Becoming a Servant Leader

To learn how to become an active Servant Leader in [P1] see the ceremonies section. Link soon™.

Leading without control

Instead of dominating their team, Servant Leaders lead from below, passionately empowering, informing and organizing.

• Empower: Encourage people to step up and speak up. Let team members know that they have the authority to fix the problems they face.
• Inform: Help people understand the Mission and team responsibilities.
• Organize:

They also:

• Remove blockers: Identify and remove blockers by encouraging the team to dig deep into issues the team faces and empowering them to speak up and propose solutions.
• Encourage Agile thinking: Read up on agile and scrum and teach it to their team.

Servant leadership starts by trusting people's intentions and empowering them to manage their own domain. In our organization, our only "boss" is our Mission. We have specific rules for those defining each team's mission, but within teams, no one is directly in charge. Instead, teams are required to take responsibility for their mission as a collective.

Ownership

One key aspect of Servant Leadership is allowing the team to own its objectives. The first step is to study and then clearly communicate the team's objectives. In any meeting, be it scrum or otherwise, set the stage by presenting the challenge and then ask and wait on the to team to find solutions.