Journey of Sacagawea” on public television the other night . Unfortunately, I did not see much of the show, but I was immediately reminded about another servant leader on a journey, namely Leo in Herman Hess’s book “The Journey to the East”. It was Leo who inspired Robert Greenleaf to coin the phrase “servant leader”, so it seems appropriate that the US Mint placed Sacagawea’s likeness on a gold coin to honor this Shoshone Indian servant-leader.

Sacagawea was only fifteen years old when she joined Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. At the age of ten she was abducted from her tribe by the Mandan/Hidatsa and was eventually sold with another young girl as a wife to the French Canadian trapper Toussaint Charbonneau. Lewis and Clark had hired Charbonneau to come along with them on the trip to act as an interpreter, with the understanding that he would bring Sacagawea along. More information about her can be found at this PBS web site.

On the journey she gave birth to a son, she help feed the members of the voyage, she guided them through the lands of her childhood, she interpreted with other Indians for them, and her and her infant sons presence with the group helped to ensure the Indian tribes they encountered that the group did not come to make war. Lewis and Clark journals “tell us she was compassionate, cheerful and uncomplaining, accepting life as she found it. She had little choice in her destiny and few freedoms. And yet the men on the expedition respected her bravery.” Refer to the following page on the “Journey of Sacagawea” site for more quotes on her leadership skills on the journey.

Although not many details are known about her life, what is known makes clear that in her short life (she apparently died around the age of 22) Sacagawea was a natural at servant leadership.

Focus.

Fr. Chuck Brambilla, the pastor at St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Blaine, MN, gave an interesting sermon on Sunday. He called the children up to the alter to take part in his homely. He told them about a friend of his who was a teacher of homiletics. His friend reminded him three things about giving a good homily.

The first thing to remember was to focus. The second thing to remember was to focus. He then asked the kids what the third thing might be and they informed him that it was also to focus.

He concluded his homily with some reminders on what it is important to focus on, and after some informative coaching, the children came up with the following four items: love, peace, justice, and forgiveness. These seem like good reminders for what the focus of servant leadership should also be about.

Thankfulness on “Black Friday”.

I have been thinking about how Thanksgiving relates to servant leadership. Being thankful is definitely a key to being a good leader, with out this “attitude of gratitude” it becomes to easy to become mired down in wanting more; forgetting that more often then not we have all that we really need. Satisfying the most important needs is really what servant leadership is all about, for it is in helping others to meet their own needs that we become more whole ourselves. I believe that a key to being successful as a servant leader is to be able to discern what an important need is, and what is a want for more.

Today is called “Black Friday”, one of the biggest shopping days of the year. A day that is really not about meeting needs, but mostly about wanting more. So how to we remember to be thankful on this day of wants? I came across a few articles that helped remind me what is really important about these days of thanks.

An article on Wikipedia discusses the alternative to the “Black Friday” consumption celebration of “Buy Nothing Day.” For me this is a good reminder that everyday should be about becoming more aware of what it is I buy, and what my motives are for buying it. Do I buy because I really need something or just because I want to buy something?

An article by Robert Jensen points out that we often forget about some of the real costs of the pilgrims and other settlers coming to American, namely the genocide of the native peoples that occurred in the aftermath of the first thanksgiving. His article is title “No Thanks to Thanksgiving.”

The essay titled “Thanksgiving: A Native American View” by Jacqueline Keeler is a reminder that many native people believed in the importance of giving rather then the concept of selling. She writes, “Among many of our peoples, showing that you can give without holding back is the way to earn respect. Among the Dakota, my father's people, they say, when asked to give, ‘Are we not Dakota and alive?’ It was believed that by giving there would be enough for all -- the exact opposite of the system we live in now, which is based on selling, not giving.” There is much we can learn from people of other cultures.

So perhaps it is time to be thankful for our needs being met, to remember atrocities that have been committed in the name of greed, to learn to grow to be more accepting of all people, and to share the gifts that have been bestowed upon us.

The Walking Indifferent

A recent graduate of our program, Sue S., sent me this article about the need for better bottom-up management practices. A couple of quotes:

"Almost half of all workers say the companies they work for fail to deal effectively with problem workers. They leave them on the payroll infecting others and destroying enthusiasm and morale."

The biggest problems corporations have are with what they identified as the "walking indifferent": "They are silent killers. They have learned to expect not too much and to give not too much. Yet, these workers are normal people with reasonable human wants. Somehow, their human needs are only marginally satisfied, if at all, by the companies for which they work. In return, they give to the companies a mere fraction of what they are capable of contributing. The economic cost of this underutilization to the affected businesses is enormous."

As we enter into another holiday shopping season in which many of us will spend far too much time in stores waiting in line (realizing the entire time that we must really love those we are buying the gifts for in order to suffer thru this), the above article gives us an opportunity to reflect on the leadership that is in place (or seemingly not) in the service industry:

1) Are companies doing all they can to properly train employees not only on the "nuts and bolts" of their job, yet also train them about the mission and values of the company? If not, should we really be blaming these employees for their lack of care or should we be blaming the leadership team?

2) What does it say about the leadership of the company if unproductive employees are left doing a mediocre job and no one bothers to deal with the problem? Is it really about lazy employees or lazy leadership?

"Orange Alert"

And with all the talk about sun and stars and artists and inspiration, here are some thoughts I had after a trip to the airport today.

The frosty haze of the freezing air enhanced the orange hue of the sunrise as I drove to the airport to pick up my family. My sixteen year old daughter was coming back from a school service trip to Chicago, while my wife and other daughter were coming back from a trip to Kansas to visit family. A sign at the airport entrance warned in flashing yellow lights about an “Orange Alert.” Another sign taped to the entrance door explained that the “alert” meant security was high due to a threat of terrorism.

My oldest daughter’s flight arrived first and we greeted each other with a hug. We went for breakfast while waiting for the other travelers. She glowed with enthusiasm while she talked about getting to know the kids in an inner city school who faced many difficulties because of where they lived and the struggling families they happened to be born into. She came back with a desire to do more of this work as she planned her future.

We returned to the airport to wait and a little girl with her parents sat in the chairs behind us. The girl introduced herself to me by sticking out her tongue and then grinning when she noticed me looking. I restrained myself from returning her greeting, worrying what someone might think if they saw me sticking my tongue out at a little girl. Her mother warned me about her daughters “flirting” and the girl informed me that her name was Jennifer and she was almost three. She had two older brothers, some dinosaurs and a doll waiting for her at home. Eventually she walked away with her parents.

A grin crossed my face as I watched her enthusiastically skip through the expanse of the airport; simply enjoying life. I looked over at my daughter and asked her when she had lost that three year old enthusiasm; she reminded me that she had not lost it, but I had. Perhaps if more adults could become like children we could live in a world where the only “orange alert” would be a reminder to enjoy the colors of the sunrise.

And More on Star Artists.

Just a quick followup on the blog I posted Friday with a link to the great drawing by Mark Seibold of Mercury crossing the Sun. Mark sent me an email letting me know about some of his other work and if any one is interested they can find out about it at his web site here. Here are some links to some of his other drawings also here and here.

More on Artists and Stars.

I came across the picture above on The Astronomy Picture of the Day Web Site earlier today. The picture of the astronomer/artist's hand sketching a picture of a view through his telescope of the planet Mercury passing in front of the Sun seemed like a good reminder of the need to be aware. Last week the planet had crossed in front of the view of our star allowing a number of equally impressive photographs of the event to be taken (link 1, link 2, link 3.) So what is the big deal about a small black dot passing across the sun? The event could not even be seen unless some one took special efforts (access to a telescope with special filters) to see it.

As I looked at these photographs, there seemed to be something more meaningful behind the event. Mark Seibold’s drawing of the event brings out the meaning for me; it reminded me about the importance of taking the time to be aware of the seemingly mundane events that happen in life. Too often, I find it easy to ignore the small happenings, being too busy looking for the big event. It is when I take the time to focus on the seemingly meaningless events that I am more often then not rewarded with an event much larger then I could have hoped for. Mr. Seibold’s drawing reminded me that taking a moment to observe Creation inspires me to become a creator myself.

So what have you become aware of in this moment?

Setting one's course on a star

Robert Greenleaf was known for having kept a journal. At one point in his life he used Jungian dream analysis as part of his quest. Earlier in his life his mostly unpublished journal entries provided the groundwork for his later work. Here is one of those entries:

Spend all you have for loveliness. Buy it and never count the cost....Count many a year of strife well lost, and for a breath of ecstasy give all you have been or could be.

The rewards of living a full life may be measured in joyous moments rather than in days or years. These are the treasures that return to the mind in the quiet hours of the declining years. The moments nobly lived, challenges met, the truth spoken, the slur turned aside, the tummult quelled, the helping hand extended, and the simple expression of gratitude, the burden borne; meeting life and feeling the response of living - taking responsibility, prudently, if possible, but taking it and leaving it joyfully once taken. Setting one's course on a star and steering towards it, minding not the reefs that waylay. August 31, 1941

This was written almost 30 years before his first published essay, The Servant as Leader, came to fruition. But you can see, I think, how his early private writings were guiding him towards what came later in his public writings.

Some random questions: What are the joyous moments in your life? What are the treasures that will return to your mind as you grow older? Have you set your course on a star? Are you currently steering towards it or have the reefs gotten in the way?

What we are about........

I would like to welcome those of you visiting for the first time, especially those from BusinessPundit.com. A special 'Thank You' to Rob for linking to us!

So what is this blog all about? Well, despite the fact that you will see that all the contributors are either administrators, faculty or alumni in Viterbo's MA in Servant Leadership, we are really NOT about self-promotion. In fact we rarely link to the program (you're smart people, you can find the link on the site if you are interested!).

We are also NOT about any particular church's view of servant leadership. NOR are we about any particular corporation's view of servant leadership.

OK, so do we stand for anything at all? Well, at times it may seem like we do not. However, if you go through our archives I think you will find 2 themes/rules/guiding principles:

1) We want to promote servant leadership the way that Robert Greenleaf spoke and wrote about it; and

2) We want our posts to cause you to become more reflective on your leadership journey.

Do we always succeed? Well, I guess that depends on who you talk to. But you can be sure we will most certainly try to live by these two principles.

Is Starbucks Practicing Servant Leadership?

One of the things I have struggled with in my studies of servant leadership is if large corporations can really practice servant leadership. It has been my belief that to really be effective at servant leadership, an organization has to be small enough, and local enough, to be aware of what the impacts of its operations are on all the people that it serves, and on all of the places it operates. I have also often wondered what the employees of large organizations that claim to practice servant leadership have to say about their workplace.

Starbucks is an example of such an organization. I have wanted to ask the folks behind the counter who serve me my cup coffee how they like their work and discover if servant leadership really matters by the time it gets down to them. So far, I have not done that, but I recently watched the documentary “Black Gold” that brought up some deeper questions about Starbucks and its servant leadership practices.

The documentary tells the story of coffee growers from Ethiopia who cannot survive on the money they make from growing coffee. The movie alternates between scenes of the growers and other coffee workers, and their struggles; to the coffee shops of Europe and America where people like me pay more for a cup of coffee then the farmers and coffee workers make in a days work. Kraft, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Sara Lee and Starbucks where mentioned as the major players in the coffee market. The real life hero of the movie is the servant leader Tadesse Meskela who works for coffee grower’s cooperatives traveling the world in an attempt to ensure that the farmers are paid a fair price for the crop they grow.

Since the movie has come out, Starbucks and been doing some public relations to try to show that they do serve the African growers. The company has also been the subject of a campaign to get Starbucks to follow through on its claims of being leaders in the coffee industry to help Ethiopian farmers to earn more for their crop by signing an agreement recognizing Ethiopia’s legal ownership of its fine coffee names. Starbucks has been avoiding signing the agreement and spells out the reasons in a recent press release .

I also came across a web site for the Starbucks Union, a group of Starbucks' workers who are coming together for: “increased pay and raises, guaranteed hours with the option of fulltime status, an end to understaffing, and a healthier and safer workplace.” I would bet if the members of this union were asked about the company’s servant leadership practices, they would not give them high marks. Starbucks new CEO Jim Donald hails from WalMart and is apparently not pro union, refer to Daniel Goldin’s recent blog for more on this topic.

And in closing it seems that the question to ask is Robert Greenleaf’s “what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived?”

The Meaning of Symbols.

In his essay “The Servant As Leader”, Robert Greenleaf wrote “Nothing is meaningful until it is related to the hearer’s own experience. One may hear words, one may even remember them and repeat them, as a computer does in a retrieval process. But meaning, a growth in experience as a result of receiving the communication, requires the hearer supply the imaginative link from the hearer’s fund of experience to the abstract language symbols the speaker has used.”

The recent news about the controversy over University of North Dakota’s sports team nickname “the Fighting Sioux” and accompaning logo brings out an example of leaders not choosing words that lead to growth . The University is facing sanctions from the NCAA based on findings that the nickname is considered “hostile and abusive”. The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education has authorized the University to pursue litigation challenging the NCAA’s decision. UND president Charles E. Kupchella wrote a letter to the NCAA about their charges. He wrote, “We were initially stunned by the charge ‘abusive’ and ‘hostile,’ and then angry.” Kupchella goes on to defend the University’s choice in using the nickname based on reasons that included: a respected Indian artist designed their logo, Indian names are used all across North Dakota for geographic locations, the University has over 400 American Indian Students, and that of the two Sioux Indian tribes that exist in North Dakota only one objected to the use of the nickname. Kupchella's letter indicates that the leadership of the University has seriously failed to understand why some might find the continued use of the nickname and logo“hostile and abusive”.

Another group of leaders at UND fortunately demonstrate how the Board and President’s choice of words are indeed “hostile and abusive”. BRIDGES is a student organization at the University that has been working towards getting the nickname and logo changed. Their Web Site contains another interesting letter from UND alumnus Ralph Engelstad. Mr. Engelstad had donated $200 million dollars for the construction of “The Ralph Elgelstad Arena” at the University. His donation was based on the condition that the University kept the “Fighting Sioux” nickname, and his letter to Kupchella made it clear that changing the nickname would result in withdrawal of his contribution. Mr. Engelstad has since passed away, but his conditional $200 million legacy has not. The BRIDGES site contains some additional interesting information on Mr. Engelstad motives and history and other examples of why the UND nickname and logo are “hostile and abusive”.

It is too bad that the UMD Board and President continue to attempt to lead under the premise that “money speaks louder then words”. It is reassuring that at least some of the students at UND are examples of leaders who have gone beyond simply hearing or repeating words, but have come to understand the real meaning behind the "picture worth $200 million".

So what abstract language do you see in the “Fighting Sioux” symbol?

Who will step forward...The Analyst or The Artist?

My apologies for the lack of posts lately......work and home, in addition to quite a bit of writing, have consumed much of my energy lately.

As I watched the results the other night and heard over and over again how this election was about Iraq, I remembered something I had read in Greenleaf's original essay, The Servant as Leader, about criticism. I found it, and want to share it with you:

With education that is perponderantly abstract and analytical it is no wonder that there is a preoccupation with criticism and that not much thought is given to "What can I do about it?"........Criticism has its place, but as a total preoccupation it is sterile. In a time of crisis, like the leadership crisis we are now in, if too many potential builders are taken in by a complete absorption with dissecting the wrong and by a zeal for instant perfection, then the movement so many of us want to see will be set back. The danger, perhaps, is to hear the analyst too much and the artist too little.

Let us hope and pray that all elected officials.,....republicans and democrats, rookies and veterans.....spend their time in office not preoccupied with criticism but instead asking the question: What can I do about it?

Religious Conversion and Servant Leadership.

In today’s Google search for servant leadership in the news, I came across an article with some quotes from Gene Wilkes the author of “Jesus on Leadership”. Although I have not read his book, some of what Wilkes says in relation to the topics discussed in the article troubled me.

According to Wilkes, “There is a seduction [in ministry] to adopt the business model for leadership, […] we must remember that this is a spiritual endeavor and that changed lives are the goal. The servant-leader must be a model [of] Christ with a biblical worldview. […]The servant leadership of Jesus is a universal model for those who lead in ministry and the marketplace -– and it is the most effective model.”

The article seems to be about a ministry that strives to convert people to Christianity as a way of making their life’s better. Equating conversion to one particular religion with meeting peoples most important needs does not seem to about listening to those you serve. As I learn more about other religions and servant leadership, I have come to understand that servant leadership is a concept that is much more universal than any one religion. At their cores, all major religions teach servant leadership principles, and I also believe that even non-religious people make great servant leaders. Servant leadership is at it core spiritual and not necessarily religious. History has shown that religion and spirituality are not always equal.

For what they are worth, my thoughts on the news for the day.

How long do we wait?

As leaders and decision makers there is always an "information gap" between the information that we have available immediately and what is needed to make the best decision. We can always wait a little longer to get more information, but then the lack of making a decision right away comes at a cost. In fact, waiting too long sometimes means that we must start all over.

The reality is that we will never have 100% of the information we need to make the best decision. So what do we do? How do we move forward? At what point should a leader make the decision regardless of how much more information can be gathered?

Our ability to intuitively bridge the gap between information we have and what is needed in order to "pull the trigger" and make a decision is something Greenleaf calls "the art of leadership." Those that are good at doing this are likely to emerge as leaders within our organization. It means that we must be creative and be willing to push into the unknown.

"The wise leader knows when to bet on these intuitive leads, but (s)he always knows that (s)he is betting on percentages - hunches are not seen as eternal truths."

Why are we so afraid of.........

.....Silence? What is it about silence that makes us feel awkward? Often times in meetings we feel like it is so important to zip through our agenda and "get back to work." What would happen if we took a different approach to meetings and required that each time a new proposal was made the entire group would take 1 minute and not say anything? Would this "1 minute reflection" bring a different tone to the way in which we approach the issues we deal with in our organization?

Greenleaf has this to say about silence: "One must not be afraid of a little silence. Some find silence awkward or oppresive. But a relaxed approach to dialogue will include the welcoming of some silence. It is often a devastating question to ask onself, but it sometimes is important to ask it - 'In saying what I have in mind will I really improve on the silence?'"