Trainers as leaders of learning

In The Servant as Leader, Robert Greenleaf developed a new kind of leadersh ip model that puts serving others, including employees, customers, and comm unity, as the number 1 priority. Greenleaf's primary definition of servant leadership is being a servant first. To determine your servant-leadership c apacity ask, "Do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?" Trainers can be servant-leaders by getting to truly know their participants, discovering what their needs for knowledge and experience are, and learning how to communicate with them mos t effectively knowing their stuff being willing to experiment and learn in the process of teaching listening for the wisdom of learners and realizing that just because you're the instructor doesn't mean you know all of the answers encouraging continued growth through resource materials, making themselves available after training, and giving assignments that go beyond designated classroom time recognizing and appreciating the contributions of other people finding appropriate ways to acknowledge and encourage learning and growth b y participants using many ways to communicate with learners, recognizing that not all peop le are alike and need information presented in many different ways seeking feedback and using it for personal growth. As trainers further develop their servant leadership, the ultimate question to ask is, "Are we progressing to a point of being servant-trainer?" If so , then focus more on helping other trainers become servant-leaders.