I checked out my friend George Madiou’s The Network Marketing Magazine the other day. Here’s this issue’s focus:
“April 2007. This month’s issue is about Servant Leadership. Network marketing is one of the few industries that embrace servant leadership as a core philosophy of the industry. You will find as you serve others, success just happens for both the people you serve and also you. We have more contributors this month sharing their thoughts on this theme than any past feature we have had. This may be a hint to how important servant leadership is.”
With all due respect to George and the contributors…
The whole servant idea in our field never sat well with me. Here’s how the word’s defined:
Servant. n.
- One who is privately employed to perform domestic services.
- One who is publicly employed to perform services, as for a government.
- One who expresses submission, recognizance, or debt to another: your obedient servant.
I am none of the above. According to the Thesaurus, here are synonyms of servant:
Definition: waiter
Synonyms: assistant, attendant, biddy, boy, cleaning lady, cleaning woman, dependent, domestic, drudge, flunky, girl, help, helper, hireling, houseboy, lackey, live-in, maid, man, menial, minion, peon, retainer, serf, servitor, slave, woman
I am none of those, either. Well, girl and woman, yes. OK, some would say slave to my blog and readers – sometimes.
Bottom line – I have never felt like a servant doing network marketing or anything else. I’d rather lead – myself and anyone who will follow. And if my point of view stirs others to thought or action, this is a good thing. We move forward.
I have never looked for servant-like qualities in anyone I’ve ever wanted to follow or learn from. It’s the strength of their convictions, their commitment, their sense of fun and ingenuity I’ve always been attracted to.
Shall we dispense with the servant-thing as something to be revered in networkers?
Or am I missing something?
—
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I say stick with the phrase.
“Servant Leadership” is a popular notion in the corporate world and has positive connotations.
— Walter Reade (from Appleton, WI)
Walter@NMC
http://www.NuOpportunity.com
serve v. To work for.
servant leader n. One who works for their followers.
You can make it more complicated, but why…?
Too right! I love your contrariness, Kim. Down with humbleness! It’s ego standing on its head, doncha know?
🙂
Daniel
I look at my role in my business as a partnership with others. Yes, I am willing to help them out. My desire to serve them is for the sake of establishing their busineess, to help them on their way. I am more of a teacher/ trainer/ mentor. I feel it is very important to have an example to follow. In the example stage I will make calls with my new associate, accompany them on visits or home Spa parties. I want them to succeed. If I can steer them in the right direction and help them stay focused without distractions why not give them my all? As they progress in confidence my role is seen more as a leader than a servant. Lets face it if they succeed, I will succeed too.
Nancy Carlson
http://www.perfectmombusiness.com
John – did you just make up your own definition, then? I guess that’s cool. The rest of the world, though…
🙂
Walter –
You wrote:
“I say stick with the phrase. ‘Servant Leadership’ is a popular notion in the corporate world and has positive connotations.”
I think the phrase is vacuous and just serves to make people feel good about themselves and what they’re doing.
Leaders are followed because they speak out and step forward even if no one follows, and they do what they do to further their cause – including inspiring and helping their like-minded followers.
It’s not necessarily out of servitude the leader acts, but to empower the cause and those who care about the cause – that thing the leader (and others) care about.
I’ve always laughed at the politicians who crow about ‘serving the people’ – right. Which people?
Their (relatively skinny) base, those who are of the same mindset. That’s whose interests they serve, indeed. And those are also their own. Think?
Kim, I’m surprised at your reaction to Servant Leadership. You practice this concept all the time. Some of what you teach is Servant Leadership. Servant Leadership is not being an Errand Boy or Girl Friday. It is about helping the people you are leading; helping them achieve their dreams and goals. It about putting you own needs on the back burner. Serving someone else’s needs is driving them to a meeting 2 hours away when you would rather be fishing or spending your entire day off with a newbie working on his First Date Script. That’s what Servant Leadership is.
Zig Ziglar’s famous quote says it well, “Help enough people get what they want and you’ll get what you want.”
Servant leadership is simply a leadership style — as opposed to domineering leadership, manipulative leadership, exploitative leadership (and I recognized that those may also be oxymorons). Servant leaders seek to empower and equip those they lead, not to use or abuse them. Servant leaders created leaders, not perpetual followers.
Sounds like the right model for network marketing to me!.
Sue
I was surprised, Walter, to read that Servant Leadership is a corporate term. You mean the muck-a-mucks call themselves servant leaders to the underlings?? I believe you, but it sounds a little like many years ago when my boss insisted on calling me his Administrative Assistant and then in the next breath would say, “I’ll have my girl do that” –fact was, I was his secretary, and that bothered him only symantically! 🙂
On the other hand, when someone joins our network marketing business, THEY hire US instead of the other way around. It behooves us to answer to them more than they need to answer to us, since if they succeed then we will as well, of course. Perhaps if we aspire to do this “with a servant’s heart” it denotes our particular commitment to their success as one which would surpass the commitment of a regular ‘boss’. Maybe? Or are we just showing off and sounding maudlin in the process?
Are we making points in our quest for professional status if we insist on being called servants? Yikes, the skeptics will think we’re not only just one step away from purse snatchers, we’re snatching those purses from our masters, oh dear oh dear. 🙂
Dianne
I believe Jesus said, “(S)he who would be master of all must be ‘servant’ of all.”
Was He off-base? I don’t think so, but I believe Jesus’ definition incorporates the choice to serve and at that point the dictionary definition falls short. It’s a whole different realm and perhaps meaning when one “chooses” to serve.
Then there’s the issue of “balance” when it comes to serving…which, I guess, might be for a whole nother (sp?) blog?!
“Servant leadership” comes awful close to being co-dependent.
Yes, there is a difference.
But give women, in particular, the idea of “servant leadership” and unless they are careful themselves, or being mentored by another with great awareness, behaviour can slip into co-dependence very easily.
Although I do see your point, Kim, Network Marketers should be leaders and mentors who want to help – ie. “serve” – others, whether it be in terms of health or wealth. After all, without a force of reps and customers, you’re not making money yourself. In essence, as a leader you have to “serve” others. It’s the ultimate nature of leadership.
However, one thing that I think you would rail against – people putting on the pretense of “service to others” to sign you up and take your money, but as soon as they have you, they don’t bother to train you (if you’re a rep) or provide any sort of civility or good old fashioned customer service (if you’re a customer).
Bottom line: if you’re a leader, truly be of service to your customers and reps. Walk your talk.
Cheers,
Rani
WOW. I am a Mentor with a Servant’s Heart. I know that I must help others to succeed. A servant, by your definition, Kim, includes:
3. One who expresses submission, recognizance, or debt to another: your obedient servant.
I am on track to hit a new level in my company this week and I owe each and every one of my team members for that. I express recognizance to them all the time. I couldn’t do it without them.
My mentors, Tom Schreiter, Art Jonak, Michael Dlouhy, Richard Dennis, Kim Klaver, and the list continues…are ALL very brilliant networkers, BUT…Not one of them can do it without their team. Not one of them can do it alone.
If you are in this business and think that you do not have to be an assistant or helper (servant) to others, you are sadly mistaken. This type of thinking is exactly what has gotten network marketing the bad name it has.
Too many people sign up others and then say “OK – go do this” and leave them to fend for themselves. I coach people every day who have been signed up by an upline who thought they were too good to associate with the “little guy”. It’s so funny. In my company, you can be at the lowest rank in the company and I guarantee if you call the master distributor, the top income earner, the owner of the company, or ANYONE else, they will ALL take the time to ASSIST (be a servant to) you. THAT, my friends, is what makes this industry work. TEAMWORK. Can’t do it without it.
Roxanne Green
Be A Mentor With A Servant’s Heart!!
Both are nouns if we want to be technical. In the context in which it was written, it doesn’t sound bad. The word “Leadership” was left out all together in your discussion. In the quote the two words are used together for a reason. I actually thought of “service” and helping people AND being a leader who can do both. The dictionary does fall short on this one, servant does not mean slave. It means “one who serves”. The end of the definition of servant is “pr.prar (present participle) of servie, to serve – See SERVE”.
The only time I ever heard the term ‘ do things for others with a servant’s heart’ was among Christian circles.
That means serving others, helping others, supporting others because you are supposed to model Jesus. It is serving without expecting any benefit back. You are doing it for the joy of serving.
I believe using this term in a business setting is
not using it correctly. In business we help and support our downline because we want our businesses to thrive. We want to make money.
Otherwise we would just volunteer our time for no monetary reward.
NM is set up so you have to help your downline succeed for you to succeed. It makes you go beyond yourself, which is good. Your chances of succeeding are better when you help and support your team.
Maybe it should be called ‘Supportive Leadership’.
Leave the ‘Serving’ for those things you do that you do not expect anything in return.
“Servant” leadership is drivel and self-serving nonsense. Just as “domineering” leadership is.
NEITHER is true leadership. One is subservience, the other is dominance. Those are the real mindsets. Leadership? I don’t think so.
Leadership is about one thing: VISION.
There are three hallmarks of a true leader, and they ALL have to do with vision.
1. The ability to create a clear and compelling vision of a reality that doesn’t yet exist. This can be for either the leader of for the person they’re trying to lead.
2. The ability to communicate that vision to the people whose resources they need (because they don’t have them already) to realise their vision.
3. The ability to inspire and motivate those people to contribute their resources (in a win-win deal only) in order to realise the vision.
So selling is all about leadership when it’s properly understood and practiced.
So is recruiting.
So is duplication.
So is teaching.
John
http://www.MyPearlMaker.com
I agree with you, John. The dictionary has a real hard time defining what it was that Jesus taught, that “to lead is to serve.”
James C. Hunter has authored two books on this subject. His first book, The Servant, is a simple story about the true essence of leadership.
His second book is subtitled “How to become a servant leader”, and the title is “The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle.”
I think NM is a wonderful vehicle to practice servant leadership. It can be easily understood by a simple analogy that James Hunter offers:
The Law of Harvest – That is, you reap what you sow. You sow service and sacrifice; you extend yourself for others and seek their greatest good; you will build influence with them. If you get your people what they need, they will get you everything you need.
Doesn’t this whole discussion hinge on our view of what the words “Serve and Servant” really mean to us?
Stephen Bolin
The word “Servant” in the Sanskrit language is “SEVA”. Seva is honoring the inherent divinity in every molecule of creation by honoring it and treating it with respect. That is the opposite of abusing, grabbing, grubbing, greeding, manipulating. Putting one over on another – who may be weaker or not know some particular thing.
Seva implies being part of the perfect divine dance of the universe – the music of the spheres – the reciprocal respect, honoring , and admiration.
Seva also implies the giving of one’s gifts to help another…. realizing that one got and polished one’s gifts because of the generosity of others – in teaching, empowering, and transmitting knowledge to us.
Seva implies gratitude for all one’s blessings and attainments.
Seva is a posture of living in legacy… what can I give back to the universe and others as payback for what I have received – courtesy of others.
In long-standing mythologic epics of India, the supreme being incarnates as a servant to help humanity dispel evil and attain righteous livelihood for all.
And as a previous commentor noted, the Master himself took the role of the servant and washed the feet of his students.
In this way, humility was demonstrated. Practicing humility is an antidote to developing pride… that which goes before a fall.
So Seva is good preventive medicine 🙂
Seva sounds like a perfect description of the enlightened view of leadership that is growing and spreading through both corporate and entrepreneurial leadership.
You, Kim, do GREAT SEVA in offering your wisdom and wealth of knowledge to others – both experienced and fledging networkers. YOU, Kim, are a GREAT SEVITE.
Thank you… from one who is grateful to be forever learning.
Pat Crosby
http://LAUGHwithPAT.blogspot.com
My son is “serving” over in Iraq, I “serve” the kids their dinner. My dad “serves” on the school board. You “serve” the tennis ball.
Richard Dennis helps us to use our language and develope new skills calling it “languaging the offer”. It’s all about what you say, how you say it and hoping the listener is hearing what is being said in the same way it’s being received.
There are words that rub me wrong. Perhaps that is the case here. This is masterminding…
Lisa
Success
Kim —
I understand in part where you’re coming from, but think you’re being too picky.
I follow my upline leadership because they do just about anything I ask them to, and then some. I could ask them to fly to South Africa to meet with some prospects, and they would do it.
Are they leading or serving? Or both? I can tell you that right now, they are doing more for me than I am doing for them. And they do a heck of a lot more for me than any corporate boss I’ve worked for.
Yeah, I get that “servant” can have connotations of being submissive. And it is an abused word, along with words like “empowered”, etc. Agreed, we don’t need any of that.
— Walter Reade (from Appleton, WI)
Walter@NMC
http://www.NuOpportunity.com
Kim,
Thanks.
This glorified idea has always FELT negative for me…
How often is humbleness pride masquerading itself-? I like Daniel’s graphic metaphor.
I love partnering, supporting, teaming, but being another’s servant – is this respecting myself or them? NO, in my connotation of the terms.
How far is this removed from the victim roles-? In which women have served enough, right-?
I am who I am and I do what I do, with love; I am not a Uriah Heep.
Carolyn
Kim if you were trying to stir the pot you did. I guess that’s one way of getting activity. Now if you weren’t I hope you have on a hard hat and steel toe shoes! You need them.
Butch
Hmmmm — let’s see…
I could “serve” a boss who takes advantage of my workhorse ethics and then passes me over for promotion because of politics and budget –
OR…
I could “serve” my team to the best of my ability to help them prosper and grow while “serving” myself a heaping bowl of ice cream for breakfast at the desk in my HOME office, while being “served” kisses from my family that I am not away from, and then “serve” up some tennis during lunch.
Hey – I like serving! 🙂
Following up where this discussion has considered what leadership is about – I’m excited by a new definition I’ve come across, by Roger Hamilton – in his book, leadership is about creating momentum, as opposed to management which is about dealing with problems and practical issues. There’s nothing servant-ish about his concept, but a lot about teamwork and mutual support, giving what you can, and receiving what you need. And about finding your appropriate role, according to a Tao-istic demarcation of innate capability. “http://www.rogerhamilton.com” Interesting stuff . And he is creating a lot of momentum, business-wise.
Daniel
On the notion of assuming the role of a servant…
I, personally, have no problem with, and expect to have to help people help themselves in this business. It’s what we do. Kim stated it might tend to help make people feel good about themselves and I agree. It’s a ‘feel good’ phrase or way of looking at what we do.
I would rather assume the role of partner than servant. To me, this servant leadership idea is a way of posturing what we do so the meek among us and those lacking the intestinal fortitude to do what needs to be done -will hang in a little longer before they ultimately drop out, as most do.
If I had my ‘druthers’, I’d rather be partnered with someone who was mentally tough. Someone not averse to doling out tough love. i.e., reading someone the Riot Act when someone needs to hear it.
One can be mentally tough and at the same time be willing to help people help themselves. Everyone needs help and I’m anxious to help -to a point. There is a line there that, if I cross it, I feel I must pass the baton to Mother Teresa (or her designee, I suppose it would have to be). She is better equipped than I.
BOOM
Weather mlm upline or leaders or group members realize it or not all three definitions for servant apply 1. privately employed (domestic)in-home business
2. One who is publicly employed to perform services,(like it or not paying taxes from your mlm earnings counts here) as for a government.
3. One who expresses submission, recognizance, or debt to another: your obedient servant.(As stated before by another commentator without the group activity there would be no check to be grateful for)
Joseph and Victoria Quinn
732-566-8599
We would like to be your servants
Interesting discussion, and I think masterminding is a good word for it.
If “servant-leadership” is one of those corporate terms that don’t mean anything, then why should we use it? It’s that techno-babble we’re always talking about eliminating.
I can see, after reading all the discussion here, that a person can put serving others first, and end up empty-handed, because what others need is not always compatible with one’s own best interests. You have to be careful with these large concepts. In the end, the term doesn’t mean anything – at least not anything specific enough to provide a firm outline to implement.
So, after all is said, I don’t like it, either. Not because of the literal meaning of the word, but because it’s corporate techno-babble.
bk