News Insight: The Values Of Servant Leadership

A New York Times op-ed piece by Howard Shultz published Aug. 6 focused mostly on what he believes we need in a president, but we reference his column here as yet more evidence of the enormous shift taking place in business related to how we value people and toward what we call enterprise engagement. Dedicated to making work a more productive, happier place, ESM knows the damage done to employees, productivity, quality and retention by "imperial" executives who foster a top-down, cliquish environment that demands obeisance rather than leadership that inspires. Schultz takes on the issue in his column: "The values of servant leadership — putting others first and leading from the heart — need to emerge from every corner of American life, including the business community.” He writes that Americans are in “desperate need of men and women willing to kneel and embrace those who are not like them.” We recently heard the story of a new executive joining a company for the first time who thought nothing of keeping the entire social media department scrambling to set up his new Twitter account before even understanding the company’s strategy. Here’s a great piece from ESM contributor Kevin Sheridan on “19 Ways to be a Bad Boss.”  Pass it on.