Rules of Engagement for Servant Leadership to Thrive in Your Culture

In order for a culture of servant leadership to thrive and survive through constant organizational change you don’t just need a set of values on a poster in your conference rooms or lobby. You need a set of clear rules of engagement that everyone in your company can follow to ensure that respect and a focus on people’s strengths and abilities to contribute is front and center, daily. Without consequences to not following these rules even your commitment to “servant leadership” will be seen as the “flavor of the month” that few team members respect or believe from their leaders.

Remaining curious is at the center of all servant leadership principles. It is the only actionable characteristic that ensures that ontological humility is maintained by a culture’s leaders and all members of it’s team members.

Following these 9 principles and practices of communicating and interacting with others at work will ensure a respectful and strength-based work culture:

• Always keep in mind your desired outcome.

• Remove all distractions and sounds like cell phones from all view to ensure active listening skills are being used with others.

• Use timed rounding at beginning and end of meetings to be sure all are heard.

• Stick to “I” statements. Sounds like, “from my point of view…”

• Remain curious.

• Appreciate others strengths and ability to contribute.

• Say it now, not later.

• Honor agreed upon start and stop meeting times during .

ALWAYS leave meeting with clearly defined next steps for each participant.

One notice of caution. If you enact the practice above of “say it now, not later” without remaining curious or sticking to “I” statements,
team members may feel comfortable and empowered to say what they want, when they want to. To say what they want, when they want to and remove the aspect of what they are saying is only from their own point of view will probably result in other members of the team feeling bullied, disrespected, or psychologically unsafe to share their own points of view.

Which of these rules does your team need to use more often in your
culture?

What systems of operation can you put in place at your workplace to ensure that these basic principles are consistently followed?