Here is the latest excerpt from a section of TCB called Servant Leader. The concept is ancient yet its modern application is powerful. See what you think.I hope it makes sense. It governs the way I lead and coach.
In Buddhist thought, there is the notion of the Samurai leader warrior. The word Samurai in Japanese means service with heart, honor and integrity. In this sense the ideal coach or leader is akin to the Samurai, one who serves and leads with heart. Service is not about servitude or catering to all the wishes of those you lead. It is about valuing those you lead and adding worth to their lives. As a servant coach, you are in charge and oversee the big picture, but you offer your service by providing an honorable and humble environment for all to reach their potential.
As a member of the Onondaga nation, Native American Faith-keeper Chief Oren Lyons, in an interview called “Leadership Imperative” says that the purpose of leadership is to serve others. It appears that the most effective leaders examine their hearts and ask the question: am I here to serve or to be served? Obviously, it’s to serve. Therefore, the most important question that a servant-directed leader and coach needs to ask is “how can I best serve you?” When you follow the answer to this simple query, those you lead will experience a heightened sense of self and you, as a result, gain more power, not over people, but the power to influence and dance with them, and help facilitate change and growth for all involved. This is why we say, “to serve is to lead.”
Buddhist thought expounds the idea of selfless servant leaders who embody profound compassion and wisdom in their unrelenting effort to promote the growth of other mindful leaders with an open heart. The Buddha servant leadership mission is to transform the relationship between leader and follower through conscious choice for genuine care and common interest in a shared vision. That vision of leadership emphasized the code of the Samurai (servant) which included the following behavior:
Willingness to admit mistakes and use them to better oneself
Adhering to a set of personal values and be the change you
want to see
Mediating conflict in a cooperative way
Picking up the slack when needed
Acknowledging all opinions
Listening
Performing random acts of kindness
Holding self to a higher standard
Supporting those you lead during the hard times
Committing to the growth of others
Being patient and understanding
Being demanding out of love for the benefit of others’ growth
Catching those you lead doing something right
While executing these Buddha servant leader behaviors, make sure that your followers’ highest priorities and needs are being served. Help them to grow as people to become leaders in their own right. In this model of servant leader, you share power and put the needs of the team first. Your behavior and servant actions inspire and empower others to dream, learn and expand. Servant leaders invite others in to work with heart side by side rather than from above.
That good leaders must become good servants is best exemplified by head coaches Phil Jackson, Pete Carroll, Tara Vanderveer, Gregg Popovich, Cindy Timchall and Quin Snyder. Then there is Steve Kerr, whom I mentioned in the previous section. Steve believes in this concept and felt honored by the title I used for this section.
As the title to this section intimates, Steve is the SERVANT LEADER OF WARRIORS. Like a true servant, Steve leads his athletes by walking behind them, inspiring and empowering them to develop their full human potential, regardless of their tole on the team. In a recent podcast we did together, Steve told us how you never want to let the last athlete on the bench to not feel important, valued and respected. He talks about how he uses several of the Buddha servant behaviors above to motivate all his athletes to find their personal greatness as athletes and as human beings.
The question many have about coaching at this level is how do you get a cohort of wealthy athletes to selflessly give to the collective good of such a star- studded team? According to Kerr, you make everyone feel relevant and important as part of something greater than any one individual. This is an essential aspect of servant leadership. By being a humble, servant coach...while still being demanding...he is able to manage egos, keep them engaged and build a strong team culture embodying the servant leader approach.
While Steve seems to come about this coaching style naturally, he humbly gives credit to many of his coaching mentors who taught him the servant way, coaches like Lute Olson, and I’ve already mentioned, Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich and Pete Carroll among others. For all of us who desire to adopt a more servant approach, the most important lesson that Steve learned from these masters was simple: be true to your values, principles and ideas...be yourself. He believes, as do all great leaders, that these values must be shared and followed every day. Steve’s values are deeply rooted in the competitive Buddha approach such as joy, selflessness, competitiveness and mindfulness.
As a true servant leader, Kerr is consciously aware of individual needs, concerns and personalities and remains flexible to adjust his coaching to these players, helping them to maintain their uniqueness while working together for the greater good of the team. The servant leader needs to give the athletes the bandwidth to be themselves while still holding on to the overall mission of the organization.
And, as a true servant leader, Steve is able to control his own ego and remain humble as he listens to his athletes. He understands that he doesn’t know all and encourages athletes and staff to contribute to his process. Ultimately, the decision is his but he seriously considers everyone’s input.
As a servant leader, Steve has a high level of emotional intelligence. He is humble, empathetic, genuine, authentic and vulnerable. Vulnerability in a leader is a high level of functioning. While some view it as weakness, servant leader coaches understand it’s a strength. All extraordinary leaders, by definition, realize the power of demonstrating vulnerability. Steve is not afraid to admit he made amistake. He’ll apologize to a player he has wronged and will not take anything personally.
Perhaps one of the most vital signs of a servant leader is the ability and eagerness to listen to others. Coach Kerr will often ask for an athlete’s input regardless of their role on the team, listen to their words and implement them if relevant to the team’s mission. This open dialogue gains the trust and respect of the team. He connects with the guys to understand and be empathetic to their personal lives as wonderful human beings. Steve knows that there is more to life than basketball; he understands what matters in the lives of those he leads. He is the extraordinary SERVANT LEADER OF WARRIORS, whose coaching philosophy has deep rooted connections to the competitive Buddha way.
If your wish is to have others follow your coaching, perhaps the most crucial quality of leadership you could possess is to think beyond self-interest. This is the Buddha servant style of guiding others to be self-reliant and expand in the long run. As servant leaders, our mission is simply to guide others to pathways for a greater, more meaningful experience in life. An athlete recently told me, “Jerry, it is widely known that Jesus was the quintessential servant leader. He was the lamb- like servant of the church.”
The well-known Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy once said: “The sole purpose of life is to serve humanity. It is the honorable and right thing to do.” And, in the process, you become more respected, loved, and worthy as you enhance the lives of all as their servant leader.
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