OPERATIONS MODEL

STRATEGIC

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Relating to the identification of long-term or overall aims and interests and the means of achieving them.

HUMAN DIMENSION CONCEPT

The future operational environment will present Army leaders with complexity. Threats will manifest themselves in combinations of regular, irregular, terrorist, and criminal elements. These threats will have access to sophisticated technologies such as robots, unmanned vehicles (aerial and ground), and possibly weapons of mass destruction. They will merge cyber and electronic warfare capabilities to enable them to operate from disparate locations. Additionally, they may hide among the people in complex terrain to thwart the Army's conventional combat overmatch. Adding to this complexity is continued urbanization and affordable access to social media. The resulting "rising velocity of human interaction" will make it more difficult to completely understand events or to predict the aftermath of any incident. Army leaders may become overwhelmed with information and face multiple dilemmas in shorter periods. This complex environment will therefore require future Army professionals to perform at a higher level.

THE 10 PRINCIPLES OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP

1. Listening – A servant leader puts the emphasis upon listening effectively to others. Traditionally, leaders have been valued for their communication and decision making skills. Servant leaders must reinforce these important skills by making a deep commitment to listening intently to others. Servant leaders seek to identify and clarify the will of a group. They seek to listen receptively to what is being and said (and not said). Listening also encompasses getting in touch with one's inner voice, and seeking to understand what one's body, spirit, and mind are communicating.

2. Empathy – A servant leader needs to understand others' feelings and perspectives. Servant leaders strive to understand and empathize with others. People need to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique spirit. One must assume the good intentions of coworkers and not reject them as people, even when forced to reject their behavior or performance.

3. Healing – A servant leader helps foster each person's emotional and spiritual health and wholeness. Learning to heal is a powerful force for transformation and integration. One of the great strengths of Servant Leadership is the potential for healing one's self and others. In "The Servant as Leader", Greenleaf writes, "There is something subtle communicated to one who is being served and led if, implicit in the compact between the servant leader and led is the understanding that the search for wholeness is something that they have."

4. Awareness – A servant leader understands his or her own values and feelings, strengths and weaknesses. General awareness, and especially self-awareness, strengthens the servant leader. Making a commitment to foster awareness can be scary--one never knows that one may discover! As Greenleaf observed, "Awareness is not a giver of solace - it's just the opposite. It disturbed. They are not seekers of solace. They have their own inner security."

5. Persuasion – A servant leader influences others through their persuasiveness. Servant-leaders rely on persuasion, rather than positional authority in making decisions. Servant leaders seek to convince others, rather than coerce compliance. This particular element offers one of the clearest distinctions between the traditional authoritarian model and that of Servant Leadership. The servant leader is effective at building consensus within groups.

6. Conceptualization – A servant leader needs to integrate present realities and future possibilities. Servant leaders seek to nurture their abilities to "dream great dreams." The ability to look at a problem (or an organization) from a conceptualizing perspective means that one must think beyond day-to-day realities. Servant-leaders must seek a delicate awareness between conceptualization and day-to-day focus.

7. Foresight - A servant leader needs to have a well developed sense of intuition about how the past, present, and future are connected. Foresight is a characteristic that enables servant leaders to understand lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely consequence of a decision in the future. It is deeply rooted in the intuitive mind.

8. Stewardship – A servant leader is a steward who holds an organization's resources in trust for the greater good. Robert Greenleaf's view of all institutions was one in which CEO's, staff, directors, and trustees all play significance roles in holding their institutions in trust for the great good of society.

9. Commitment to the Growth of People – A servant leader is responsible for serving the need of others. Servant leaders believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contributions as workers. As such, servant leaders are deeply committed to a personal, professional, and spiritual growth of each and every individual within the organization.

10. Building Community – A servant leader is to help create a sense of community among people. Servant leaders are aware that the shift from local communities to large institutions as the primary shaper of human lives has changed our perceptions and caused a send of loss. Servant-leaders seek to identify a means for building community among those who work within a given institution.