In today’s global business ecology, effective leadership is increasingly more dependent on stewardship—that is, putting aside your self-interests for the betterment of others and the whole—as a primary approach, rather than controlling or coercive behavior. Leaders who exhibit stewardship demonstrate high levels of trust, openness, and service. In this article, we will examine the leadership attribute of stewardship and discuss how to leverage your mentoring relationship to improve your effectiveness.

Stewardly Leadership Defined

Stewards endeavor to move through the world in a manner that leaves it better than they found it for future generations. They look beyond the needs of self and focus on service for the whole enterprise. In stewardship, you are in charge of something that is entrusted to you, but that is not truly your possession.

 

Stewards are given responsibility for resources that encompass both self and organizational factors. Self-stewardship is made up of the resources we are born with and develop over time: our talents, aspirations, and the time and energy we have to accomplish our responsibilities. Organizational stewardship is made up of the resources we are given charge of by the organization or community that we have joined. It includes:

 

• Material assets – The physical goods and equipment we are given to accomplish our responsibilities. These material or durable goods include such things as computer or network systems, budgets, supplies, raw materials, and inventoried products.
• Intellectual assets – The knowledge or proprietary concepts that the organization has amassed in order to create a competitive or distinctive advantage. These intellectual assets include literary or artistic works, and intellectual property such as patents, appellations of origin, business methods, and industrial processes.
• Emotional assets – The aggregated feelings that those in the organization experience as they go about accomplishing their given responsibilities. These emotional assets include organizational culture, vision, values, practices, and guiding principles.
• Human assets – The people who make up the enterprise and the total blend of talents, aspirations, and time/energy that they represent; they have the responsibility of creating long-term value for the whole enterprise. When thinking of human assets, we need to include the way people interact to create the desired outcomes of the enterprise, such as efficiencies, collaboration, teamwork, and organizational structure.

 

Leaders who practice stewardship effectively make a choice to serve others over self-interest, and in doing so become more effective in their leadership. They aspire to create a legacy for future generations by taking all the resources (material, intellectual, emotional and human) that they have and growing them for others. Stewardship directly impacts the following leadership domains.

 

Leadership Domains and Stewardship

 

Stewardship: A Model of Investment

The Stewardship Model shown here illustrates how two factors—your attention and provision mindset—affect your ability to be productive in your stewardship.

 

• Your focus of attention can fluctuate from self to the whole (the total concern of the enterprise). When it comes to stewardship, being focused on yourself is always less than productive; in fact, empathy is required for productive stewardship.
• How you view the provisions (resources provided to accomplish your responsibilities) that you have been given will also affect your ability to be productive. If you have a low provision mindset you are apt to display hoarding behavior, while a high provision mindset can enable consuming behavior. Both are negative outcomes at the extreme ends of the model.

 

Each of the three regions displayed in the model has distinct attributes that affect how productive our stewardship is in relation to our ability to lead others.

 

Hoard
Leaders who hoard resources gather assets to themselves and tend to spend them sparingly, if at all. The focus of their personal attention is on self-preservation and guarding themselves from personal loss. They labor under a low provisional mindset, believing they do not have enough resources to accomplish their responsibilities. This mindset can come from past experience, such as from suffering a large personal loss, or can be influenced by one’s naturally conservative nature. In either case, the effects are the same: There is a tendency to play it safe and not risk investing in their current resources to produce a greater gain. These leaders are often seen as overly cautious, conservative, guarded, and risk adverse.

 

Consume
Leaders who consume resources rarely think about or take personal ownership for the mass resources they absorb. The focus of their personal attention is on self-gratification and personal gain. They operate from a high provisional mindset and believe that there is an endless supply of resources. The consumer mindset comes from an intense focus on immediate gratification and a strong belief in the temporal world. “If you can’t take it with you, then why not use it all up while you’re here” seems to be the mantra of the consumer. There is a tendency to see the resources of the enterprise from a use-it-or-lose-it perspective. These leaders are often seen as aloof, entitled, wasteful, insecure, and unstable.

 

Invest
Leaders who invest resources are consciously aware of the personal responsibility they have to produce an appreciable gain from the resources they have been entrusted with. The focus of their personal attention is on creating increased value for the whole enterprise. They operate from a modest provisional mindset and believe they have been given just enough resources. They also feel accountable to leverage these resources to create more for future generations. They are content to participate in the future success of the enterprise as a part of the whole, rather than an exception. This mindset is secure in the belief that, together with the resources of the whole, they can overcome the current obstacles and become more in the future. These leaders are often seen as role models, collaborative, conscientious, considerate, and trustworthy.

 

Developing Productive Stewardship

Stewardship is a long-term endeavor and it takes sustained focus and effort to fully live out the practice. The goal is to seize every opportunity to increase the power and reach of the organization through steady investments in the current resources you have at your command. With this in mind, consider these two suggestions for improving your stewardship.

 

First, Look Within
Before attempting to exercise organizational stewardship, take a hard look at the condition of your self-stewardship. Ensure that there is a good likelihood you are engaged in the pursuit of fully discovering and refining your talents. Check to see if you believe that your current work is leading you toward your long-term career objectives. Determine how you are utilizing the time and energy you have in order to accomplish your current responsibilities. You may discover that before you can exercise more organizational stewardship you will need to work on getting yourself properly motivated to truly serve others.

 

Then, Invest Without
Once you feel that you are sufficiently motivated within to serve others, take a few minutes to evaluate how you are treating your organizational resources. To get stewardship right, you need to operate out of the proper mindset, and that may mean getting in touch with your hording or consuming tendencies. As you consider the material, intellectual, emotional, and human resources that you have control over, how do you tend to approach them? Do you hold tightly to them and demonstrate a reluctance to share them with others (hording behavior) or do you give them very little thought and simply expect them to continue to be there for you (consuming behavior)?

 

For most of us, productive stewardship will not come easily. It will take sustained effort to fully appreciate the secure mindset that it takes to fully embrace its practice. Your mentoring relationship can provide a safe and secure learning environment to explore both self-stewardship and how you express your organizational stewardship.

 

Behaviors Related to Assets

Practice Exercise

The following exercise can help you discuss with your mentoring partner how to become more productive in your stewardship.

1. Use the following self-evaluation to assess your stewardly ability.

Self-Evaluation
Recall a recent time when you had to make a critical resource decision (material, intellectual, emotional, or human) or exercise stewardship in a leadership capacity. With this memory in mind, rate how closely you agree with the following statements.

 

Hoarding Tendencies (low score is desirable)	Low				High
I felt that I did not have enough resources.	1	2	3	4	5
I felt that I needed to conserve the resources I had.	1	2	3	4	5
I played it safe rather than risk losing more resources.	1	2	3	4	5

 

Consuming Tendencies (low score is desirable)	Low				High
I felt the time was right to spend a little on my initiatives.	1	2	3	4	5
I felt that if I did not ask for more, someone else would.	1	2	3	4	5
I decided to risk big, hoping for the big payoff.	1	2	3	4	5

 

Investment Tendencies (high score is desirable)	Low				High
I was able to see how to increase future value.	1	2	3	4	5
I made myself accountable to gain appreciable results.	1	2	3	4	5
I planned to spend my resources for a long-term return.	1	2	3	4	5

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Summary Results
Based on the results above and the understanding you have into your own behavior, which leadership tendency do you lean toward? (circle the most likely choice)

 

Hoarding

Consuming

 

Give a brief explanation of your choice:

 

 

 

 

 

2. Discuss your self-evaluation results with your mentoring partner and solicit his/her perspective of your results.

3. If you have determined that you need to strengthen your stewardship, decide what new actions you are going to take.

4. Set up a time to review your progress with your mentoring partner.

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