New Business Development - Be a Servant Leader and Get the Systems Right - Week 9

Summary

In this session, Jacob Tan covers key leadership concepts, focusing on servant leadership and the importance of strong systems in organizations. He explains how servant leaders must sacrifice time, energy, and resources to support their teams. Additionally, he highlights the need for robust systems, which ensure fairness and prevent constant firefighting in organizations. Balancing strong systems with strong people leads to organizational excellence and sustainability, while weak systems or people can lead to chaos or inefficiency. These insights are crucial for anyone aspiring to lead effectively.

Takeaways

• 📈 Leadership involves progressing higher on the organizational ladder, but in an upside-down pyramid where the leader is at the bottom supporting others.
• 👐 Servant leadership requires sacrifices in time, energy, and possibly finances to support the team and organization.
• 🤔 Leaders need to reflect on their readiness to adopt a servant leadership approach and embrace the challenges that come with it.
• 🔗 Effective leadership requires not only strong people but also well-established systems to guide the organization.
• 📋 Systems are governance tools, policies, and procedures that must be clearly documented and followed in an organization.
• ⚖️ Fair systems promote trust and fairness within a team, helping to create a more stable and harmonious working environment.
• 🔥 Without strong systems, even strong teams will end up firefighting daily, leading to burnout and high turnover.
• 🚨 Weak teams combined with weak systems create chaos within an organization, leading to dysfunction.
• 📚 Strong systems with weak people lead to bureaucracy, slowing down communication and hindering competitiveness.
• 🏆 The ultimate goal is to have both strong people and strong systems to achieve excellence and sustain long-term success in the organization.

Q & A

What is the first leadership concept emphasized in the transcript?

The first concept emphasized is servant leadership, where leaders place themselves at the bottom of an upside-down pyramid, carrying the burden of leadership by sacrificing their time, energy, and sometimes finances for their team.

What does the upside-down pyramid in servant leadership represent?

The upside-down pyramid represents how leaders, as they rise up the organizational ladder, actually position themselves at the bottom, supporting the entire team by sacrificing for others.

Why is sacrifice important for a servant leader according to the transcript?

Sacrifice is important because it reflects the leader’s commitment to their team, showing that leadership involves giving up personal resources like time and energy for the benefit of the organization.

What key question should leaders ponder regarding servant leadership?

Leaders should ask themselves: Are you ready to be a servant leader and truly sacrifice for your team?

What is the second concept discussed in the transcript?

The second concept is the importance of strong systems in an organization, which includes governance, policies, and procedures written in black and white to ensure fairness and consistency.

Why are strong systems important for an organization?

Strong systems are important because they help ensure fairness, trust, and efficiency within the organization, enabling the team to achieve excellence.

What happens if you have strong team members but weak systems?

If you have strong team members but weak systems, the organization will be in constant firefighting mode, leading to potential burnout and high employee turnover.

What are the consequences of having weak team members and weak systems?

Having weak team members and weak systems leads to daily chaos, making it difficult to manage and causing dysfunction within the organization.

What is the result of having weak people but strong systems?

With weak people and strong systems, the organization experiences bureaucracy, with slow communication flows and inefficiency, making it hard to compete with others.

What is the ideal combination of people and systems according to the transcript?

The ideal combination is having both strong people and strong systems, which leads to organizational excellence and long-term success.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 Understanding Servant Leadership

In this section, Jacob introduces the concept of servant leadership, emphasizing its significance in an upside-down organizational structure. As one climbs higher in leadership, the responsibility increases, making the leader metaphorically at the bottom, serving others. He discusses the personal sacrifices a leader must make—whether in time, energy, or finances—to support their team. Jacob challenges the audience to reflect on their readiness to become servant leaders, as it requires a deep commitment to the well-being and success of others.

05:00

📊 Importance of Strong Systems and People

Jacob highlights the critical balance between strong systems and capable people in an organization. Systems, such as governance policies and procedures, ensure fairness and trust within teams. He warns against the dangers of having either strong people with weak systems, which leads to daily chaos and burnout, or weak people with strong systems, which results in bureaucratic inefficiency. To achieve long-term success, he emphasizes the need for both strong people and strong systems, allowing for organizational excellence and longevity.

Keywords

💡Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy where the leader prioritizes the needs of the team and organization above their own. In the video, Jacob emphasizes that servant leadership involves making personal sacrifices, such as giving up time, energy, and even finances, to support others. He challenges future leaders to reflect on their readiness to adopt this selfless approach.

💡Upside Down Pyramid

The upside-down pyramid is a metaphor used to describe the servant leadership model, where those at the top of the organization, like leaders, are at the bottom of the pyramid. This signifies that leaders carry the weight of responsibility and serve their team. The video uses this metaphor to illustrate the burden leaders must bear for the benefit of the team.

💡Sacrifice

Sacrifice, in the context of leadership, refers to the personal costs leaders endure for the betterment of the team. Jacob highlights that servant leaders may need to sacrifice time, energy, and financial resources to effectively lead. This concept is central to understanding what it means to truly serve others as a leader.

💡Systems

Systems are the formalized policies, procedures, and governance structures that guide how an organization operates. In the video, Jacob emphasizes the importance of strong systems, which ensure fairness and efficiency within a team. He contrasts strong systems with weak ones, explaining how weak systems can lead to chaos and firefighting within an organization.

💡Strong People

Strong people in an organization are team members who are capable, skilled, and committed. Jacob contrasts strong people with weak systems, noting that if strong people are part of an organization with weak systems, it leads to constant firefighting and burnout, ultimately risking the loss of valuable team members.

💡Firefighting

Firefighting refers to the daily crisis management that occurs when an organization is poorly structured or lacks strong systems. Jacob explains that firefighting happens when strong people work in an environment with weak systems, leading to constant stress and inefficiency. This undermines long-term productivity and sustainability.

💡Fairness

Fairness in leadership refers to treating all team members equitably, ensuring that systems and decisions are transparent and consistent. Jacob mentions that fairness is a product of having strong systems in place, as they create an environment where trust can flourish, and team members feel respected and valued.

💡Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy is described as an overly rigid or inefficient organizational structure that hampers communication and decision-making. In the video, Jacob discusses how having weak people but strong systems can lead to a bureaucratic organization where information flow is slowed, making it difficult to compete effectively in the market.

💡Excellence

Excellence is the goal of achieving high performance through a combination of strong people and strong systems. Jacob stresses that excellence is the ideal state where both the team and the organization are functioning optimally, allowing for sustained success and longevity. This balance prevents chaos or bureaucracy and leads to long-term growth.

💡Longevity

Longevity refers to the sustainability and long-term success of a team or organization. Jacob concludes by saying that achieving excellence through strong people and systems helps the organization endure and thrive over time. Longevity is the ultimate result of a well-led, well-structured organization.

Highlights

Introduction to servant leadership as an essential concept in leadership.

The upside-down pyramid model of leadership, where leaders at the top of the organization must carry the burden of leadership.

Leaders must sacrifice time, energy, and possibly finances to serve their team members.

Challenging question posed: 'Are you ready to be a servant leader?'

Second major concept introduced: the importance of both people and systems in an organization.

Definition of systems as governance, company policies, and procedures written in black and white.

Strong systems help organizations implement fairness and build trust within teams.

The risks of having strong team members but weak systems: the organization will constantly be firefighting.

Firefighting every day leads to burnout for team members and loss of key talent.

If the organization has weak team members and weak systems, it will result in chaos.

If weak people exist in a strong system, it leads to bureaucracy and hampers communication.

The ideal scenario for achieving excellence: having both strong people and strong systems.

Excellence is needed to achieve sustainability and longevity within the organization.

Conclusion emphasizing the importance of the two key concepts for leadership success.

Final statement: Leadership on the ground requires both servant leadership and strong systems for long-term success.

Transcripts

hi my name is Jacob 10 and today we are

going to cover week 9 material on

leading well and value of teams I'm not

going to cover each single point in the

PowerPoint but I would like to emphasize

two concepts of leadership that might be

extremely useful for you as you lead on

the ground the first one is about

servant leadership if you can see at

this pyramid the upside down pyramid the

higher you go on the organizational

ladder right there meaning you are at

the very bottom of the picture in the

upside down pyramid which means that you

must be a pity to carry the burden of

leadership as a servant leader to be

sacrificial in your time

maybe energy maybe finances it is not

easy

Peter Peter when you have to be really

sacrificing for your team members in

organization so are you ready to be a

servant leader to be a true servant

leader this is a challenging question

for you to ponder or think about as you

will grow up some of you will be living

or will be leaders so you need to ponder

on this time big question are you ready

to be a servant leader the second

concept that I would like to share with

you

it's about the importance of not only

people but also the systems that you set

in organization what our systems systems

are basically governance or company's

policy or people say enough procedure

written in black and white yes you need

to write them in black and white

withdrawn people and strong systems then

you can achieve excellence in your team

in organization these systems actually

help or support the organization

implement fairness in all that means

trust in your team and organization you

need fairness to treat people let's see

what happened we have strong team

members or strong people but weak

systems then your team organization will

be fire fighting every day and you do

not want it to happen so every day will

be coming toward you know you might have

a nerve nerve breakdown one day if you

fire fight every day or if your people

expect every day and if they can send it

they will quit they will resign and so

you are unable to retain these strong

people that you have recruited you

cannot retain them if you firefight

every day and what happened if you have

weak people and we just

then your organization your team will be

in chaos every day what happened if you

have weak people and strong systems then

your team organization will experience

bureaucracy the communication flow of

information will be hampered here and

there and you won't be able to compete

with your competitors in such a way you

will always want to achieve and strong

people and strong distance excellence

this is where you want to achieve at

this point it will benefit you your team

and gunas ation to sustain and to the

chief longevity so these are the two

concepts that I would like to share with

you hopefully will benefit you as you

lead on the ground as urban leaders

that's it for me

my name is Jacob tan and I'll see you

next session