Servant Leadership

WELL DONE to Alyssa Magnotti on the following article:

Read "What is Servant Leadership & Why Should I Use It?"
by Alyssa Magnotti at http://bit.ly/em4YI2  Note difference in power driven and servant leaders

See Alyssa at http://thinkspace.com/about/our-team/

Leadership Lost Along the Way

    Once a leader always a leader; well maybe not    David Kovacovich writes that, "Every organization reaches a tipping point. That point when your vision becomes a company, later an organization, and at some point a corporation. As companies grow the vision gets further from reality and process takes over. We lose site of our purpose for waking up in the morning and punch the clock. Every executive in every company knows how to deliver his/her message. The question is at what point do they stop believing the message? If the top executive does not believe, their employees will not either, and their customers will realize that the dream has become a commodity. Then it’s work: clock punching, reporting……….and nothing more! The CEO may never even realize the point at which his/her dream died."
   I have observed this in leaders and have seen the diminishing effects on the organization as a whole. It can be caused in part by the Peter Princple when the organization outgrows the strength of the man or woman in charge of it.  "The Peter Principle states that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence", meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they cannot work competently. It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book The Peter Principle, a humorous ^[1] treatise which also introduced the "salutary science of hierarchiology." [read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle]
    I believe that the same thing can happen not by promotions but by the organization outgrowing the "leader."
    For the full article by Kovacovich go to:
      http://www.leadersbeacon.com/oversight-a-tale-of-leaderhsip-lost/

Serving Others, Ray Ivey

Caution Laissez-faire leadership Attempt Ahead

   This French phrase, Laissez-faire, means "leave it be," and it's used to describe leaders who leave their team members to work on their own. It can be effective if the leader monitors what's being achieved and communicates this back to the team regularly. Most often, laissez-faire leadership is effective only when individual team members (1.) are very experienced; (2.) skilled self-starters; and (3.) have experience working together. Unfortunately, this type of leadership can also occur when managers don't apply sufficient control.1  1 http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm
   When a person, named "Leader", trys this leadership style, I see more disasters than successes. At the base of it all is that the person "in control" is not and is not really a leader. I can see a train wreck waiting to happen. They, in fact, maybe overwhelmed by the task of leadership and see this as way not to be discovered.  //follow me on Twitter at "@rivey" search for me by using "@rivey" or  "Ray Ivey"//

The Leader Misled Misleads

    Some leaders feel they lead, but what they do is direct from their position of authority and they get compliance. They see things happen and they feel they are big leaders, but there is no inspiration that motivates or inspires. They are more supervisors than leaders.
   With compliance followers, you only get what is required. You do not get any discretionary effort.  Compliance followers will do what's necessary not to embarrass themselves. The "leader" can be misled. The "leader" can also be misled by the sycophant's fawning and overt flattery.
   What leader doesn't have a self-serving subordinate or two. The classic "yes man".  What leader will recognize the "yes man" with him? Not many. And what leader values the person with a dissenting view to balance the leader's ego? Not many.
   There is a story of an Roman Emperor returning from victory with the spoils of war and the praise of the crowds, had a slave ride along and repeat these words; "Respice te, hominem te memento" ("Look behind you, remember you are only a man"). And thus it is so. (c) Ray Ivey