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Servant Leadership Observer – October 2011

Ben — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:07:48 +0000

Welcome to the October edition of the Servant Leadership Observer. This month brought several news events, including a release by the C12 group highlighting the benefits of servant leadership in business. The Greenleaf Center has announced their first of three virtual certificate courses will begin in January. In addition, there is an interesting blog post on the NFL Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck as a servant leader.

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NEWS

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer: Former Red Cross exec Vikki Pryor addresses Servant Leadership Conference
This piece recaps Pryor’s keynote at the Pastoral Institute’s annual Servant Leadership Conference. I had the good fortune to hear Pryor at the Greenleaf conference a couple years ago and highly recommend her.

Reporter News: McMurry University Dorm Chaplain Program Declared a Huge Success
Two years into the program, this article explains how every hall has either a resident chaplain or a resident servant leader.

The Gleaner: Servant Leaders – the Real Heroes
This is an excerpt of a speech by GraceKennedy CEO Don Wehby, delivered at the United Student Movement inauguration ceremony at North Carribean University.

U.S. Department of Defense: DOD, Other Agencies Celebrate ‘Feds Feed Families’ Success
“DOD led 40 government agencies, donating 2,004,613 of a total 5,793,446 pounds of nonperishable food items to feed children, senior citizens and families…” At a celebration event, Jo Ann Rooney, principal deputy undersecretary of defense called participants servant leaders.

eTruth: Goshen (IN) Mayoral Candidates Speak to Servant Leadership
In a discussion at Goshen College, which has a theme this year of servant leadership, mayoral candidates Kauffman & Riegsecker spoke of their perspectives on these principles.

PRWeb: Applying Timeless Truths Drives Superior Business Performance
According to this piece, “The C12 Group, reports a surprising positive impact from adoption of Biblical servant leadership principles.” I was not surprised, but then. we’re sitting in the choir.

EVENTS

Greenleaf Center: Greenleaf Academy’s Course, Foundations of Servant Leadership, to Start in January
One of the Greenleaf Center’s 3 certificate programs, conducted virtually, is scheduled to begin in Mid-January.

Indiana Wesleyan University: Servant Leader Scholarship Competition Announced
Indiana Wesleyan announced a new scholarship competition program for servant leadership students in the honors college. Three students will be selected from the competition to receive scholarships ranging from $4,000 to $20,000. The competition begins in February.

BLOGS

Hub Pages: Leaders as Servants – Theoretical and Conceptual Models of Servant Leadership
Author Eric Coggins summarizes 7 different models of servant leadership. The models include Larry Spears, Jim Laub, Paul T. P. Wong and Don Page, Kathleen Patterson, John E. Barbuto & Wheeler, and Liden et al.

Chris LoCurto: Servant Leadership from a Quarterback
LoCurto highlights the example and quotes from Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

Serve To Lead: Netflix and Reed Hastings: Who Are They Serving?
Last month, James Strock brought you a perspective on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s lack of servant leadership practices. This month, we have a similar perspective on Netflix.

October Posts from The Modern Servant Leader

Servant Leadership Observer – September 2011

Ben — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:22:10 +0000

After a hiatus of monthly news updates, we resume the Servant Leadership Observer with September, 2011 news. I’ll post the October edition soon. In the meantime, the September edition captured a lot of news from Academia and some great blog posts.

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Topics: News | Events | Blogs | ModernServantLeader.com

NEWS

Erasmus University: Six Key Servant Leadership Attributes
Associate Professor Dirk van Dierendonk explains his perspective on the 6 attributes that define servant leadership. He also briefly covers perspectives on servant leadership implementation.

Brownsville Herald: New TSC President On Hand for Board Meeting
The new University of Texas at Brownsville President, Lily Tercero, defined here leadership philosophy as servant leadership. As a result, her inaugural meeting included a presentation on the ten characteristics of servant leadership.

Salisbury Post: Elizabeth Dole Wins Leadership Award
Trevecca Nazarene University of Nashville, Tenn., awarded former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole the second annual Nina Griggs Gunter Servant Leadership Award.

EVENTS

No new events were captured this month.

BLOGS

Barry Werner: Have the challenges of servant leadership deterred you from an all out commitment to becoming a servant leader?
Werner uses the example of Jesus seeking solitude after John the Baptist’s execution, only to find a needy crowd to exemplify the demands placed on servant leaders. Barry also provides tips and advice for the servant leader to address many of these challenges.

Serve to Lead: Who is Mark Zuckerberg Serving?
James Strock wrote about Zuckerberg and his social networking giant, Facebook’s repeated offense of user privacy rights.

September Posts from The Modern Servant Leader

Servant Leadership Observer – March 2011

Ben — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:01:48 +0000

This month’s update brings more interesting servant leadership news out of Africa and many great blog posts, including topics on mentoring and reflections on servant leadership in the Super Bowl. There are also events in Wisconsin and Texas. As always, please send me your feedback on The Modern Servant Leader.

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Topics: News | Events | Blogs | ModernServantLeader.com

NEWS

AllAfrica.com: Nigeria: Reviewing Gov Aliyu’s Servant Leadership
Author Joseph Stevens assesses Aliyu to be a servant leader based on the qualifications the test defined by Greenleaf. According to Stevens, “upon his swearing in as governor of Niger State on May 29, 2007, Alhaji Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, decided to drop the toga and appellation of ‘Executive governor’ or ‘ State Chief Executive’; and he surprisingly adopted the title of ‘chief servant’.”

Houston Community Newspaper: Sen. West Encourages Servant Leadership
n a lecture at Prairie View A&M University, Dallas Texas State Senator Royce West spoke of the importance of servant leadership. During a panel on the discussion, Royce himself was also recognized by colleagues as a servant leader.

Salisbury (NC) Post:Lilly Speaker’s Advice: ‘Follow Golden Thread…’
Author and Executive Director of The Servant Leadership School of Greensboro, Dr. Ruth Anderson, spoke of her own path to Servant Leadership. While speaking to Catawba College, Anderson explains how challenges shaped her servant leadership approach.

Portland (OR) Tribune: ‘Servant leader’ tells her story
Portland State Senator Avel Gordly published “Remembering the Power of Word ” her memoir that details her struggles with racism, depression and sexual abuse. Gordly says she learned a lot about “servant leadership” during her 64 years and it is “time to pass it on”.

Axiom News: Hospital Creates ‘Transformational’ Experiences
Axiom reports that St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin engages colleagues in servant leadership learning. The piece explains the three major components of the program and some of the benefits.

EVENTS

CEO Netweavers:Servant Leadership Conference
April 29 at the Houston City Club in Houston, Texas. Topics will include “The Female Servant Leader”, “The Spirit of Healthcare”, “Revolutionizing Community Spirit”, “Governance and Servant Leadership” and more.

About Me Card: The Power of Servant Leadership by James Hunter
On March 31st, James Hunter, author of “The Servant: is speaking on The Power of Servant Leadership at a free event in Greenbay Wisconsin.

BLOGS

Next Level Blog: A Super Bowl Servant Leader
Scott Eblin writes about Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steeler’s coach, his servant leadership, his mentor Tony Dungy and the stark contrast to Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones.

Open Society Foundations: Deconstructing “Servant Leadership” in Kenya
Author Mugambi Kiai writes a passionate address to the Kenyan Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka. Kiai argues there are two Kenya’s: the Powerful and the Powerless. According to the author, Musyoka is only serving the powerful.

MN Progressive Project: What if Success Was Servant Leadership Not Greed
Author Grace Kelly writes about servant leadership as the model for success vs. greed. Most of her support is drawn from Hunter’s first book and references to Collins’ Good to Great.

In Houston Netweaving: Servant Leadership – A Passion and a Purpose
Author Veronica Wasek gives a simple example of her experiences with servant leadership through networking.

Sermons on Logos.com: Servant Leadership Sermon
Author John Graves shares his sermon on Servant Leadership.

Suite101.com: Leadership Styles in Nursing: A Comparison of Charismatic vs. Servant Leadership
In this post, author and registered nurse, Donna Owen, compares and contrasts Charismatic Leadership vs. Servant Leadership as well as the term management vs. leadership.

Servant Leadership Solutions: Mentoring Matters
Lane Baldwin writes on the importance of mentoring for servant leaders. As Lane says, “Servant-leaders know the key to true success is ensuring the success of the followers.”

BrightHub: The Link Between Servant Leadership and Job Satisfaction
Author Dr. Ranee Kaur Banerjee writes on the clear connection between servant leadership and employee job satisfaction.

February Posts from The Modern Servant Leader

Happy Customers Tell 400 (with Blogs)

Ben — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:59:00 +0000

Those of you in customer service know that, historically, a happy customer tells 5 people, while an unhappy customer tells 100. While that was true in the past and likely remains true for verbal communication, Web 2.0 functionality is leveling the playing field. In particular, through Blogging your customers may tell the same number of people – whether they are happy or unhappy.

A recent posting from one of the country’s leading ITIL consultants rained down unsolicited praise for FedEx. Although the source was a personal blog, the estimated 400 member readership contained many IT consultants, contractors and industry professionals – all of whom rely upon carriers for their business.

Now I can hear the naysayers already: “one could complain just as quickly” – and you’re right. That is precisely the beauty of this evolution in communication mediums. Like it or not, your customers will hear all the big customer service stories. It used to be that each bad incident was relatively self-contained. However, this is no longer the case.

Now, emotional (favorably or negatively) customers will log onto any of the growing number of vendor-neutral customer complaint boards, the Better Business Bureau, or industry discussion forums and distribute their thoughts. If customers Blog about it, you will see that incident quickly broadcast to hundreds of readers. The internet is undiscriminating and the communication is immediate. What are you doing to manage this environment? Are you:

Monitoring relevant industry and consumer discussion boards?
Surveying your largest customer’s for preferred communication channels?
Researching customer service incidents online for “vent-sessions”?
Offering your customers a direct online forum through your own site?
All of the above?
Something else?

Today’s leading organizations understand these benefits and challenges. Web 2.0 savvy-leaders are addressing the response in many different ways. You must be aware of these concerns and opportunities – leveraging the processes and related technologies for your benefit and avoiding greater detriment.