These are the slides from Jerod Morris' panel presentation at Authority Intensive 2014. Jerod spoke about his experience managing multi-author blogs, and how a model of servant leadership can be applied to lead a successful blog -- by more effectively leading an audience and a team of writers.

1. by Jerod Morris
Listen, Love, Lead
Servant Leadership as a Model for
Multi-Author Blog Management

2. 2
Leadership
NO HYPOCRISY

3. ASPIRE TO GREATNESS
Leadership
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4. – DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
“If you want to be important—wonderful.
If you want be recognized—wonderful.
If you want to be great—wonderful.
But recognize that he who is greatest
among you shall be your servant. That’s a
new definition of greatness.”
.”
4

5. – DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
“By giving that definition of greatness, it
means that everybody can be great,
because everybody can serve.
You only need a heart full of grace, a soul
generated by love.
And you can be that servant.”
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6. 6
??????

7. BIG IDEA:
EFFECTIVE MULTI-AUTHOR BLOG MANAGEMENT
FOLLOWS A MODEL OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP.
Leadership
‣ Serve two groups:
1. Your audience
2. Your team of writers
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8. TERM COINED BY ROBERT GREENFIELD IN “THE SERVANT AS
LEADER”
Servant Leadership
1. Listening
2. Empathy
3. Healing
4. Awareness
5. Persuasion
6. Conceptualization
7. Foresight
8. Stewardship
9. Commitment to growth of people
10. Building Community
8

9. “THE SERVANT LEADER SEEKS TO IDENTIFY THE WILL OF A GROUP
AND HELPS TO CLARIFY THAT WILL.”
1. Listening
‣ Audience
‣ Actions and words
‣ What are they saying? What do they need?
‣ Writers
‣ Actions and words
‣ What are they saying? What do they need?
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10. “ASSUME GOOD INTENTIONS AND BE ACCEPTING, EVEN WHEN ONE
MAY BE FORCED TO REFUSE TO ACCEPT CERTAIN BEHAVIORS OR
PERFORMANCE.”
2. Empathy
‣ Audience
‣ Seek first to understand, then to teach
‣ Writers
‣ Embrace different viewpoints
‣ Treat different people differently
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11. “IMPLICIT IN THE COMPACT BETWEEN SERVANT -LEADER AND LED, IS
THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE SEARCH FOR WHOLENESS IS
SOMETHING THEY SHARE”
3. Healing
‣ Audience
‣ Same journey, different stage
‣ Writers
‣ Same journey, different stage
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12. “ABLE LEADERS ARE USUALLY SHARPLY AWAKE AND REASONABLY
DISTURBED. THEY ARE NOT SEEKERS AFTER SOLACE. THEY HAVE
THEIR OWN INNER SERENITY.”
4. Awareness
‣ Audience
‣ Want to hear versus need to hear
‣ What responses matter? What responses don’t?
‣ Writers
‣ Challenge individuals (give people a chance to rise to the occasion)
‣ Recognize opportunities
12

13. “THE SERVANT LEADER SEEKS TO CONVINCE OTHERS, RATHER THAN
COERCE COMPLIANCE.”
5. Persuasion
‣ Audience
‣ Respect your audience enough to show, not tell
‣ Writers
‣ Care enough to help individuals locate internal motivation
‣ Enthusiastic agreement versus ambivalent acquiescence
13

14. “THE ABILITY TO LOOK AT A PROBLEM OR AN ORGANIZATION FROM A
CONCEPTUALIZING PERSPECTIVE MEANS THAT ONE MUST THINK
BEYOND DAY-TO-DAY REALITIES.”
6. Conceptualization
‣ Audience
‣ Synthesize information to paint the big picture
‣ Writers
‣ Communicate the big picture
‣ How does each person and piece of content fit into it? (Purpose)
14

15. “UNDERSTAND THE LESSONS FROM THE PAST, THE REALITIES OF THE
PRESENT, AND THE LIKELY CONSEQUENCE OF A DECISION FOR THE
FUTURE.”
7. Foresight
‣ Audience
‣ What will they need to know in the future?
‣ What have I learned to help us say it better?
‣ Writers
‣ Convey the above to the team
‣ Where do we need to be to stay useful, relevant?
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16. “DEFINED AS ‘HOLDING SOMETHING IN TRUST FOR ANOTHER’ --
ASSUMES FIRST AND FOREMOST A COMMITMENT TO SERVING THE
NEEDS OF OTHERS.”
8. Stewardship
‣ Audience
‣ Respect their time
‣ Respect their trust
‣ Writers
‣ “Do no harm”
‣ Maximize the effort
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17. “DO EVERYTHING IN HIS OR HER POWER TO NURTURE THE PERSONAL
AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH OF EMPLOYEES AND COLLEAGUES.”
9. Commitment to Growth of People
‣ Audience
‣ Why are you writing this article? (Vanity versus development)
‣ What can I do versus what must I do?
‣ Writers
‣ Take time to teach (benefits both)
‣ Do you know their goals?
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18. “SHOW THE WAY, NOT BY MASS MOVEMENTS, BUT BY EACH SERVANT -
LEADER DEMONSTRATING HIS OR HER UNLIMITED LIABILITY FOR A
QUITE SPECIFIC COMMUNITY-RELATED GROUP.”
10. Building Community
‣ Audience
‣ Go where the conversations are
‣ Be smart with your time (serve the greatest good)
‣ Writers
‣ Be a wolfpack
‣ Create a private, convenient congregation point
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19. What would Gandhi say?
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20. Final word on servant leadership
of multi-author blogs
‣ Take pride — you can do it
‣ Be humble — you can’t do it alone (so serve)
‣ Achieve fulfillment — your goals + others
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21. @JERODMORRIS
Jerod Morris