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Early on in my career I was introduced to the concept of servant leadership, a management approach based on the notion that the most effective leaders put the needs of their subordinates ahead of their own. By ensuring that others’ highest-priority needs are being met, the leader (and the organization) ultimately benefit—through improved loyalty, greater individual responsibility and effort, and enhanced innovation and creativity. This approach to leadership and management has always resonated with me, and is the model that I have attempted to emulate throughout my career—both in how I manage my client relationships and, as I have had the privilege to lead others, those who report to me.

Unlike leadership approaches with a top-down hierarchical style, servant leadership emphasizes collaboration, trust, empathy, and the ethical use of power. At heart, the manager is a servant first, making the conscious decision to lead in order to better serve others, rather than increase their own power. The objective is to enhance the growth of individuals in the organization and increase teamwork and personal involvement.

There are many qualities that characterize servant leadership, and while this approach may not feel right for everyone, we can probably all benefit from incorporating some of the key tenets into our day-to-day management styles. Here, with inspiration from Dr. Kent M. Keith, CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, are my top 5:

1. Self-Awareness. Each of us is the instrument through which we lead. To be effective servant-leaders, we need to be aware of who we are and how we impact others—our personalities, our strengths and weaknesses, our biases, our skills and experiences, and the way we talk and move and act.
2. Listening. Leaders have traditionally been valued for their communication and decision-making skills. While these are important, they must also be balanced by a strong commitment to listening, observing and asking questions. By doing so, servant-leaders are able to identify the needs of their colleagues and customers, putting them in the best position to effectively meet those needs.
3. Commitment to the growth of people. Servant leadership proposes a balanced business ethic, wherein the work exists for the person as much as the person exists for the work. Put another way, the business exists as much to provide meaningful work for the individual as it exists to provide a product or service to the customer. By providing people with opportunities to learn and grow and to fulfill their potential, the capacity for the organization grows as well.
4. Coaching, not controlling: Servant-leaders bring out the best in their colleagues by engaging, inspiring, coaching, and mentoring—not controlling and micro-managing. They help their colleagues understand the organizational goals and their role in helping to fulfill them, and then make sure they have the training and tools they need to effectively do their jobs.
5. Letting go: People need experience making their own decisions—even failing on occasion—because situations may arise when they themselves will need to be the leaders, or make a decision that they normally don’t make. Only by unleashing the energy and intelligence of others, and getting out of the way, can leaders truly inspire others to make their maximum contribution to the organization and allow for the kind of creative and independent thinking that drives innovation and success.

Daily Routines shares the scheduling habits of writers, artists, and other big thinkers. Winston Churchill ate breakfast and worked in bed—including dictating to secretaries standing at his bedside—until 11 a.m. Truman Capote also took things pretty easy:

I am a completely horizontal author. I can’t think unless I’m lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy. I’ve got to be puffing and sipping. As the afternoon wears on, I shift from coffee to mint tea to sherry to martinis.

Whatever your habits, you’re sure to find some great minds that operate in a similar manner.

The fantastically talented New Yorker economics writer James Surowiecki took a look back at acquisition, advertising, and R&D spend during past recessions and what it meant for those who cut back. From the source:

In the late nineteen-twenties, two companies—Kellogg and Post—dominated the market for packaged cereal. It was still a relatively new market: ready-to-eat cereal had been around for decades, but Americans didn’t see it as a real alternative to oatmeal or cream of wheat until the twenties. So, when the Depression hit, no one knew what would happen to consumer demand. Post did the predictable thing: it reined in expenses and cut back on advertising. But Kellogg doubled its ad budget, moved aggressively into radio advertising, and heavily pushed its new cereal, Rice Krispies. (Snap, Crackle, and Pop first appeared in the thirties.) By 1933, even as the economy cratered, Kellogg’s profits had risen almost thirty per cent and it had become what it remains today: the industry’s dominant player.

Surowiecki cited more examples of companies who won big by spending during tough times, including Plymouth, Kraft, Texas Instruments, and Apple. Of course there’s an equal amount of failures, which is why companies find themselves wondering whether they are “sinking the boat” on bad bets or “missing the boat” by letting opportunities pass by:

Today, most companies are far more worried about sinking the boat than about missing it. That’s why the opportunity to do what Kellogg did exists. That’s also why it’s so nerve-racking to try it.

The full article is a fast, fun, and informative read, as most of Surowiecki’s tend to be. His blog is also definitely worth a bookmark.

Aaron Patzer, CEO and founder of Mint.com, wrote a must-read article for TechCrunch about how his free personal finance website can quantitatively answer the question “How bad are things really?” Patzer gives scale to the mountain of data at his disposal:

Since the crisis first hit in September, our user registration rate has more than quadrupled, giving us 900,000 sample points on the economy. That’s close to 1% of US households. All told, Mint.com tracks more than $50B in assets & liabilities.

That is an incredibly deep sample, all reported by the consumers themselves. With this data, Patzer produced three insightful charts: the monthly spending of Mint.com users last year, the monthly spending by category, and the average account balance from 8/6/08 and 12/15/08.

The conclusion Pazter reaches on all this data isn’t exactly good news for America:

Is it Great Depression bad? That’s a qualitative question I can’t answer. But what the data, the hard facts, mean for you—if you run a consumer business—is that your customers are spending $400 less each month than they were a year ago, have burned through half of their savings, and on average have taken on an additional $5k in debt.

Wow. Just wow. A million thanks to Aaron Patzer and Mint.com for producing this fantastic article.

It’s one thing to gather data. It’s another to make sense of it all. This pie chart from Voltage Creative does an excellent job of giving scale to the recent economic bailout. (Hint: It’s more than the history of NASA spending, the Iraq War, Vietnam, Marshall Plan, and other mind-blowing figures combined.) So when you hear murmurs about this money already evaporating, try not fainting from disbelief.

Picked me up a Christmas tree last weekend and it’s a real beauty—Noble Fir standing 6 proud feet. Smells great. Now I know that every business is trying to stake their claim in the green movement, but the tag I found on my tree might be the biggest stretch yet:

Um, yeah. That’s what most farmers call “planting crops” to “stay in business”. When you buy an ear of corn, is there a sticker that says a new kernel will be planted in its place?

Esquire recently became the first magazine to use E Ink (aka electronic paper) technology, which attracts readers like moths to blinking letters and lights on a bendable digital screen. Sounds archaic, but this could be the beginning of a beautiful digital/print relationship. Oh the possibilities…

[As one of our green-minded web designers pointed out, it would have been nice if Esquire tried to power the electronic paper with flexible solar cells from companies like Konarka or Nanosolar instead of five landfill-bound batteries.]

If you’ve ever needed a statistic about your fellow Americans, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a good place to start. The BLS provides statistics free of charge, many of which can be used in marketing analysis and insights. One recent study–The 2007 American Time Use Report–reveals how people spend their days, including sleeping, lawn care, telephone calls, and e-mail. Cruise through the report and see how you match up with the rest of the US.

In an article published in the Atlantic Monthly, author Jeffery Goldberg literally goes headfirst into the subject of brain scan technology and how it can provide deep insight into consumer behavior. After being exposed to a series of images, Goldberg learns he sympathizes with John McCain, has conflicted thoughts about Hillary Clinton, and really, really likes Bruce Springsteen.

This use of this technology could help marketers jump the focus-group hurdle of bias in self-reporting. Goldberg continues:

“The commercial implications of this nascent science became quite obvious to me at a certain point in my debriefing. FKF [the neuromarketing firm] already has a list of corporate clients, Bill Knapp told me. He would not name the companies, but he said they are all interested in measuring the “strength of their brand iconography, where it lives in the brain, what is attracting people to the brand, and what is pushing them away.”

More from the source…