Serving Others to Serve Yourself

SUMMARY

Leadership is about being able to anticipate and meet the needs of not just yourself but also your team as well.

Unfortunately, as we get even busier in this VUCA world, we have that challenge of being able to invest energy in others because we're so flat out, we've got our head down and our tail up, and we're just getting our stuff done, and people feel like they are not being nurtured.

That's the real reason why people leave.

This week, I want to help you to understand how you can shift that situation by being more socially aware, more empathetic, working with your people in a way that says: "I care and understand" by helping you to embrace this wonderful thing called Service Orientation.

TRANSCRIPT

Do you find that attraction and retention of quality people is even more difficult right now than it has been? That's happening all around the world.

So, as we continue our conversation around social awareness, I want to help you to understand how you can shift that.

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, VUCA Leadership and Sustainable Performance Coach, and today, I want to continue our conversation around being more socially aware, more empathetic, working with your people in a way that says: "I care and understand" by helping you to embrace this wonderful thing called Service Orientation.

Over the last few weeks, we've been talking about the quadrant of Social and Emotional intelligence called Social Intelligence, which is all about others. It's that unique intelligence that helps you to work well with others.

Right now, I'm just about ready to go in a few moments, and work with a group of CEOs and general managers here in Fiji, teaching them about leadership in a VUCA world.

It's very poignant that I'm here talking about this topic because Fiji is a place that knows how to serve. You see, I come to serve, not to be served. However, I've learned a lot in my travels around the world in places like this.

And that's what leadership is all about. Leadership is about being able to anticipate and meet the needs of not just yourself but also your team as well.

Unfortunately, as we get even busier in this VUCA world, we have that challenge of being able to invest energy in others because we're so flat out, we've got our head down and our tail up, and we're just getting our stuff done, and people feel like they are not being nurtured.

That's the real reason why people leave. You've probably heard this saying before: "People don't leave organisations; they leave people."

If they feel undervalued by the people they're working with, they will look for it elsewhere.

Service orientation is the third competency in this area of social awareness.

We've talked about empathy and how it differs from apathy which says: "I don't care", and sympathy, where you just feel sorry. Empathy says: "I understand."

We've also talked about having situational awareness so that you can see what's going on around you rather than just being tunnel vision-focused on what you're doing, and you can then be attuned to what's going on.

Service orientation is about anticipating rather than waiting for people to tell you what they want. To do this, you need to move away from being "ME" centred to being "WE" centred.

You need to understand each individual in your team. For those you don't understand, you need to use the skills we've already talked about to get a deeper understanding of each other.

As a servant leader, it's my role to make sure that I see what's going on, and when there is something that I don't understand, I reflectively listen and have a conversation with them so that I do understand.

Service orientation is all about asking questions, getting feedback, listening to that feedback and following through on the things that you say that you will change.

When you serve others, you get in return a hundredfold what you expect from them. They want to work for you and want to stay with you because they feel valued, so they don't want to leave.

Service Orientation is recognising that every one of us is valuable and that we all have talents and gifts that we can utilise together so that we can go to where it is that we're going on this super VUCA journey that we're on right now.

Well, that's it for me for another week. Join me again next week when I'm back in Australia, and we will continue this conversation around social intelligence and step into the final quadrant of relationship management.

I'll see you then.