The Four Hundred

Recently a friend and I went out for dinner at a reasonably fashionable restaurant. When the waitress came to our table we noticed she was quite young and new to her profession, but she was also very earnest and eager to please. We ordered wine and off she went only to return sans wine but with an apology: "Sorry, we're out of the wine you requested." She stood there anxiously, shifting from foot to foot, so I smiled and asked what she might recommend instead. She glanced at the wine list and beamed: "I recommend the cesspool."

"There must be some mistake," I said. (At least I hoped there was.) "Let me see that wine list."

Although our waitress knew nothing of wine and had apparently never heard of the word cesspool, she did have one overriding virtue: her desire to be of service.

From Mr. Goodwrench to Mother Teresa, service is trumpeted, marketed, and celebrated. It is a blessing to receive, and meritorious to give. Businesses promise it; managers profess to be obsessed with it. Yet service within a business context is almost always directed outward, toward customers. And while there is certainly nothing wrong with providing service to patrons, few have thought to expand the ideal of service to include the workplace itself.

Among those who have is consultant James Autry, who compiled his thoughts and recommendations in an insightful and very readable book titled The Servant Leader. Leadership, to Autry's mind, is distinct from management. Management is skill-based and therefore teachable. Leadership is a calling. As Giles Pajou so eloquently described it, "leadership is creating a world to which people want to belong," and in a business context that means a world in which they can excel and find fulfillment. Autry argues that beyond managerial skills, leadership requires a particular state of being that recasts the leader as servant to those he wishes to influence.

Although such concepts as "state of being" are often dismissed as "soft" management, Autry argues the opposite: that the so-called soft side of management is the hardest to master because it requires the involvement and commitment of the whole human being, rather than reliance on a set of skills or procedures. Autry describes five ways of being that he believes are indispensable to the servant leader. The first challenge is authenticity. To be authentic is merely to be yourself. So simple, that for many it is a life-long journey. Most of us, Autry notes, are taught from childhood to edit what we say and what we feel. Boys are told not to cry, girls are told not to raise their voice. When we enter school, the pressure to conform intensifies. We are taught not so much how to think but what to think, and the range of expression and acceptable behavior is limited. In the workplace, many of the things that drive us and give our life profound meaning are not even welcome: anger, affection, and spirituality, to name just three. Come to work, but leave your soul in the car.

It's no wonder that out of fear or concern or political correctness some people never express a fully honest public opinion in the workplace. (Water cooler complaints don't count, nor does being "technically truthful" in order to evade responsibility.)

People generally have built-in bull detectors that make them distrustful of a lack of authenticity in others, but they are seldom as successful in identifying their own pretenses. Being honest about your thoughts, wants, and feelings while being respectful of others requires practice and moment-to-moment commitment. Inevitably, chancing personal disclosure involves risk, and taking risks requires the second of Autry's precepts: vulnerability.

Being vulnerable is an act of courage, and in the context of work it means "being open with your doubts and fears and concerns about an idea, an employee's performance, or your own performance, and being able to admit mistakes openly, particularly with your employees." It requires letting go of the belief that we are in control, and admitting "that we must depend on others." For all of the mythology about rugged individualism, Autry writes, "you really don't succeed in anything in an organization by yourself. It's a myth we need to be rid of."

Vulnerability invites differences of opinion, rather than fearing them. It allows the honest expression of anger, as opposed to acting out of anger. It means talking directly to a person, rather than behind his back. It acknowledges the contradictions that abound in the workplace: Men are assertive, women are pushy; be accurate but do it quickly; it's OK to fail but get it right the first time. Plus, Autry writes, "vulnerability has an aspect of empathy," the ability to "view the world or situation from the other's viewpoint." In other words, to be accepting.

Acceptance is Autry's third axiom, and he believes it is more important than approval. Acceptance is a recognition of what exists, without either endorsement or objection. Acceptance does not preclude critical analysis or judgement. It is simply open to inquiry and investigation of differences. It acknowledges that everyone holds a piece of the truth and that all ideas are worthy of review.

The willingness to precede judgement with curiosity curbs the inclination to label others as winners and losers. "Winning" at a coworker's expense may be temporarily satisfying but will have long-term negative effects, just as winning an argument by humiliating your partner will not serve the larger cause of your relationship. Creating a subculture of losers within an organization is like infecting the system with cancer clusters. "We have done way too much," Autry writes, "to turn the workplace and business into some kind of war, or at least a high-contact sport. But the truth is that we are all participants together. All can win, nobody has to lose."

It would be difficult to be accepting if you weren't fully present, which, by happy coincidence, is Autry's fourth postulate. Being present requires your complete, undistracted attention. No multitasking. No talking on the phone. Since 93 percent of communication is non-verbal, it means looking the speaker in the eye and maintaining an associated posture, not leaning back and slouching in your chair, fiddling with your pen, or glancing continuously at your computer screen.

We've all had the experience of being in someone's presence whose attention and focus were so complete that we felt as if we were the only person in the world and the only thing that mattered. Being attentive at that level shows respect for the speaker and presupposes genuine curiosity. It is the application of Stephen Covey's elegant dictum, "seek first to understand, then to be understood."

Autry's last maxim is to be useful. Being useful is the essence of service and "the most important thing you can be as a leader." He envisions leaders as the "principal resource" to their employees, a somewhat radical departure from the hierarchical norm of the manager as queen bee being served by a hive of employees.

Ultimately, Autry views the practice of authenticity, vulnerability, acceptance, presence, and usefulness as a spiritual path that happens to run through the workplace. It is a way of being that allows leaders to bring their spirits to work, and inspires employees to do likewise. The heart of service is giving back while being enriched in the process. Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of Children's Defense Fund, says, "Service is the rent we pay for living."

"There are many managers out there," writes Autry, "who are all too willing to sacrifice their values on the altar of crisis." When times get tough, they dismiss servant leadership as nice to have but ultimately irrelevant to bottom line considerations. "When I speak on the subject of servant leadership, bringing your spirit to work, and the 'caring workplace,' it is inevitable that someone, after pointing out that we don't live in a perfect world, usually questions my grip on reality and asks what I'm trying to prove anyway. What I'm trying to prove is that there is a better way to be in organizational life, a way that will produce more of every kind of reward--emotional, psychological, spiritual, and financial--for everyone involved, employees, managers, the owners (stockholders) and the society."