Spotting Servant Leaders In Todays’s Society
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Musings

Spotting Servant Leaders In Todays’s Society

The servant-leader is servant first…It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first

Photo by Phil Coffman Unsplash

It was about two decades ago when I first discussed Servant Leadership in a training seminar. From then on, I have become convinced that this concept of leadership is timely and relevant and worth considering by anyone who yearns for institutions that truly transform the lives of the people they serve.

I have subsequently been invited by many more groups to talk on the same topic. These include Rotary clubs and other civic, professional, and business organizations as well as religious, academic, and public service institutions. From these encounters, it is easy to infer that, indeed, Servant Leadership is what the doctor ordered for many of our human institutions in these modern times.

The Difference Between a Leader and a Servant Leader

Who is a Leader?

Robert Greenleaf says a leader is one who “goes out ahead and shows the way…he says, ‘I will go, follow me!’ even when he knows that the path is uncertain, even dangerous.”

“The leader initiates, provides the ideas and the structure, and takes the risk of failure along with the chances of success. He always knows the goal and can articulate it for any of those who are unsure. By clearly stating and re-stating the goal, the leader gives certainty and purpose to others who may have difficulty in achieving it for themselves.

“The word GOAL is used here in the special sense of the overarching purpose, the big dream, the visionary concept, the ultimate consummation which one approaches even if one may never really achieve it.”

People follow leaders because they believe leaders “see more clearly where it is best to go.” In that sense, followers make the leaders.

Who is a Servant-Leader?

Greenleaf’s first servant leadership writing was titled “The Servant as Leader”, not “The Leader as Servant.” He explains the difference.

The servant-leader is servant first…It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, usually driven by a sense of power or a desire for recognition. For such, choosing to serve comes later; only after he has first been acclaimed as leader.

The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shades and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served before any other consideration.

To Greenleaf, being a servant leader does not require one to hold a formal leadership position. What matters is what we do in “our little corner of the world” — as Greenleaf often said — and why we are doing it.

One of Greenleaf’s colleagues, Richard Smith, teaches that servant leadership “turns leadership into a territory”, a field of action in which various people can operate depending upon their individual abilities and capacities to serve the mission of the enterprise.

Can you visualize a business company as this type of territory or field of action? A place where various people can operate by bringing their individual abilities and capacities to bear on the mission of the enterprise and, together, make it all happen?

As a Rotarian, this is how I like to visualize a Rotary club — a field of action in which everyone is a leader because various members can operate depending upon their individual abilities and capacities to serve the mission of Rotary. Together, they are the people who make it all happen.

Spotting True Servant Leaders

Servant-leadership is now an emerging focus of interest and study in the fields of behavioral science, education, human resource development, organizational development, business management and leadership.

But you may ask, are there really leaders in our organizations and institutions who are servants first, rather than leaders first?

The answer is YES, we only have to be observant and discerning so that we can pick them out from the crowd. People will usually name the likes of Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Former Associate Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma, Jesse Robredo, and many more. But right in your own family or neighborhood or office, you may find these living servant-leaders.

I am sure there are genuine servant leaders in your own communities, except that we don’t notice them right away. Our attention is usually drawn by other leader types who like to be noticed and given special attention and praise for the things that they do. By contrast, servant leaders are not attention getters. They work quietly and prefer to do it without fanfare.

Try to be more observant and discerning, and you will spot the servant leaders in your crowd or your neighborhood. Draw inspiration from them, learn from them and emulate them in your own lives.

Characteristics and Principles of a Servant Leader

Inspirational authors like Robert Greenleaf and his popular disciples Ken and Ben Blanchard, John Maxwell, Stephen Covey, Paul McDaniel, Rod Nichols, John Murphy identify in their writings some of the characteristics, or skills and capacities of a servant leader. Included the following:

1. Exhibits Empathy and Awareness.

2. Great Listener and Effective Communicator.

3. Prefers Persuasion, rather than Debate or Command

4. Exhibits Foresight.

5. Exercises Stewardship.

6. Conceptualizer and Innovator.

7. Community Builder and Healer.

8. Accepts the Call to Lead So Others May Grow.

From the above characteristics, we can deduce the following principles of Servant Leadership:

1. Transformation is inherent in servant leadership. It is the vehicle for personal and institutional growth.

2. Personal growth is a constant. It is a route to better serve others.

3. Enabling environments must be created and sustained. They empower and encourage service.

4. Service is the fundamental goal of servant leadership — service for service’s sake.

5. Trusting relationships are the basis of collaboration and service.

6. Creating commitment is a must for collaborative activity.

7. Community building is the way to create environments in which people can trust each other and work together.

8. Nurturing the spirit provides joy and fulfillment in meaningful work.

So, How Does One Become A Servant Leader?

Step 1: Make the choice of service over self-interest. True leadership emerges from those whose primary motivation is a deep desire to help others.

Step 2: Understand and accept that servant leadership is a transformational, long-term approach to work and life. It is a way of being that has the potential for creating positive change throughout our society.

Step 3: Become familiar with the principles of servant leadership and try to incorporate them into your leadership style as you grow as a leader.

Step 4: Try to emulate and adopt the characteristics — or skills and capacities — that are pivotal to servant leadership, merging them into your own leadership style:

Step 5: Understand that the ideals of servant leadership can be implemented both at an individual level as well as at the organizational or institutional level.

At the individual level, it is a means for personal growth professionally, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

At the organizational level, it is a means to a more effective mission, vision, core values and guiding philosophy.

The overall outcome are better, more productive and even profitable, and more caring companies and institutions.

Generosity as Mark of a Servant Leader

A cardinal virtue of a servant leader is that of Generosity.

Servant leaders tend to be givers by nature. It is said that the desire to serve is a close kin to the desire to give. And that genuine Service is a true expression of Generosity.

It is clearly not by accident that Rotary International as a top service organization in the world is also the founder of The Rotary Foundation, perennially recognized as one of the top 3 charitable organizations in the world.

But generosity and giving are not necessarily synonymous with each other.

Most leaders of all stripes usually engage in the act of giving. They know how the act of giving can be a powerful motivation, and how giving can benefit the organization in the attainment of its goals.

So, any leader can be expected to give to their team or to their cause from time to time. The difference lies in the motive.

The selfish leader likes to draw attention to either the gift, or to the act of giving itself, and will often expect something in return — some sign of admiration or affection from the recipient of the gift, or any sign that enhances his/her reputation as a generous leader. Either way, the motivation to give is, ultimately, the personal good of the leader.

The selfish leader gives grudgingly, and gives only the minimum necessary to achieve his or her personal goals. Everything that this leader does not give, he or she keeps. Of the selfish leader, it may be said that he/she gives in order to receive.

By contrast, a servant leader cheerfully gives everything he or she has to the cause. Recognition of his/her act of giving is immaterial or simply incidental. What is important is the betterment of those for whom the servant leader gave.

This brings to mind a dear friend of mine of many years who has been a Rotarian for close to two decades. She and her husband had done well in the real estate business and decided they wanted to give back to society as an act of gratitude for the blessings received.

They decided to start giving their own modest contributions to The Rotary Foundation. They began a check for a hundred thousand dollars to the Foundation. It was a small percentage of the big profit they had made the past two years.

When they were invited to attend a big dinner to honor major donors to the Foundation, they begged off. They really did not wish to be publicly acclaimed. To the couple, it was enough that they could entrust some of their funds to a competent and trustworthy institution that had a good track record of managing donated funds and ensuring that help reaches the people in dire need.

After one particularly destructive typhoon hit vast areas of the Philippines, they decided to give another hundred thousand dollars. A Rotarian friend suggested for the couple to add another fifty thousand dollars in the name of their young son, their only child. They agreed. They felt that it would be a good experience for the growing boy to become aware of the importance of generosity and to know that there were good people around who freely share what they owned. They felt it was a good education for the kid.

For a true servant leader, generosity is a matter of heart, and of character. It is simply another form of putting the interest of others above one’s own.

Indeed, it may be said that generous leaders are not generous because they give. Generous leaders give because they are generous.

CONCLUSION

Let me end with a quote from Albert Schweitzer, the great physician-philosopher-missionary, a servant leader in many respects, who said:

Photo courtesy of Michigan Radio

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: The ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve and give with all their hearts.”