How do you define 'Servant Leadership'? What are the basic principles?

At Telenet being a Servant Leader means that we help each other to maximise our autonomy, growth and connections so that we all perform at our best to stay ahead. As a Servant Leader, you are able to SERVE and LEAD yourself, others and the higher objective of the organisation. Being in balance yourself, you guide, lead, help and move individuals and teams forward to achieve their goals by setting clear directions, daring to make (unpopular) decisions, keeping one eye on the prize and one on the ball whilst empowering your teams and engaging courageous dialogues.

I have translated Servant Leadership into four key principles that I hold in very high regard.

The first principle revolves around encouraging diversity. It’s about diversity in all areas. I experienced the value of working in diverse teams, and as a leader now, I also actively seek and stimulate diversity in my teams.

Let me give one concrete example: At Telenet, we actively work with insights to map out individual behavioural preferences. This system uses four distinct colour energies that you can apply in your daily life to help you understand your and other people's behaviour, and the influence you have on each other. I am more introverted and very rational, analytical, detailed, and a very precise and structured person. In insights colours, we call this a blue profile. My opposites are yellow profiles, more extroverted, very dynamic, enthusiastic, persuasive, and optimistic people. Naturally, we don’t click directly. Four years ago, we initiated a major transformation and started working agile. My manager then consciously focused on the complementarity of insights profiles forming the new team. I am still grateful to her for doing so, as it has given me an enormous chance to grow as a person. It made me not only realise but also experience, the real value of looking at things through multiple lenses instead of automatically only looking at the world through my "blue" lens. The colleague with whom I naturally had the least connection, became the person I asked for advice the most. Using him as a mirror to test certain ideas was so valuable simply because he looked at the world in a completely different way than I did. 1+1 is really more than 2, and if you asked him how he experienced this, I am convinced he would answer the same, albeit in a slightly different “yellower” way, with a more creative conclusion, such as, "thanks to Laetitia's blue and my yellow side, we mix the best cocktails when we work together." 

The second principle revolves around creating a culture of trust, achieved through transparency and clarity. So, what mission do we pursue, what are our values, and what is the overall vision or company goal? This needs to start at the top. Clear vision and ambition are key, people need to know, understand and be able to explain their ambitions. And it is even more than that: Everyone needs to understand what is expected of them and how they can contribute to achieving the company's goals. 

As a Servant Leader, I commit to and foresee time to provide clarity. This is not only by clearly communicating our Telenet Business ambition to my teams but also by ensuring focus. I encourage prioritisation, of course in line with that ambition, and I make time to explain how the choices and priority calls we make contribute to our vision and ambition. Next to that, it is also crucial to lead by example and I encourage my managers to be clear to the teams about expectations, to provide regular feedback and to encourage adjustment when needed.

The third principle emphasises not being selfish as a leader, meaning it’s not about you as a leader, but it is all about your team. This is a very important principle to me. It is also partly thanks to Telenet’s belief in Servant Leadership and the belief that the team is the engine, that I had the opportunity to take on a management role in a portfolio tribe after more than 16 years of working in Finance. It was and still is not expected of me to be able to do the role of each of my team members, which is just impossible. The team knows best the how, I am responsible for clarifying the what and the why and making sure my team knows the end goal, the expected result and how their work contributes to achieving this end goal. My role is to support my teams, to advise them, to ask the right questions to help them make better choices, and above all, to make them feel that I truly trust their expertise and abilities. I just set the direction, make decisions when needed, including tough ones, and don’t shy away from difficult conversations. 

Finally, the fourth principle states that a Servant Leader is someone who fosters leadership in others. You do this by leading by example, giving feedback, coaching, helping people grow, and passing on. Not because you have to, but because you want to. For me, this means investing time in developing my leadership skills, getting better at giving quality feedback, encouraging people to see feedback as a gift, daring and taking the time for courageous conversations, and giving regular feedback. Keep in mind that recognition and appreciative feedback are just as important as growth-oriented or development-oriented feedback. In addition, for me, this fourth principle also means being transparent, honest and even vulnerable. Showing vulnerability as a leader gives people the confidence that it is OK to be afraid, that it is OK to not be able to do something right away, and that it is OK to make mistakes and fail. The important thing is how you deal with it afterwards.

Is 'Servant Leadership' already a common practice within your organisation, or is it still an aspirational goal?

It is a common practice! In our job descriptions, we describe the desired company and behavioural and functional competencies for the position. Servant Leadership and what we mean by it at Telenet is explicitly listed as one of the company competencies we look for in positions related to people management.

We also actively invest in the growth of our employees. Just recently, we switched to a brand-new learning platform called Learnit, which is the "go-to" tool for all classroom and digital training, making learning at Telenet very easy.  In our GROW vision, it is important for everyone to take control of their own professional growth. We encourage all employees to identify their own learning needs, but also those of their team and encourage them to do so by actively seeking feedback and having courageous dialogues. All our employees are entitled to at least three days of learning per year and are stimulated to follow different training or growth tracks. 

Specifically for managers, we recently launched the leadership podcast entitled “Listen In”. The goal is to regularly provide inspiration and insights by zooming in each time on a particular type of leadership behaviour, and how to put it into practice. Every manager is required to listen to this podcast. Several initiatives and reflection exercises are linked to each podcast, to help apply what we have learned in our daily activities. The first podcast zoomed in on the crucial (Servant) leadership skill of 'Ensuring clarity' when building safe and strong teams.

So, I believe we can say that at Telenet, Servant Leadership is more than just an aspirational goal; it is embedded in our culture and is a leadership style which is actively promoted and fully in line with our DNA, which we often refer to as the yellow blood.

How can a manager evaluate the effectiveness of their Servant Leadership approach?

Simply, by asking for feedback from the teams and even more importantly, acting on this feedback. There are many ways to receive feedback, including feedback tools, one-on-one conversations or employee surveys, which at Telenet are held on a regular basis. 

But let me give some examples of feedback Servant Leaders in our organisation have received and judge for yourself if you think Servant Leadership pays off.

• "I really enjoyed working in your team and I want to thank you for that. You always make sure everyone feels good in the team and that we can always take steps in the right direction as a team."
• “I’m very happy that I’ve been able to work and learn alongside you during the past year”
• “I think by all accounts we have a top-notch team. It is very nice to see that we have been able to build such a nice dynamic in the team in a short period of time.”
• "I would like to thank you for your coaching and leadership, you helped me grow not only as a professional but also as a person"
• "I would like to thank you for your open feedback and for the trust we receive. We are extremely fortunate to work with/for a manager who wants to delve into the content and who makes the effort to understand our challenges and tries to make everyone's lives easier, and this despite a difficult schedule."
• "You are a person who allows others to grow in a safe environment, who dares to let go and still stands there when things go wrong. That is rare and invaluable. So, thank you, for letting me grow through trial and error over the past two years."

Servant Leadership at Telenet Business is not just a concept but a lived experience that drives our success. By prioritising the growth and well-being of our teams, we create a resilient, innovative, and forward-thinking organisation. Join us on this journey of transformational leadership and discover how you can make a lasting impact in your organisation.

For those interested in delving deeper into leadership strategies, you might consider attending Telenet Business's upcoming event on Business Continuity. More details can be found here.

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