Servant Leadership: Customer Service, Technical Support And Repair Team

Effective Leadership Essay
Brittany Schutten
February 18, 2015

Leadership is something hard to define but can be easily identified. Through my professional career I have had the opportunity to work with many people in leadership roles, but few that were true leaders. By leading by example, enabling others to act, motivating and inspiring them to achieve the vision they outline, and recognizing them for their accomplishments is what my leader does effortlessly. Due to all of these qualities and skills, she is tremendously respected as a leader throughout the entire organization. Kimberly is the Customer Operations Manager at my current employer. She is responsible for the Customer Service, Technical Support, and Repair teams. These departments
are the front line of our company as they field all transactions requests that are crucial to the success of the business. She is responsible for a department of over 100 employees that are based in the US and Mexico. With experience in other areas of the company, she was asked to take over this department roughly 5 years ago. Coming in she was faced with adversity due to lack of structure, vision, and motivation within the team. She started by implementing her values to set the foundation and build from it which has yielded positive results and positioned her department as a benchmark for others. Being a “servant leader” and “having no self-agenda” is her definition of leadership.
Through effective communication, trust and integrity, developing teamwork and influencing others is just as important to her as well. Knowing the impact of her own voice and impact, she stayed true to those values and approach to leadership to pave the way for others. This is similar to other approaches in which a successful leader “recognizing that power cannot be demanded, it can only be granted”. (Allman, 2004) Through her actions and conversations with team members, her values shine through of trust and integrity, values that are shared with others. After that trust and respect is developed, it is through honest coaching and feedback that she models others to do the
same. A large part of the position that Kimberly is responsible for is creating a vision for her team.
As part of her definition of leadership, she was already doing this is everything that the team did, even on a daily basis. Kimberly’s goal is always make the best decision for the business with that she constructively challenges proposed changes. Challenging status quo with peers in any leadership role can be difficult but can produce better results and morale in the end. Explaining to the team why each transactions, process, and governance around those responsibilities mattered let them know that they were all working towards a common purpose. Kimberly’s ability to articulate the impact to each individual, the department, and the business’ results each year inspires and motivates the team. This is only possibly through her willingness to listening to others perspectives and/or concerns, to make them part of the process, and in turn the success. “We are in this together” is something that she stated a few times which reinforced that in her role as a leader, her success because of her team, not because of her. This is something that not all leaders do. Those that look to grow and believe that it will be possible through pacifying others and not establishing their own voice are not true
leaders. This vision that she has created which continues to evolve was possible through Kimberly’s approach to create a standard of excellence. As she stands be her servant leader approach, she also ‘keeps the morale sense of what is right and what is wrong” (Greenleaf, 1977). By questioning current processes and standards, she uses collaborative team work to search for new opportunities to continuously improve. Taking key learnings each time, she works that into the improvement process. After her team achieves goals, she is sure to recognize them for their efforts and push the bar higher! To her, it is important to not be mundane in your role, but push to grow whether it is in your current responsibilities or into a different role. She stated, “I step aside for those who want to move ahead”. She is humble and grateful for the efforts of every individual on the team and recognizing them for that is just as important to her. The team is where she finds reward and recognition, through their efforts and results is what Kimberly takes pride in as leader. By providing an honest dialogue in all that she does she is able to influence others to act and help them develop as not only professionals but individuals as well. Those who follow her have trust in her abilities to lead the way. By promoting countless employees, improving customer feedback ratings, and increasing the bottom of the company were possible because of Kimberly’s strong leadership abilities.

References

Allman, S. D. (2004). Leadership : The Successful Use of Conflicting Principles. Kennesaw, GA, USA: Sam Allman Consulting & Training. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com
Greenleaf, R. (1977). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. New York: Paulist Press.