Nobody thought that 2020 will spell disaster for numerous organizations globally. The COVID-19 pandemic consumed the entire year by bringing in losses for businesses, closure of many firms, salary cuts and immense joblessness through pink slips. Doesn’t it remind us of the 2008 global recession? During such trying times, the Leadership in any organization should ‘serve’ all its stakeholders before itself. Here, empathy is an emotion that stakeholders need, be it the vulnerable customer or apprehensive employee! Servant Leadership is undoubtedly the tool to counter such an existential crisis for the team concerned.
The post-pandemic era started from 2021 has brought a new normal in our personal and professional lives. Prior to the pandemic, company leaderships had a top-down approach where the outcome in terms of profits was all that mattered. But now one should follow the bottom-up approach where Servant Leadership fits the bill. Yes, this philosophy plays a vital role to provide high resilience to an organization. In other words, it’s putting the interests and success of stakeholders first, management second and servant leader at the last. This strategy has the scope to maximize an organization’s productivity if it’s implemented by making clear-cut decisions and communicating them transparently.
As you know that business sustainability has become a matter of concern during post-pandemic times where just maintaining a business isn’t enough. You also need to promote the business’s services or products among customers for a wider outreach. On top of it you also need to accelerate the business by boosting the team’s confidence through measures like incentives and performance recognitions. Yes, these are actions of Servant Leadership that can be carried out by work policies that reflect authenticity to seek long-term goal benefits.
As it was mentioned earlier that Servant Leadership takes a bottom-up approach so slogging through the work isn’t the prerogative of the subordinates alone but the leader too needs to walk the extra mile! Initially the servant leader should instill immense optimism in his team members’ minds towards a particular project. When all team members are convinced of their tasks and ready to coordinate with each other, half the battle is won. Further, the leader needs to act like a router between the members and stay updated with everyone’s mental wellbeing so that the project is completed on time.
You would agree that the COVID-19 pandemic had brought with itself a wave of mistrust and negativity across the world where workplaces weren’t untouched. When we have avoided emotional gestures like shaking hands or dining together, servant leaders now need to rebuild a trustworthy relationship among their team members from scratch. Yes, they need to boost their subordinates’ moral and focus on talent retention to keep the company’s productivity going high. The leader needs to communicate with transparency as there should be zero scope of misunderstanding within the team.
It’s true that servant leadership brings in empowerment within a team leader. Just like gold enhances itself amid flames, similarly you as a servant leader would enhance your capabilities and personality during this post-pandemic phase
