echi da berlino · 2018-07-09 · consultant in innovation & new product development, digital...

The Servant Leader in You: Eight Stories to Learn from

Dario Morandotti, Principal Consultant Dalia Vodice, Trainer&Coach

Echi da Berlino25 giugno 2018

Learning

Objectives

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At the conclusion of this session,

participants will be able to:

Describe who servant leaders are in real

life, what they do, and how they act

Learn how to foster servant leadership

Your presenters today

Dario Morandotti, PMP®, Scrum Master Certified (SMC™)

Consultant in Innovation & New Product Development, Digital Engineering, PLM,

Project/Program/Portfolio

PMI Northern Italy & Switzerland Chapters Member

PMI-NIC Branch Lombardy Director

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Dalia Vodice, PMP®, PMO-CP®

Project Manager, Trainer & Coach

PMI Northern Italy & Slovenia Chapters Member

PMI-NIC Communication & Marketing Director

Presentation flow

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What is servant leadership and why is growing in importance

Eight real stories to learn from – through a conversation

Insights and learnings from the conversations

Conclusion, what’s in it for all of us

What is Servant Leadership? Poll: “Before knowing what servant leadership is,

how much do you see yourself as a servant leader?”

1. Don’t know, never heard about

2. A little

3. Some traits

4. Love it, aspiring, practicing

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What is Servant Leadership – and which are the

characteristics of servant leadership?

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“The servant-leader is servant first… It

begins with the natural feeling that one

wants to serve, to serve first”.

The origins of Servant Leadership are old but

formalized recently…

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1932 1956 1970

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… and rooted in great examples

Different sources (Greenleaf, Spears, et al.) mention different

characteristics...

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Natural desire to serve others, deeply rooted and value-based

Calling

Assume first and foremost a commitment to serve the needsof others

Stewardship

Avoid authority, seek ways to

build consensus, coaching vs.

controlling

Influence

Fundamental belief that people

have an intrinsic value beyond

their tangible contributions

Growth


characteristics...

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Understanding issues, ethics,

power, values in a holistic

manner

Awareness

Transform relationships and

search for wholeness

Healing

Accept and recognize people for

their special and unique spirits

Empathy

Deeply commit to listening

receptively to others and with

reflection

Listening


characteristics...

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Intuitively see the outcome of a situation,

based on the lessons from the past, realities

of the present, and the likely consequence of

a decision for the future

Foresight

Seek means to explore and fortify

trust

Building Community

Celebrate the joy of the work and let others

reflect on the importance of both struggles

and successes in the organization and the

need to learn from both

Nurturing Spirit & Joy

Encourage great dreams with balance

between conceptual thinking and a day-

to-day operational approach

Conceptualization and Senseof Reality

Furthermore…

PMBoK v6 Agile Practice Guide says…

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«Servant leader empowers the team and

approaches the work in this order»

Purpose - work with the team to define

the why

People - encourage the team to create an

environment where everyone can succeed

Process - doesn't look to perfect process

but instead looks for results and reflect

frequently on products and processes

«Servant leader responsibilities»

Facilitate, Remove organizational

impediments, Pave the way for other's

contributions, Educate on Agile approach,

Support with mentoring and career

development, Help in risk analysis and

others management activities, Celebrate

success

So we started our investigation knowing –

or supposing to know that…

Servant leaders are not born, they are made and servant

leadership can be learned

Role examples are required (today’s presentation)

Also, practice is needed - it’s a learning by doing -

and searching for honest feedback and adapt is

essential

Does it need to coexist with other situational leadership

styles?

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Eight stories to learn from…

Diversity in role & profession, country

and cultural background, hard/soft

way of learning…

Stories mean

people… where

are they from?

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Frank

Sharon

Paola

Stefano

AlexiaGiorgio

Damiana Berlin, we are here

Conversations with

them about...

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Frank

Sharon

Paola

Stefano

AlexiaGiorgio

Damiana

Characteristics…

Thinking of you as servant leader

means…

The start of consciousness is…

You learned servant leadership

mostly in…

Paola – Naples, ItalyProgram Manager and Business People Manager,

Information Technology

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Empathy. «Pick up and understand others’ key aspects – including the more hidden ones. It’s a

predisposition to listen different points of view»

Infuence. «Think how others can view/benefit of you as leader, a reference point in case of need

and support. Doesn’t not mean indulgence or lack of professionalism»

Building Community. «Build the climate!»

Awareness. «Be attentive at 360 degrees and with a sense of reality, with your feet on earth»

Healing. «Put aside pre-concepts and give chance to the relationships»

Paola – Naples, ItalyProgram Manager and Business People Manager,


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Thinking of you as servant leader means… «Help to remove impediments for the team. A great

sense of fulfillment and gratification»

The start of consciousness was… «It was someone else that told me “you have an ability to

facilitate and negotiate when things appear tough”, so I started thinking more deeply on this quality

and act purposely»

You learned servant leadership mostly in… «Critical situations when confidence is low and

pressure is high, when issue investigation needs everyone’s contribution - yet the solution isn’t

evident»

Key recommendations for people wishing to grow in servant leadership… «Practice listening

and empathy. Train creativity and embrace situations outside the comfort zone»

Stefano – Reggio Emilia, ItalyCEO at BluPeak Consulting

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Listening. «More and more I’m understanding the importance of active listening, specifically

referring to good coaching schools’ practices. The listening itself is able to activate good dynamics

in the team»

Awareness. «I am absolutely devoted to understand the big picture. I do not see the value of

obsessive micromanagement, or a merely action-driven approach. I am aware that the risk of such

approach is sometimes to be inactive, waiting for the whole picture to be clear and balanced»

Growth. «I am deeply convinced that people have inside themselves all is needed to work, share,

succeed. “Let them sing, they know already how to”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk»

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk


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Conceptualization. «Produce a deep sense of a project, of an issue, of a problem for the whole

team. Working on metaphors is important to build a common sense and vision. Give them a sense,

start with “why?”, refer everything to a meaning, a metaphor»

Foresight. «To me the metaphor of trajectory is very important, the “here and now” decision or

action must always be seen in a broader perspective, with a strong retrospective elaboration, but

projected to the future. I cannot avoid to apply this vision considering past-present-future. Again this

approach risk to be slow compared with an action-driven one»

Building the Community. «I do believe in the speed of trust. I have strongly experienced in

working practices and during the PMI Italy interchapters federation building.

http://www.speedoftrust.com/how-the-speed-of-trust-works/book»

http://www.speedoftrust.com/how-the-speed-of-trust-works/book


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Thinking of you as servant leader means… «I believe servant leadership is a good approach to

focus on people empowerment, to develop emerging virtuous behaviors within the team and build

an ethical context. Nevertheless I feel that it cannot be the only approach and the best leadership

style I believe in is an adaptive, hybrid one. So I’m aware that in the last few years I have embraced

servant leadership principles and approach, but I feel not completely in: I clearly see the risk that it

can become just a slogan or a fashion, and I would like to avoid it»

The start of consciousness was… «I met this approach during the PMI LIMC 2015, I appreciated

it but not if applied alone and/or schematically, better when integrating it with other values and

approaches. It works well in volunteering-based environment like PMI, but it must be carefully

evaluated in other scenarios»


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A specific example… «In some strategic professional projects in which I was recently acting as a

PM, I adopted a style much less directive that in the past. The effect was to see people more

responsible, growing in decisions making, fluently adapt to reality during execution.

In my Chapter President role I am trying to make the board team an organism, robust, with the right

degree of redundancy (DNA principle), not depending upon “heroes” behaviors, adopting servant

leadership practices»

You learned servant leadership mostly in… «LIMC by PMI, Agile PM culture»

Key recommendations for people wishing to grow in servant leadership… «Develop a holistic

vision, develop a true “caring” attitude , be a master observing disciples in silence and shadow,

leaving the stage to them), focus on facilitation and integration skills (for one’s self and the team),

approach the “coaching” discipline, methods, tools, dynamics with honesty and rigor»

Frank – Warburg, GermanyTechnical Product Manager and Scrum Master,


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Empathy. «This characteristic developed over time as I started to work with people from different

nationalities and had to understand and learn different cultural based behaviors»

Influence. «People had to learn to trust me as I had to learn to trust them. The bigger the trust

became, the more people listened to me and understood my intentions of helping them and not

authorizing / supervising them»

Growth. «I realized the benefit of helping others to grow by, e.g., continuously encouraging them to

learn whenever possible in parallel to their daily work obligations. It is like putting seeds in a field

and water them from time to time to help them grow based on their own inner strength»

Nurturing the Spirit & Joy. «I realized that it is important to understand the huge positive impact of

an environment that allows you to succeed or fail together with your peers and team members»

Frank – Warburg, GermanyTechnical Product Manager and Scrum Master,


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Thinking of you as servant leader means… «Help my peers and colleagues to remove obstacles

from their way of achieving a specific goal. This does not only apply to the teams I am leading but

also to my customers I am serving. It just feels good to make them happy. It makes me proud of

myself and of those, who apply my servant leadership behavior»

You learned servant leadership mostly in… «Each situation, in which multiple people are

involved and that is set up to aim for a specific goal to achieve with active collaboration»

Key recommendations for people wishing to grow in servant leadership… «Reflect on yourself

by the feedback you receive from others. Learn to accept that diversity of people. Be diverse and

inclusive. Coach people rather than train them. Start to develop an asking behavior rather than a

commanding one. Learn from the answers: how do people react to my questions? Is the answer I

receive what I expected? Am I understandable?»

Damiana – London, UK & Trieste, ItalyExecutive Coach & Trainer

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Listening. «Deeply commit to being intensely present to others and self at different levels and

reflect actively, so that I gain a sense of the whole person / entity / organisation, to connect people

with their purpose, and enable them to co-create processes»

Empathy. «A way of gathering data by stepping into others’ shoes, experiencing and understanding

the world from their point of view, recognising and accepting people for their uniqueness, while

learning from them»

Awareness. «Internal: recognising my own internal dialogue and relationship with self; and external:

the impact I have on colleagues and the system, and understanding issues, ethics, power, values in

a holistic manner»


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Infuence. «Built on credibility, expertise and integrity, is for me the ability to move others to action

by facilitating the alignment between their and organisational interests, values and purpose, in the

absence of formal authority, with the effect of facilitating people’s development in the process…»

Vision and Sense of Reality. «Nurture great dreams with balance between conceptual thinking and

a day-to-day operational approach»

Building the Community. «Build trust, foster connections, integrity, appreciation for diversity and

open communication»

Nurturing the Spirit & Joy. «Understand the deep human need to contribute to personally

meaningful enterprises, celebrate the joy of the work, facilitate reflection and learn from experience»


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Thinking of you as servant leader means… «The awareness is about our interdependence and

individuality, the power of “we”, the possibilities and challenges of interpersonal dynamics, and

about how I choose to contribute to life

I am conscious that my beliefs, choices and actions shape my reality, that the challenges I

encounter contain opportunities for expanding my edge, and that my key values guide my conduct

and my own self-development.

The feelings of the joy and satisfaction of co-creating something unexpected and of joint

achievement, the freedom of being authentic and vulnerable, the safety of supporting and being

supported, the excitement of learning and growing together, of evolving our communities and

ourselves.

The thoughts are about my responsibility for creating the optimal conditions that allow others and

myself to give our best, my focus on learning and purpose, and my intention to lead by example»


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The start of consciousness was… «Having grown up on the border (between Italy and former Jugoslavia)

between two different political systems, with my identity informed by different mindsets, cultures and two

languages, I was sensitive to relative values and familiar with identifying opportunities for creating shared

concepts, which would connect rather than divide the two sides. Empathic listening and awareness of diversity

served me well in that. My tendency to put myself to the test first, provided opportunities to lead by example,

trained my resilience, sense of reality and foresight»

You learned servant leadership mostly… «By trial and error and drew some of my most important lessons

from failures. I was lucky to have had great role-models in my professional life. More importantly, I very much

enjoy working with others and approach them with the intention to build supportive trusting partnerships and

communities, which co-create the conditions in which we can be vulnerable, free to not know, to be open for

learning»

Key recommendations for people wishing to grow in servant leadership… «Clarify your values, cultivate

your dialogue with yourself, reflect on your actions to learn from experience and from failure. Listen, listen,

listen… ask and then listen a bit more»

Sharon – Paris, FranceExecutive Director at LEAD NetworkThe mission of the LEAD Network (Leading Executives Advancing Diversity) is to attract, retain and advance women in

the retail and consumer goods industry in Europe through education, leadership and business development.

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Calling. «A sense of purpose and strong attraction to bring about a greater good»

Stewardship. «Serving the needs of a community»

Empathy. «Putting myself in others’ shoes, understanding their needs, anticipating their needs, imaging what

they are feeling. Authenticity and expression of a genuine feeling of acceptance and understanding»

Listening. «Be a keen listener, absorb and register what others are expressing, looking into their eyes as they

speak, making the person feel my interest and compassion»

Building the Community. «Bringing everyone together around a vision, dreaming big together. Motivating a

group of individuals, volunteers to want to spend their precious resource of time with you»

Nurturing the Spirit & Joy. «Happiness is contagious. People will naturally want to give time as a volunteer if

they feel a sense of joy in what they do and have a sense of purpose. It’s about making people feel special»



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Thinking of you as servant leader means… «Generates a sense of satisfaction, reward, a feeling that I am

able to make a difference»

The start of consciousness was… «By being told by others around me how I was the “glue” that brought

everyone together under a common vision of what we wanted to accomplish. Being told by people around me,

that the personal touch I bring is genuine, noticed, appreciated … and rare …These characteristics of servant

leadership were nurtured over time. When I could actually see the concrete results of the stewardship I

provided, I became aware of these traits that I built on and nurtured over time»

A specific example… «The first examples occurred in my childhood. As the eldest sibling with a younger

brother and sister, I feel I was a servant leader by leading projects that I called “Winter fun in a box” and

“Summer fun in a box”. There was a sense of stewardship that is was my role to take the lead, bring the fun

and nurture the joy, and through a sense of empathy, make my siblings feel they were contributing to a project»



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You learned servant leadership mostly in… «Working in an environment where I was serving

CEOs and top level executives who were volunteers in our non-profit (LEAD Network) organization.

The level of service had to be extremely high. The expectation of the quality and effectiveness of

leadership was extremely high. This environment taught me how to be an effective servant leader,

bringing quality support and direction while motivating the high level volunteers to spend time and

efforts to help us build our non-profit organization»

Key recommendations for people wishing to grow in servant leadership… «Listen, listen,

listen. Listen to your heart. Listen to others. Be inspired and learn from example. You get back what

you give. Keep an open mind. The personal touch can go a long way»

Alexia, – Zurich, SwitzerlandCo-Business Manager, Riahi Travel

Co-Founder and Managing Partner AvestArt

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Calling. «Bring out the best in me and other who touch my life whether consciously or unconsciously»

Empathy. «I know how good it feels to have someone feel your pain (or joy) at times. It is a way of saying “you

are not alone”. I just try to give that sentiment back to whoever needs it from me»

Awareness. «See my little world around me and understanding the forces at hand is primordial. It helps me

understand»

Influence. «I strive to positively influence people in my life, avoiding to impose any of my ways on anyone. I

believe that true leadership begins with oneself and that as such, people will follow the true leader without

having to ask for it. Be the leader in your life first before attempting to influence others»

Growth. «All of us have a potential to even bigger than ourselves. That’s what I aim at and preach my

“microcosmos”. Living, working and being without any hope for growth in any shape or form is just too sad»



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Thinking of you as servant leader means… «It feels good to know your actions are actually

serving a greater purpose and that you are helping younger generation or even peers, colleagues,

family and friends find and unleash their true potential. The so-called “aha” moments»

The start of consciousness was… «One day, many years ago, I came across Simon Sinek and

his amazing concise speech on the importance of starting any project with “why”. That’s when the

healing started for me and it is still part of my life. I try to relay it to anyone who wants to “heal”»

You learned servant leadership mostly in… «Observing myself and others and keep asking “why”

and getting to the bottom of it. The most amazing and cataclysmic question: “Why”!»



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A specific example… «One of my team members was going astray, not liking her duties, not

getting along with company owners, angry in her with her private issues… I had just started in that

company and needed everyone to feel part of the team for the big challenge ahead of all of us. I

knew and had felt right away that this young lady had great potential but that no one had ever

listened to her and given her the responsibility she deserved. After interviewing her a couple of

times and showing her my understanding for her difficult situation and laying down my plan/strategy

for the next six month, she cooled off and started taking responsibility. Today, she is one of the best

team members I could imagine having. She does a fab job and I’m truly proud of her. It keeps

getting better»

Key recommendations for people wishing to grow in servant leadership… «Do it without

asking yourself “what’s in it for me” and move on to the best of your knowledge and for the greater

good. Universe always gives back to the ones that deserve it – always (the good and the bad)»

Giorgio (1965-2017) – Gorizia, Italyin memoriam, Project Manager, Consultant and Trainer

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Listen three times, talk one

Listen three times, talk one

Make new mistakesMake new mistakes

Start with the end in mind

Start with the end in mind

Servant leadership is a gift to cultivate and use

Servant leadership is a gift to cultivate and use

You are the eighth story!

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Thinking of you as servant leader

means…

The start of consciousness is…

You’re learning servant

leadership mostly in…

Calling.

Stewardship.

Influence.

Growth.

Awareness.

Healing.

Empathy.

Listening.

Foresight.

Building.

Nurturing.

Conceptualization.

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Few observations and patterns really stand out

The servant

leader… is the

one who goes

ahead and

explores, learns

and then… comes

back and shares

It starts with putting aside preconceptions and

practicing active listening, exploration,

reflection – it’s a journey, but not always clear

Then, in many

cases they were

told «you are…»:

this the

awareness

moment

Everything starts to

change in the mindset

and behavior: focus on

purpose, build climate

and nurture dreams,

presence to others

Freedom of facing critical

conditions, out-of-

comfort-zone, further

experimenting, practicing

“speed of trust”, avoid

“my way”, co-creating

Then the discovery:

“happiness is contagious”

& “greater good”

Everyone has gifts to cultivate

Conclusions

Servant leadership can be discovered and continuously learned –confirmed

Learning requires observation, examples (as in today’s presentation), reflection, interiorization

Practice is needed – starting from own gifts/characteristics – seeking honest feedbacks, adapt

Servant leadership coexists with other situational leadership styles, but offers a high reward that comes from fulfillment and pursuing great good

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Photo credits

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Thanks to

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echi da berlino · 2018-07-09 · consultant in innovation & new product development, digital...

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