Here’s Why Servant Leadership Is One of Our Founding Pillars
At Four Pillars Investors, servant leadership is a defining factor of our portfolio companies’ cultures. What is servant leadership? It’s a deep commitment to the common good that puts leaders in a serve-first mindset. We know that long-term business success depends on leaders knowing how to improve team-building in the workplace, which is why we help our portfolio companies establish servant leadership cultures (if they don’t have them already).
Servant leadership is one of the pillars of our own culture: We work with companies to set strategies and promote shared decision-making. We understand the importance of collaboration. Our involvement should serve to further the interests of our partners.
That’s why every investment decision involves consideration of what’s right for individuals as well as the company as a whole. To us, investing is about more than capital. It’s about forming a long-term partnership based on a servant leadership framework.
What Servant Leadership Looks Like at Four Pillars Investors
A servant leadership culture cannot exist without transparency. In the transition of ownership, our goal is to support the company in its mission, not override it. We make this clear during the sale process by articulating that we plan to keep the company’s unique mission and purpose intact. This inspires trust, which is one of the benefits of servant leadership.
We work with our portfolio companies to drive change and fuel growth. We position leaders to work in a way that mitigates risk and optimizes performance, which results in business success. Our focus is always on what is right for the company and its employees and stakeholders, which instills confidence in company leadership.
How to Foster a Servant Leadership Culture
Before we invest in a company, we talk about our core values with leadership to ensure our beliefs align with theirs. All four pillars play a role in our evaluation of the company, but we see servant leadership’s profound impacts across business operations.
Leaders who want to increase their company’s value should foster a servant leadership culture. Here’s how:
1. Invest in employees’ personal development.
Part of servant leadership involves ensuring the growth of employees. By dedicating resources and time toward employees’ personal development, leaders can improve retention rates by 30% to 50% and make their workplaces more desirable. Plus, employees who receive additional training and support have the potential to become high performers.
2. Follow through on promises.
Workplace relationships are incredibly crucial in fostering a servant leadership culture. To foster better relationships, leaders should keep their promises to employees. Doing so builds trust. When leaders follow through on what they say they’ll do, employees will feel more confident in leadership moving forward.
3. Encourage mutual support.
Servant leadership is based on the idea that everyone is working toward the greater good, which means leaders and employees need to help each other do their jobs more effectively. Individuals should ask, "What have I done recently to support my team?" Employees often follow by example, which is why it’s critical for company leadership to initiate the change.
At Four Pillars, we value the following principles: relationships foster success, status quos should be challenged, achievement depends on persistence, and servant leadership builds better companies. By adopting a servant leadership mindset and encouraging everyone at the company to work toward the common good, leaders can transform their organizations for the better.