Servant Leadership: Going From Managing to Collaborating
JAYME MACQUEEN
Marketing
“ The philosophy of Servant leadership where the goal of the leader is to serve. Throughout my career moving the culture to a spirit of servant leadership has always been a winning formula.”
For Project Managers, successfully navigating the team culture of complex IT initiatives can be challenging for many reasons: the sheer volume of work, the significance and criticality of the project, or simply unfamiliarity of the team members. Instead of being an unwanted oversight layer in hybrid-Agile projects, Project Managers should strive to empower teams to solve problems by shifting to a collaborative partnership approach instead of a managing mindset.
What can fuel this mindset shift? Servant Leadership. Agile methodology encourages Servant Leadership as a way to enable and empower teams. At Hylaine, we believe a team is best served when a Project Manager’s goal is to enable the highest possible team performance through seeking to understand and address the needs and development of team members
Servant Leaders encourage partnership, and collaboration within the group and between stakeholders. Servant Leaders support communication through interactive meetings, casual conversations, and process improvement. Additionally, they aid in identifying and communicating roadblocks and potential bottlenecks in advance, enabling collective and effective problem solving. Project Managers who embrace the culture of Servant Leadership will become fair and open-minded problem solvers and dynamic bridge builders, rather than creating additional responsibilities for the rest of the team.
