How Servant Leaders Deliver Remarkable Results
Pressure produces compliance, not commitment.
The compliant never achieve greatness.
It’s not leadership to declare a random goal and pressure people to perform. “Increase profits by ten percent!”
The heart of servant leadership is bringing out the best in people.
In a recent conversation, Tony Pante, SAP’s global COO of Inside (Commercial) Sales said that coaching is a pillar of servant leadership.
Coaching connects learning with practice and reinforces change, while keeping an eye on results.
Coaches ask questions like:
- What outcomes do you/we want? Believe in?
- What behaviors will likely produce desired outcomes?
- What’s important to you about your goals?
- What strengths do you currently have that will help you achieve your goals?
- How might you rise to this new challenge? How have you risen in the past?
- What will be different for you when you achieve your goals?
- What’s preventing you from reaching your goals? What might you stop doing?
- When are you at your best? How might you leverage that as you move forward?
- What’s energizing you? How does that connect to your goals, if at all?
- What’s the next step?
On resistance:
I asked Tony about resistance toward coaching. He said, “Slow down to go forward isn’t in the DNA.”
It’s a challenge to slow down. Talking isn’t doing. Successful people love to focus on DO.
Resistance comes from people who believe coaching is about hand-holding, rather than achieving great results with passion and joy.
On magic pills:
Coaching isn’t the answer to everything.
The number one quality of a great coachee is aspiration. Resistant people can’t be coached because the questions you ask are usually leading, rather than open.
Curiosity is manipulation when you only accept the “right” answer.
What questions help leaders bring out the best in their team members?
This post is inspired by my conversation with Tony Pante.
Tony Pante: COO of the Global Commercial (Inside) Sales Team at SAP driving Innovation and Optimization Programs across the world. Primary responsibilities include: Strategy, Go To Market Development and Execution, Business Performance Insight, Continuous Improvement, and Leadership Development.
Tony in his own words (3:39):
(The reference to Bob in the video is a reference to my friend and coach Bob Hancox.)
“Resistance comes from people who believe coaching is about hand-holding. Coaching isn’t the answer to everything. The number one quality of a great coachee is aspiration.” Could not agree more! Some seem to have the mindset, “Here I am, coach. Make me great!” Nope, it doesn’t work that way. You first have to take ownership of your situation and have a desire and willingness to change so you can improve it. The coach’s job is to help channel your energy in a productive direction.
Thanks Michael. Well said. There is a huge difference between support and hand-holding. Yes leaders support, encourage, and fuel the growth of others. But, in the end, our growth is our responsibility.
What feels good about coaching is you have someone rowing with you, not just barking orders.
The original context of the definition for “coach,” is to take someone or something of value from where it/they are to where they want to go. If they don’t want to go, the coaching approach is ineffective. Coaching is a methodical leadership support system that helps guide others to discover where they want to go and how to get there. Nice post!
Thanks Rick. As you indicate, the key is, “Where THEY want to go.” Which brings up the point that if their aspirations don’t add value to the team and organization, then need to go somewhere else.
Dan; Very well said! It’s possible they might be on the wrong bus.
Let’s have the coach gather the team and say, “how do we Increase profits by ten percent?” Ask ahead of time and have a dialogue session to brain storm ideas (with rationale behind the ideas). From that event assign tasks to flush out and regroup. That way human nature can kick in; if you feel part of the path to solution, you tend to have some ramp up in passion and will feel better about your involvement. Stars (like any team) will shine and lead forward and the passionless will trail off.
Thanks Roger. Most of us don’t like being told what to do, but if you give us a chance to be involved we might go even further than anticipated. Set a high standard in conversation with others, not from a distance.
Well said. I’m a big fan of servant leadership and I’ve had a lot of success with it over the last dozen or more years once I really started practicing it. Though, I also enjoy the benefit of working with predominantly college students so most are focused on improving themselves though they may lack the guidance and wisdom to get there and that’s where I can add value.
Great post!
Dan,
Excellent, as stated “we only get out what we put in”!
Somewhere along the line we realize we have to contribute to make a difference. You have to be willing to go the extra to get the benefits, we control our destiny if we chose to apply oneself.
“How can we best support you”? could be one question leaders can use to bring out the best in their team members.
Excellent insights. Many leaders do not know what questions they should be asking themselves. Thanks for sharing the questions.