Four Generations, One Workplace: Applying the Practices of Servant Leadership to Create a High-Engagement Organization
Olivia McIvor

Many organizations are seeking to create a high-engagement, high-performance culture, where associates bring all of their capability into the workplace. Servant leadership is a powerful enabler of organizational success, yet many leaders struggle with how to effectively implement the practices that achieve high levels of employee engagement, superior performance, and a culture that adds real value to the lives of employees/stakeholders. Add to this the fact that the workplace is now made up of four different generations of employees-pre-boomers, baby boomers, Gen-X, and Generation Y. These generations each offer unique challenges as well as skill sets. Using the servant leadership model to draw out the best from these four generations can create a very successful, progressive culture. This session will provide a practical framework for servant leadership, offer practices for creating high engagement and high fulfillment with each of the four generations, and provide an opportunity to learn from other participants' experiences.

Olivia McIvor is a member of The Izzo Group, and has worked alongside Dr. John Izzo for the past seven years. She is an experienced presenter with 21 years of experience in the human resources field. Her research has been published by the Organizational Culture Group and used in numerous articles published in North America. Her research and experience in the areas of attracting and retaining employees to specific corporate cultures has been sought after by many companies during the North American labor shortage. Organizations such as the Georgia Power Company, The Good Samaritan Society, Earl's Restaurants, Benjamin Moore, and the US Food Service have benefitted from her knowledge and ability to inspire. She is the author of a new book, The Business of Kindness: Creating Workplaces Where People Thrive.

An Introduction to Servant Leadership
Dr. Kent M. Keith

What is servant leadership? When was it first articulated, and how is it defined today? What do servant leaders actually do in their daily work? What are some of the personal benefits of living the life of a servant leader? This session will answer these questions. Topics include the universal importance of service, definitions of servant leadership, the power model of leadership versus the service model, key practices of servant leaders, and the meaningful life of servant leadership.

Dr. Kent M. Keith is the Chief Executive Officer of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. He has been an attorney, state government official, high-tech park developer, university president, and YMCA executive. He is known internationally as the author of the Paradoxical Commandments, which he first published in 1968 at the age of 19. He is the author of The Case for Servant Leadership, as well as the national best-seller, Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments, and Do It Anyway: Finding Personal Meaning and Deep Happiness by Living the Paradoxical Commandments.

Tilling Our Gardens: Exploring the Deep Tap Roots of Servant-Leadership
Richard W. Smith and Tamyra Freeman

The poet Antonio Machado asks: "What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?" We each have a garden (a life) that needs tending. If we are seeking to develop a greater capacity to serve with our lives, there are times when it is helpful to tend our garden by gathering together with other seekers to explore or re-explore key Greenleaf concepts, the deep tap roots of servant leadership that can provide us with continual nourishment. In this workshop you will be invited to articulate and share your current understanding of key servant leadership concepts as well as your lived experience with them. You can anticipate a day with a slower rhythm, periods of silence, small group conversation, laughter, and maybe even a few tears. If you are seeking a deeper understanding of yourself as a servant, this workshop will help you to "till" your experience with "servant as leader" and prepare yourself and your garden for new growth.

Richard W. Smith is a depth-educator who has been living into and out of Greenleaf's concept of the servant as leader since 1975. He has been a consultant, teacher, and creator and leader of workshops. He has assisted the Schneider Corporation on its servant leadership journey, worked at the Greenleaf Center in Indianapolis, and led workshops for the Greenleaf Centre (Asia). Tamyra Freeman is a facilitator with twenty years of experience helping government, education, business, religious, and nonprofit organizations engage in life-affirming conversations. Her work with groups is deeply grounded in the principles of the servant as leader as articulated by Greenleaf. She has served as an adjunct facilitator for both the Greenleaf Center and the Greenleaf Centre (Asia.)

Civic Engagement and Servant Leadership: SL9+1
Dr. Margit Watts

This workshop is sponsored by the University of Hawaii, College of Education's Manoa Partnership program and the Greenleaf Center, which have joined together in a project aimed at integrating the teaching of servant leadership attributes in the context of civic engagement activities for students across the educational spectrum - grades K-20. During the academic year 2007-2008 several schools joined this initiative and offered to test the waters with their students. The workshop will feature reports from a fourth grade private school teacher from Hawaii who worked with her students on servant leadership attributes; the Coordinator of First Year Programs at the University of Hawaii and a student from a peer mentoring group who were involved in the project; two administrator/teachers from the Kingwood Montessori School in Texas who have used servant leadership as a paradigm for the whole school; a faculty member from Wartburg College in Iowa who has developed a course on servant leadership; and a faculty member from McMurry University in Abilene, Texas who also developed servant leadership curriculum for college students.

Dr. Watts is the Director of Manoa Partnerships, a program designed to create synergy between the faculty and students at the University of Hawaii and the K-12 environment. Her goal is to develop models of civic engagement that will engage students in their academic endeavors and create opportunities for them to emerge as leaders in their communities. She earned her undergraduate degree and teaching certificate from the University of Michigan and received her Master's in Social Work and Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Hawaii. She is the author of a textbook for first year students titled College: We Make the Road by Walking. For over fifteen years, she was the Director of two programs for freshman, Freshman Seminars and Rainbow Advantage.