Issues

1. A key inner leadership technique is being expert in providing needed services to all stakeholders to make their work successful.

2. Inner leaders serve their stakeholders so they can succeed and in the followers' success facilitate the leaders' success.

3. Rather than attempt to dominate followers, inner leaders go to work for them. That is, they provide all things necessary for follower success.

4. Inner leaders establish and maintain a work culture that fosters service as a core value and includes setting standards of conduct and focusing the attention and energy of the work-community members on high-quality service.

5. Inner leaders help others by making available to them needed information, time, attention, material, or other resources.

6. It is impossible to list universal acts of service a leader renders followers since the situation or the needs of the follower dictate the character of each act of service.

7. A first task in developing a service orientation is setting and living a consistent set of values that honor followers and challenge them to cooperative work effort.

8. Leaders need to gain expertise in working cooperatively with followers in one-on-one relationships with them.

9. Inner leaders need to prepare to serve their followers by learning to be teachers—to transmit desired information, understanding, and job skill.

10. Successful inner leaders continually change to improve those capacities and values that honor people, shared leadership principles, and high-quality service at all levels.

11. Learning to be of service to stakeholders implies a willingness to let them perform as much of the work as they can, including as much of the leader's work as they are willing to assume.

12. Servant leaders provide both formal and informal work community structures that facilitate mutual service activity.

Questions

In responding to each of the following questions, describe and evaluate specific program or actions you take to inculcate servanthood principles in your work community.

1. Have I created a customer-focused service standard in my work community?

2. Do I try to bind my followers to a common cause of quality service and recognize both work community and individual service accomplishments?

3. Do I foster conscious programs to inculcate a strong service and quality work orientation among employees?

4. Do I make the people who actually do the work an in-house consultant team to improve conditions and results?