Lead with a Servant’s Heart!

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I noticed an interesting blog the other day about change agents, and their motivations… Change happens because people care for others. I love this picture
and its advice:
Management change agent guru Ken Miller says: “The world needs change agents. Your organization needs change agents. You can be that change agent. Not for the glory or for advancement — you probably won’t get either. Not for admiration or even convenience — the path of a change agent can be lonely and often painful as you try to help others see what is possible, prepare for what is inevitable, and let go of what has sustained them thus far. Like great artists, change agents are usually only admired after they are gone.”

So why bother?

At the heart of his work, Kent Keith was pointing to a bigger motivation, something that today, 40 years later, seems like an old-fashioned notion and certainly not a phrase we use much anymore: brotherly love. As he said, “If you’re in it for other people, then helping them will give you satisfaction that having your name in lights could never compete with!”

Here are Ken’s 10 Commandments of Government:

  1. The reward for doing good work is more work. Do good work anyway.
  2. All the money you save being more efficient will get cut from your budget now and forever. Find efficiencies anyway.
  3. All the bold reforms you make will be undone by the next administration. Make bold reforms anyway.
  4. There is no time to think about improving what we do. Make time anyway.
  5. Employees may fight the change every step of the way. Involve them anyway.
  6. The future is unpredictable and largely out of your hands. Plan anyway.
  7. The press only cares when something goes wrong. Share your success stories anyway.
  8. Legal will never let you do it. Simplify it anyway.
  9. If you develop your people they will move on to better jobs. Train them anyway.
  10. Your ideas will at best make someone else look good and at worst get you ostracized by your co-workers. Share your ideas anyway.

Adopted from Ken Miller: The Paradoxical Commandments of Government