Attaining Genz and Millenial talent is tough. Retaining them is even tougher. It does not need to be that way though. Below please find 10 servant leadership question sets designed to help business leaders change their strategic approach to lead their organizations.

What is a servant leader? This is a leader-manager who understands that he is the one who serves his team and not the other way around. It is great to see and hear that more and more old-fashioned toxic working environments with their command-and-control antics are being thrown to the curb. Our newest part of the workforce is drawn to an employee centric company culture.

Servant leadership has a solid foundation in self-awareness of the leader. But how can you pursue it? The best tool in your servant leadership tool box is reflection and meditation. Know thyself is a phrase that you should make your mantra. Please find below a variety of questions we should ask ourselves frequently:

• How do I make sure a yearly (better: quarterly) feedback meetings, one-on-one meeting and department meetings are held periodically? Your daily conversations about work etc are not to be mistaken with having an authentic meeting where you will have the time and sense to truly listen. If you have time to chit chat then you have the time to make room for these important trust building meetings.
• What can I do to have my feedback meetings with my direct reports on time? Timely feedback reviews and making them a priority is key to team members feel that they are taken just as serious as an “important” customer, or project.
• How can I show that I really am listening to my conversation partner? Being present in any one-on-one or team meeting is one of the main commitments we must make to our team members. Body language and mimics and the phone not being on DND can be a major obstacle in creating great rapport.
• How should I prepare a meeting such that my team members can constructively partake in it? Is my meeting about a conversation for understanding, interpretation, exploration of opportunities, or for action? How does the meeting facilitator make sure the meeting is about the “is” condition and not about the “should-be’s”? How can I make sure we start and stop our meetings on time? Ponder if you should have a meeting in the first place. Chances are that you don’t need to have it, if this meeting is to just conveniently “bring everyone up to speed”. No one needs to experience death by meeting.
• How do I as the leader get the respect and trust of my team members? How do I get to know what they do every day and would I be able to do what they do? Find out what obstacles they face everyday. Get out on the shop floor and office. Manage by walking around in your business.
• What is my best method approach to getting buy-in and collaboration from my team members towards minor and major changes in the organization or the team? If you have posters up about vision and mission of your business you had better also have conversations that help connect both to your direct report’s “why”. Only when your team members understand your company’s “why” and they know where you are headed, can they figure out how they should engage everyday.
• How do I best provide feedback on how and when to deliver performance feedback to the people I serve as quarterback? You get what you tolerate, but you also get what you ask for. You candor will usually also lead to your direct reports providing you with the same. Create that safe space where a mistake is a mistake – you take risks together and you learn.
• How and what do I do to show that I appreciate each individual’s personal contribution to the team’s effort? Some folks like praise in front of their peers whereas some would rather die than being in the limelight. Some would just rather hear you praise them in a private conversation. Everyone is a little different. Make their day!
• When an employee says something, what is he/she really saying? What and how (also how much) something is said is often indicative of personal, process, product, or team issues. What is it that they are not saying? Remember that the quiet people often have the better ideas. Coax those answers out of them creatively.
• How can we best facilitate change – any change? How do we guide our employees through resistance, sorrow, exploration of opportunities, and finally the commitment to change? The direct path from A to B for change is a leadership illusion. It takes time and thus patience and persistence to implement lasting change. Never tire of showing up and communicate over and over what and why something is important. Your people watch what you do and say very closely. Choose wisely.

Here is my call to action for you: Ponder the questions and find answers for them. Act quickly on the items that you can implement expediently. Can you see the underlining issues dealing with communication, prioritization, meeting preparation, job shadowing, servant leadership, and perhaps a few more challenges that any leader-manager struggles with? No one is an exception to the rule, and I know that I am frequently challenged and reminded of my own short comings. Key to becoming a great leader-manager is a greater self-awareness. Leadership is self-leadership. We owe this to the people whom we serve and our GenZ and Millennial workforce of all generations pay the most attention to how their needs and demands are attended to at work. You will find that every other generation will like the resulting work environment as well.

Ralf