Servant leadership principles provide a tangible framework for leaders in the waste industry to follow under any circumstances, with the vital foundation centered upon serving the needs of others first and foremost.
By Clifton Thacker
The vast array of functions contained within waste and recycling departments require extensive oversight: supervisors, managers and vice presidents are but a few of the titles given to those who are tasked with dealing with complex personnel issues. Many leaders possess the requisite education and experience when addressing problems encountered within their locus of control. However, what tactics or methods underlie a leader’s decision-making choices? A flourishing model within management circles includes the principles of servant leadership.
Servant Leadership
Robert Greenleaf coined the term servant leadership in the late 1960s and early 1970s while working with college students on campuses throughout America. Servant leadership begins with the idea and natural feeling that individuals not only want to serve, but also serve others first. Waste industry managers must serve the needs of others, including executives, stockholders, subordinates, customers and many other unique stakeholders. The philosophies contained within servant leadership can benefit each and every leader as they face daily obstacles within their vocation.
Listening
Communication is a critical component within any human interaction. Often, a person’s emphasis is focused more on what is being said than what is being conveyed by others. Listening intently to others provides valuable feedback for future decision-making choices.
Operations: Are you listening and responding promptly to driver feedback concerning routes, container placement, vehicular safety and dumpster condition?
Sales: Why is a potential customer entertaining doing business with you? Are you focused on what they desire in a provider rather than what you feel are your particular strengths?
Maintenance: What information is the driver providing to you, written or orally, about the condition of their equipment? What can be done proactively today to offset an impending road service call tomorrow? Listening with an emphasis on serving others builds trust and camaraderie within differing divisions and can lower maintenance costs.
Empathy
The concept of empathy is perhaps the most important aspect of servant leadership. Empathy connects people’s desire to be accepted and acknowledged for their unique dispositions. In simple terms, empathy is the ability to put one’s self-figuratively in another’s shoes.
Human Resources: When considering performance reviews, what behaviors or performance measures are weighted more heavily? What programs are in place to deal with personnel issues encompassing promotional opportunities, training and retraining for job alterations, family strife and the handling of complaints?
Senior leadership: When decisions are made that may negatively affect personnel, do you envision yourself in their place? Is the impact of the decision considered from the viewpoint of the employee first as opposed to the bottom line and financial gain of the organization? A commonly overlooked aspect of change initiated by leadership involves stating the true purpose of a major change. Communicating the change honestly and with empathy in mind softens the potential blowback while making the adjustments more palatable and less authoritative.
Awareness
General awareness necessitates that a leader must know what is happening within their management purview. Waste industry leaders face many unique obstacles daily regardless of the leadership traits they use. The awareness attribute within servant leadership requires the acknowledgement of social and non-social cues from personnel based on the decisions and opinions that have been formulated throughout the company. Will a manager be proactive to an issue arising from within the ranks, or reactive by addressing problems after they have gotten out of control? Awareness mandates that a leader trust their senses and their employees.
Operations: If you are cognizant that a customer has a defective piece of equipment (8-yard coated with rust, 30-yard with a seized door, cart with a broken lid, etc.), will you repair or replace it at once or postpone the expenditure until a complaint occurs? Further, will this delay in addressing the issue allow for a competitor to swoop in and pilfer the business?
Managers and supervisors: If you are being told by others or have noticed a discernable negative behavior in a particular employee, will you wait it out and hope it resolves itself or will you handle it expeditiously? Be aware that the longer an unaddressed problem persists, especially within personnel, the more likely it is to spread to others and exponentially compound the initial concern.
Persuasion
An effective leader does not need to coax others exclusively through their hierarchical position; their leadership standards are recognized, respected and honored by all. Likewise, servant leaders waive their positional authority in an effort to create agreements with all. The most effective means of persuasion involves a building of consensus within differing groups.
Managers and supervisors: How have you established respect across differing divisions of the company? How can you persuade and build consensus without knowing their personnel and what obstacles they face on a daily basis? A maintenance supervisor who lectures an operations manager about one of their drivers while not aware of basic commercial driving regulations lacks effective persuasion. Likewise, an operations manager who complains to a maintenance supervisor about the withholding of a driver’s truck while remaining unaware of vehicular safety guidelines also lacks persuasion.
Sales: Persuasion is a given for an effective waste sales staff. If special accommodations are required for a new customer, how are you selling the overall benefits to operations, maintenance or other division staff? Are the promises being made to the prospective customer consistent with what is already offered by the waste company? If not, are you verifying in advance with staff that the promises to new customers can be truthfully fulfilled? The goal is to undersell and over-perform, not the opposite.
Foresight
Properly preparing for the future requires a proficient knowledge of the past. Foresight within servant leadership weighs past lessons against today’s realities when considering the consequences of a future choice. Intuition plays a key role in servant leadership where education, experience and risk assessment merge when contemplating the significance of crucial decisions.
Maintenance: Are you monitoring evolving trends in maintenance on your equipment? Wear items such as hydraulic hoses, tires and sheet metal often provide tangible evidence of effective or ineffective manufacturing processes as well as preventative maintenance techniques. Equipment failures linked to such items may be used to enhance capital purchase decisions in the future.
Senior leadership and sales: What customer demographics exist today and which new ones are likely coming soon? Is the diversification into recycling, bulk waste or other markets desired or offered by competitors? Is there a new neighborhood or industrial park being considered by a town, city or state council? Do you have the personnel, equipment or resolve to handle the potential business? Are there any competitors that may be acquired or merged with to increase your market share? Goal-setting and constant market evaluation help develop foresight within leadership and sales.
Provide a Tangible Framework
The aforementioned concepts are only a smattering of ideas based within the theories of servant leadership. The principles of servant leadership are not exclusive to the waste industry and can be used in all personal and professional settings. While some of the philosophies outlined may seem mundane and obvious to most, what may be less clear are the deliberate steps leaders in the waste industry select to establish their leadership principles in common situations. Common questions may involve how to recognize and reward superior employee behavior. Additionally, how do you overcome and handle the loss of a large-revenue client or a critical employee? In times of turmoil, how do you handle negative information and what methods do you use to relay it to employees or customers? Servant leadership principles provide a tangible framework for leaders in the waste industry to follow under any circumstances, with the vital foundation centered upon serving the needs of others first and foremost.
Clifton Thacker is a 20-year waste and recycling veteran, the owner of a residential waste service firm, an executive coach in business, a waste industry consultant, and a Doctoral Candidate in Leadership at Liberty University in Virginia. He can be reached at [email protected].