What is servant leadership and what are the servant leadership characteristics? In this Passion Struck Podcast episode, John R. Miles interviews Ron Lutz about how he became a servant leader and the difference it has made throughout his career. New Interviews with the World’s GREATEST high achievers will be posted every Tuesday with a Momentum Friday inspirational message!
The idea about being a leader who is a servant is not new. However, Robert K. Greenleaf first coined the phrase “servant leadership” in 1970. He said,
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them, there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.
Robert K. Greenleaf
In today’s discussion, Ron Lutz and I will discuss some of the mutual experiences we had working together at Lowe’s Home Improvement where he displayed these servant leadership characteristics. Primarily, a joint project we worked on was the first in the company’s history of applying the agile methodology to our software development projects. We discuss the keys that made this project such a success and why agile software development takes involvement not only from the software team but, even more importantly, the business team it is supporting.
Ron talks about how this initiative saved the company over $400 Million and the keys that made the project such a success. Also, how using servant leadership characteristics ignited his team’s passion.
We explore the importance of serving others versus serving ourselves and why becoming a servant leader is so important as we approach this all-digital future that we’re entering into.
Ron shares words of advice on how you be a servant leader both in your career and personal life and so much more.
Enjoy!!
The Show Dives Into Servant Leadership Characteristics
- How Agile Software Development Saved Lowe’s over $400 Million
- What It Means to Speak With Your Feet
- How to Be a Builder of Businesses
- Overcoming Innate Risk
- How You Know, It Is Time to Transition
- The difference in a Servant Leader From a Traditional Leader
- The Most Important Characteristic of Servant Leadership
- How to Apply Servant Leadership In Your Personal Life
- Learn About the Veterans Empowerment Organization He Serves
Quotes From Ron Lutz
“And your notion, that agile solution made perfect sense to me at the time, in terms of our dynamic need relative to the business, we were trying to stand up, it worked flawlessly.”
“For every week that we could take out of the build cycle, that was half a million dollars of incremental sales per week.”
“I turned around one day, and I said, Wait a minute, am I truly fulfilled? Am I actually giving all the value back to Lowe’s that I feel like Lowe’s deserves? Frankly, am I staying true to who I am?”
“We need to know ourselves very well. Spend time truly getting to the core of what motivates you and makes you tick.”
“Every voice along with the continuum matters. Everyone’s activity is a value add an activity; everyone should have the ability to be able to say if we did this, it would have this cause and effect.”
“The most important servant leadership characteristics are empathy and self-awareness.”
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronwlutz10/
Advisory Cloud: https://www.advisorycloud.com/profile/Ronald-Lutz
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— Navy veteran, multi-industry CEO, and Author John R. Miles is on a mission to make passion go viral by helping growth seekers to overcome their fear, self-doubt, and adversity. He loves taking his own life experiences, lessons from his time as a CEO and Fortune 50 C-Level Executive, and the truths he has learned to help make other’s lives better. His new podcast, Passion Struck, provides inspirational interviews and powerful guidance for people to take their lives to the next level. Watch as these high achievers weigh in on life’s biggest questions and challenges as we journey on the path to becoming passion-struck.
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