Stewardship, Leadership, Followership
In our work with leaders we promote the view that there are three central aspects to initiating, clarifying and providing direction within any organisation. These are:
- Stewarding
- Leading
- Managing
A long-established concept, stewarding is the careful and responsible management of something that is entrusted to one's care be it a company, a department. a team or an individual.
Its underlying value centres around deepening everyone's commitment to service, whether that is to colleagues, customers or the community in more general terms. It suggests that all those concerned with the health and well-being of an organisation hand it on to the next generation in a state that is definably and measurably stronger and healthier than when they themselves joined it and became part of that particular organisational family.
Furthermore, we believe that the clearer organisations can be about what stewardship means for them, the clearer they can subsequently be in terms of the leadership, managerial and followership styles and approaches that they need to put in place in order to achieve their stewarding aims and goals.
In our view, leadership is defined in terms of those who initiate and support actions that help to look after the health and well-being of the organisation strategically and for the longer term. In turn, followers commit to and support to that leadership by identifying and carrying out those actions and behaviours that are needed for successful implementation, thus achieving a stewarding journey that leads to greater company and community wealth and health.
In summary, all three elements, stewarding, leading and following are important and all need to work closely together. We believe that acts of leadership can take place at all levels and in all functions of companies and businesses, the key requirement being that those acts are in the best stewarding interests of the company. In our experience the best business leaders share a number of special characteristics. They are usually individuals who:
- Wish to leave behind them an enduring, long-term, high reputation institution;
- Have a personal philosophy of management that they wish to put into practice;
- Are willing to have the business serve as a ‘model' company; one that is open for others to evaluate and to learn from;
- See themselves as stewards of the firm's resources;
- Have a devotion to continuous improvement.
As a result, these leaders' motivations typically include the desires to build companies that last beyond their own lifetime; to accept personal responsibility for the organisation's leadership and management problems; to test themselves against other excellent businesses; and to add real wealth and value to their businesses.
Look at our Core Services and Tools' page or contact us at enquiries@safeleadership.co.uk to see how we can help you more successfully and safely steward your organisation into a longer-term future. |
