The Boss-Worker-Game sustainably illustrates the principle of Servant Leadership as well as the self-organization of the team members that goes along with it. In the process, participants experience the difference between classic command and control and servant leadership. The most important insight for the participants is that Servant Leaders do not control from the outside, but can let a self-organized team work successfully through targeted support, e.g. the creation of an optimal working environment.
Servant leadership in the form that Robert K. Greenleaf coined the term is one of the most important new approaches being placed in companies as part of the digital transformation. While previous leadership styles are reaching their limits with the effects of the VUCA world, servant leadership enables an agile leadership approach. This approach becomes necessary because
1. Increased focus on the needs of others (Human-Centered Design).
2. the number of self-organized teams increases significantly (agile working methods) and
3. appreciative and systemically oriented corporate approaches will be increasingly demanded by employees (new working worlds).
The following characteristics are essential for people who act within the framework of servant leadership:
– Self-reflection and continuous improvement
– Active listening and understanding
– Accepting the given circumstances
– Trust towards the unknown
– Empathic and trusting cooperation
– Inspire by conviction
– Acting with foresight and awareness
In his book “The Servant as Leader” Greenleaf describes: “The servant-leader is servant first […] He is sharply different from the person who is leader first. […] The leader-first and the servantfirst are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature. […] The natural servant, the person who is servant first, is more likely to persevere and refine his hypothesis on what serves another’s highest priority needs than is the person who is leader first and who later serves out of promptings of conscience or in conformity with normative expectations.”
Die Methode funktioniert wunderbar in Kombination mit der Alignment Autonomy Matrix.
