Is servant leadership the right approach during time of economic crisis?
In the last 90 days, over 700 paperback books have become available on Amazon that address leadership in business. That means that about seven new books on leadership are added each day. If you include all the scholarly and magazine articles, audio books, and other forms of media, the shear amount of time and energy dedicated to investigating the types of leadership and their benefits is overwhelming. With so many leadership styles to consider, both current and aspiring leaders have a responsibility to decide what influence they intend to have on the people around them.
One leadership type that has proven successful at positively impacting employees is the servant leader model. It centers on the service of others as the core component of its theory. Robert K. Greenleaf devised the term “servant leader” in his 1970 essay entitled, “The Servant as Leader.”1 He believed that the most effective form of leadership puts a desire to serve others ahead of gaining power or possessions. That seems fairly intuitive – people follow leaders who value and support them, but do the employees stand to benefit anything beyond support from this leadership paradigm?
The answer is a resounding “yes,” and the list is lengthy. One benefit is employee resilience or the ability of employees to cope with adversity and adapt to changes in the workplace. With the amount of change and stress that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic, the appeal of employee resilience grew exponentially. There was no better testing ground for resilience than a complete and abrupt change in how individuals lived, worked, and traveled. Focus on productivity and profit shifted toward a discussion about individual well-being, mental health, and quality of life. As with many other commercial enterprises, resilience became “a key predictor of employees’ stress, job satisfaction, and turnover intention” in the hospitality industry.2 During the pandemic, everything changed from the way that dining areas were cleaned to how many customers could be served in a given period without exceeding state-mandated occupancy limits. The overwhelming nature of the changes that were required to be made in a short period of time greatly increased the stress felt by managers and front-line workers alike. These changes were compounded by individual employees’ concern about exposure and the decrease in available staff due to illness or resignation.
This shift in operations brought about more than just business-related changes. It also shined a spotlight on those leaders who, whether through previous training or innate skill, enhanced their employees’ level of resilience in a time of crisis. It also served to highlight management practices that were no longer beneficial in navigating this new world.
It has been more than three years since the beginning of the pandemic, and those in leadership positions can now take stock of their response and its impact on employees. While no longer operating in crisis mode, it can be tempting to fall back into old management patterns. There is some comfort in going back to “normal.” The world is not “on fire” anymore, so how can we refocus our energy toward improving efficiency and increasing the bottom line without losing the lesson? According to Esme Franken and colleagues3, there are some things to keep in mind when considering your business’s approach to increasing employee resilience. First, employee resilience is crucial, not only to responding well to change and crisis events but also to enabling employees to thrive in the workplace. It is important to note that, if employee resilience levels are currently low, they are not doomed to remain that way since resilience can be developed or strengthened. Leaders who want to focus on their employees’ resilience will need to concentrate on supporting each employee’s development beyond skill acquisition or refinement. Lastly, it is important to stamp out micromanagement. Not only does it negatively affect employee morale and encourage mediocre performance, but it also smothers employees’ development by focusing more on the task outcome than the development of the individual.
If you are interested in becoming a leader who fosters resilience in your employees but are not sure where to start, there are a few practical steps you can take to get the process started:
· Create an environment in which your employees feel safe when they share their concerns and anxieties. Active listening or listening with the sole purpose of understanding, is a key part of this process.
· Show your employees how much you appreciate them. Recognize them for their contributions to the team’s success. Gratitude given consistently and freely goes a long way, especially if an employee is struggling.
· Give your employees ownership of their work to enhance their sense of control. As discussed earlier, micromanaging can derail your efforts to build resilience in others.
· Have one-on-one meetings with your employees to check-in, offer feedback, recognize their efforts, and track project progress.
· Get to know your employees on a personal level so that you can recognize when something seems off and they may need more support.
· Let employees know what to expect both on a consistent schedule such as weekly or monthly deadlines.
· Expect to adjust goals and timelines based on the unpredictability of human nature. Be aware that circumstances outside of your control - and possibly your employee’s control - may impact his or her job performance and, by extension, project progress; and
· Be prepared with a plan to grow your employees’ resilience beyond the annual office retreat. Focus on small, consistent efforts rather than sporadic attempts to practice this leadership style.
Let me congratulate you on your commitment to becoming a better leader. You may not realize it, but you have already taken a significant step toward your personal and professional growth that will help you to leave your workplace better than you found it.
References
1 Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. (n.d.). What is servant leadership? Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/
2 Lai, Y.-L., & Cai, W. (2023). Enhancing post‐COVID-19 work resilience in hospitality: A micro-
level crisis management framework. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 23(1), 88–100.
https://doi.org/10.1177/14673584221075182
3 Franken, E., Plimmer, G., Malinen, S., & Bryson, J. (2021, November 17). Growing and adapting during continuous change: Building Employee Resilience in the public sector. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-82072-5_6#citeas
