Page 51 - Harnessing the Strengths

34 ■ Servant-Leadership: In a Nutshell

can keep an eye on specifi c corporate goals while not losing
sight of the development of their people. This is in stark con-
trast to the current striving for shareholder value at the cost
of employee education and training. People are also inspired
and motivated by the servant-leader who gives them a clear
view of the organizational goals and corporate direction.
In this way, the criteria for control are more specifi c, fewer,
and of a higher quality.

Education
Servant-leadership can never be limited to top or middle
management. It is something you must do at every level.
The next step is, therefore, to invest in your people, as they
are the most important link to the client. It is important to
teach employees about the necessity of listening and serv-
ing. If people in the organization lack this core quality,
none of the desired ideals can be attained. Therefore, as
a company, you must be brave enough to pull out all the
stops in order to increase involvement and to provide peo-
ple with the skills necessary to practice servant-leadership
wherever they are within the organization. That invest-
ment will produce a hundredfold return. If you take good
care of your employees, they will in turn take good care of
the clients.
There are companies that believe in this so strongly
that they have raised the concern for their employees to the
level of their company mission statement. An example of
this is the previously mentioned Texan company TDIndus-
tries, a regular on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to
Work For in America. TDIndustries really cares about its
people. It says a lot that the company’s mission statement is