Leader of eight businesses adopts servant leader model
Michelle Strutzenberger
Syd Birrell is in charge of eight different business scenarios. So he already knows much about what it means to be a leader. After attending a two-day Lead Like Jesus seminar, however, the Peterborough man says he has made some key changes to his leadership style.

Among other endeavours, Syd manages the James Fund, a research foundation, in honour of his son James, who died neuroblastoma, a rare type of cancer, at age eight.

Syd says he has adopted the servant leader model and, within that, the concept of situational leadership with very positive results. "With the servant leader model, you don’t think of yourself as being a big shot, someone who’s climbed to the top of the pile... You think about Jesus being a leader by being a servant...With the situational leadership aspect you assess the people under you, beside you, to decide what they can and cannot handle. You then change your style of leadership to suit what they can handle."

Syd says he first had opportunity to apply these concepts in his work as director of the Peterborough Singers.

One person, in charge of publicity, continually frustrated him with her inability to write interesting press releases. "It was really boring stuff," says Syd. "I was looking for something catchy... something exciting."

After attending the workshop, Syd says he realized that she would never write the articles like he envisioned them. "I realized it just wasn’t her style. Instead I think I discovered what she does do well. She’s unbelievably reliable, she’s so well-organized she drives me crazy, she’s methodical..." So Syd asked her to focus her work on the planning aspect of the publicity and to recruit someone else -- he gave her a list of suggestions -- to write the press releases. "And now things are brilliant," says Syd. "That’s just one example of how instead of thinking everyone should be like me, and looking down on them as weaker members of the human race who don’t have a brain -- which is, really, I think, how I was seeing things -- I’m realizing that people have gifts in completely different areas and let’s discover them and go with them."

Syd says he has also changed his approach in his work with his personal assistant. She has assisted him for eight years on all of his eight business ventures. "I started thinking, what makes her tick, what does she like doing, how much freedom does she need, what kind of follow-up should I provide?"

He also realized that if there were mistakes in the business they were usually his. "She’s smart. She has a degree in business administration. I started seeing that when things go wrong, it’s because of how I do things."

Syd says they started to meet regularly, have a Monday morning coffee, and discuss their objectives for the week, both her goals and his goals.

"It started to become much more of a joint effort, a team effort. Rather than me just saying OK, here’s your e-mail list..."

Syd says he’s found that as he focuses on the strengths and goals of others, and helping to realize those, he’s also in a much better place to unleash his own gifts. "You know, you start to think about Jesus being a leader by being a servant, and having gone to that place, strange things have started to happen. For instance, I find I’m in a much better place to assess my own skills and concentrate on my strengths."

"I’m discovering that I’m very good at networking, at big ideas, at motivating people and communication. Knowing that has helped me in working towards much more team-oriented leadership with the people I work with."

Now, instead of trying to do it all, and working on areas that are obviously not his bent, Syd is allowing others to take those on, and he’s targeting his strengths to those things he does best.

"And the Lead Like Jesus movement has been helpful in that respect," says Syd. "It’s been a great tool."