{"id":206,"date":"2019-01-07T23:12:20","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T23:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/?p=206"},"modified":"2019-01-07T23:12:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T23:12:21","slug":"java-with-joe-you-may-not-manage-any-people-but-you-can-still-be-a-servant-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/?p=206","title":{"rendered":"Java with Joe: You May Not Manage Any People, But You Can Still be a Servant Leader."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First, I want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year. It\u2019s\na safe bet that at least on the national front, we\u2019ll be confronted with a fair\namount of turbulence in 2019, but I hope we can all find ways to reach out to\none another and treat one another with a bit more patience, a bit more\nkindness.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the places where we work, the stress of trying to perform at the highest level sometimes leads to very different behavior. A close friend of mine\u00ad\u2014let\u2019s call her Linda\u2014is a 33-year old graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, currently working as a Marketing Manager in a mid-size professional services firm. Articulate and quick witted, Linda has real executive presence, and she has consistently been recognized and rewarded by the firm for her outstanding performance. She’s also a good corporate citizen, willingly going the extra mile to take on activities that are not part of her core responsibilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as the old saying goes, \u201cThere are always ants at the\npicnic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Linda\u2019s case, she\u2019s been finding it difficult to work as\ncollaboratively as she would like with some of the firm\u2019s business development\npeople. Her job is to promote the company and its offerings, and she needs the\ninput of those folks do that job as effectively as possible. All too often,\nhowever, as Linda says, \u201cI ask them to turn something in\u2026 but because they\ndon\u2019t see it as part of their core business line and it doesn\u2019t directly affect\ntheir bottom line, they\u2019re less engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her part, Linda is reluctant to push too hard. As she\nsays, \u201cThese people don\u2019t report to me. They\u2019re at the same level in the\ncompany as I am, and most of them are actually older than I am, with longer\ntenure at the firm. So my leverage is really pretty limited.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a common problem for people whose success depends on people who don\u2019t actually report to them. This includes people in staff roles who don\u2019t actually manage people, even if their title says Manager, Director, or VP. It also includes people who do have direct reports, but whose roles have a significant cross-functional component. In other words, it\u2019s a common problem for lots of folks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve faced this problem many times myself. As Chief Human\nResources Officer, for example, I had direct influence over the HR folks, but\nin order to move the ball forward on many major initiatives, I needed the\ncooperation and buy-in of senior leaders in other functions and areas of the\nbusiness. Like Linda, I often felt as if my leverage was somewhat limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean that you have no<\/em> leverage. If and when you find yourself in this sort of\nsituation, my advice is to remember that even if you\u2019re not a manager<\/em>, you can still be a leader\u2014a Servant\nLeader. Instead of focusing so much on how these other people could help you,\ntry to focus more on how you might help them. In Linda\u2019s case, for example, if\nshe focuses on the fact that she needs\u2014and isn\u2019t getting\u00ad\u2014the cooperation of\nthese other people, she\u2019s likely to grow more and more resentful of them, and\nmore and more dissatisfied with her job. That\u2019s not a great place to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if she focused more on the fact that by doing a better job of promoting the company and its offerings, she\u2019s making it easier for them to attract and retain clients. In other words, she\u2019s in a position to really serve those people and help them \u201craise the bar\u201d and succeed. With that in mind, her challenge becomes not how to manage those people or how to push them into giving her what she needs. Instead, the challenge becomes figuring out how to help them see that she wants to help them\u00ad\u2014that she is actually in a position to help them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to do that? It starts with a conversation, even a brief\none\u00ad\u2014a\nconversation in which Linda does much more listening than talking. Ask what the\nother person needs from Marketing in order to drive more business to the firm.\nAsk what potential clients want to know about the firm or a new offering\u2014what\nkind of information is most likely to pique their interest. Then, at the right\nmoment, maybe offer to come back with a new promotional idea based on the\nperson\u2019s input and ask if they\u2019d be willing to provide feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This approach won\u2019t always work. Let\u2019s face it: some people are too wrapped up in themselves to engage in real collaboration with others, even when that would benefit them in significant ways. They think they\u2019re too busy or their work is too important; sometimes they\u2019re just afraid of having someone else get credit for anything. But in my experience, most people will collaborate in a meaningful way when the opportunity to do so is presented to them in the right way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, as we move into this new year, why not look for ways to be\na true Servant Leader, even when\u2014and maybe even especially<\/em> when\u2014you\u2019re working with folks you don\u2019t actually\nmanage. If you can build those kinds of mutually supportive relationships, you\u2019ll\nnot only be more successful, you\u2019ll also find going to work a much more\nsatisfying experience. And remember, it all starts with a simple conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, I want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year. It’s a safe bet that at least on the national front, we’ll be confronted with a fair amount of turbulence in 2019, but I hope we can all find ways to reach out to one another and treat one another with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}