Me vs. Us Museum Leadership

At a quarterly board meeting, a member of the leadership team speaks to the board. His presentation follows the director's. Asked how it went, he responds, "Great, they loved it, but you've got to give them hope." Then he stops and says, "That guy (meaning the director) doesn't know how to convey hope."
A team member completes a really big, really complex project. There is public acknowledgment from the director, the board, the press, colleagues. From her department leader? Radio silence.
A staff member works for a difficult boss. She tries. It doesn't get better. She tries some more. Going to work stinks. She's diagnosed with cancer. She takes time off. She comes back. She sits down with the director and tells him she's accepted another job. She says she has one perfect life and she's not going to waste it with him. Did you figure it out? To me these stories are all about leaders who put self before the institution, in other words the antithesis of servant leadership. What's that? Well, there are books about it, but in a nutshell, servant leadership is a workplace philosophy that puts people first, where leaders serve others, and ultimately, everyone serves the institution. Servant leaders possess rare combinations of humility and courage. Innately, they know service results in success, just not the type of success often associated with go-getter, entrepreneurial, winner-take-all leaders. What's that got to do with the three mini-stories above? Everything. If you parse each case, you find a leader who put herself before the organization. Leaders who do that frequently aren't hopeful. They can't paint what authors Dan and Chip Heath call "destination postcards," metaphors that make staff want to get in line and build a wing, finish a major exhibit, complete a fund drive. They can't do that because in their minds, the future is theirs not the organization's. It's tied to "me" and my success as opposed to us and the museum's success. In the second story what kind of leader fails to acknowledge staff success except one who's consummately self-involved? Ditto for the third narrative. Even though we're missing the details we know in a field where jobs are hard to come by, leadership has to be truly awful before staff walk in and say they quit. We can't all be servant leaders. In fact, of the many leadership qualities, servant leadership is one of the hardest because it asks a leader not to be the center of attention. Instead, it puts staff and organization in the spotlight. It makes for a museum where director/staff relationships are strong, where staff know the director has their backs, and where there is always hope because collectively everyone serves the museum. Sounds like workplace heaven, right? Maybe. It's not a panacea, but take a week and be intentional about the following:
Standing behind your staff.
Saying thank you.
Listening. A lot.
Acknowledge a diversity of opinions. And really listening to them.
Modeling the behavior you want. If you wish staff would shut off lights in spaces not in use, do you do it yourself? Or do you just send emails asking others to do it?
Mentoring, counseling, developing leadership in others. Not your cup of tea? Tell us how you lead. Joan Baldwin