Page 132 - Harnessing the Strengths

Dilemma 5: Specifi c Versus Diffuse ■ 115

option. For those who pay close attention, a 90 percent “yes”
on the scale is a subtle indication of a Korean “no.”

Focus on the Bottom Line Versus the Development
of People

The servant-leader is often caught between a world of deliv-
ering results to the shareholders and the need to develop
1
employees. Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard was
designed to address this issue. The BSC management tool
urges leaders to fi nd a balance between the two cases. In
practice, leaders often chose to focus on fi nancial results
one year and to develop their people the following year—
and again make another choice the subsequent year. This
drives away those employees who take learning and their
career development seriously.
At one point, insurance giant AXA suffered from this kind
of scenario. After five years of heavy cost reductions, a number

of the better employees threw in the towel and went looking
for companies that were willing to invest in people develop-
ment. As a result, CEO Henri de Castres decided to increase
the training budget by 25 percent. The only condition was that
the service providers leading the training had to show how their
interventions would affect the bottom line and increase profi t.
This kind of solution is typical of a servant-leader.
Servant-leaders look at how the greater objective of devel-
opment can be used to achieve specifi c results as well as the
other way around. Both approaches are valid. In the United
States, they are more likely to fi rst focus on results, and then
use the extra profit to further train their people.

In Germany, they would rather take a different route:
they would keep investing in their people, no matter what
the circumstances, because they know this ultimately leads