Help for others?
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others? - Martin Luther King Jr
What are you doing for others?
That my friends is a very powerful question, and I am asking this question of you because whether you like it or not YOU are a leader.
Sure you might not be the CEO of the fortune 500 company, you may not be the A list blogger, you might not hold a formal leadership position of any kind, but you ARE a leader.
What type of leader do you want to be?
A dictator? A benevolent dictator? Autocratic? Participative? Paternalistic?Free-rein?
Or would you rather be a servant leader…..
Servant leadership involves the skills of listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualisation, foresight, stewardship, growth and building community.
In whose interests?
When we are making decisions related to our family, our work, our team, our club etc and we need to ask ourselves this question “in whose interests am I making this decision?”
If the honest answer is mine… then it is not servant leadership, and the decision is more likely related to your own need for power, or possessions, or to prove a point of some sort.
If the honest answer is theirs only…then it is not servant leadership, servant leadership is not about being a slave…. and serving only the interests of those around you. That would make you a floor mat to be walked all over.
If the honest answer is OURS… then it is likely that it is servant leadership.
But…how do you DO servant leadership?
Servant leadership means having your eyes, ears, heart and mind open to those around you. It means looking at what their needs are, and what the needs of the family/workplace/team/club etc are and finding a way to fill those needs.
Servant leaders are systems thinkers who are looking at the bigger picture and all of its components and using that vision to grow others. Servant leaders are good communicators, who put people first.
Servant leaders lead in order to serve others, and place an emphasis on trust, empathy and the ethical use of power, not on efforts to increase their own power for their own sake.
The concept of servant leadership has been around since time began with references related to it attributed to Lao-Tzu in the 500′s BC, to Chanakya in the 4th century BC, to Jesus, and to many recent authors like Stephen Covey and others.
Someone, somewhere is watching you.
Think of the all the circles you operate in, your family, your work, your social network, your sporting or community clubs. Someone, somewhere is watching you for clue as to how they should behave.
Are you going to set a leadership example that demonstrates selfishness, or will you accept Martin Luther Kings challenge to walk in the light of creative altruism and set an example that leadership is really about how you serve others?
So to close with the opening question…..what are you doing for others?
Related posts:
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Mick,
I’ve come up with my personal believe of leadership:
being as delusional as possible and using that mindset to inspire/help the people that want to listen, dare I say illuminate the world with your existence…
Mick, this is an excellent post – thanks! It’s so easy to forget that our leadership styles might either nourish or deplete others. Your point about others looking to us for clues regarding how to behave is spot on. It can even be a toddler, copying some habit or saying you have! Whatever situations we lead in, we have choices as to HOW we adopt and carry out that role. I was recently coaching a senior executive who’s objective was to get back into the ‘control tower’. By the end of our work together, the objective had morphed to a servant relationship. It was an amazing and inspiring journey. Thanks again for the inspiring piece.
Hi Mandy, thanks for the generous comment. You obviously did a great coaching job to move someone from control tower to servant leadership. I’m sure that executive is much happier for the experience.
Wow, this article really made me stop and think. Like Paul said, very thought-provoking.
It makes you aware of your actions and that we, as bloggers, are defacto leaders for our readers. I never thought about it that way, so this was something new. Also, the concept of the servant leadership is a new concept to me. Thanks for teaching me something new today.
Karen
Karen, glad to have helped you out with something new for you.
Mick,
A very thought provoking post.
I agree with Heather; “How can someone who has not followed lead?” If you’ve not followed, you won’t have the awareness of being led!
My view is that leadership is about using the skills of who you are leading, including yourself, to achieve the outcome. An understanding of others is surely required for that to happen.
Thank you for sharing.
Regards
Paul
Thanks Paul, I think your 100% right about using everyones skills including your own to achieve the outcome, and you definitely cannot do that if you do not have an understanding of the other people.
How can someone who has not followed lead?
I think that serving first is a great way to learn what people need, why, what they want, what’d be best for them, and so on. Once you know that you’re in a far better position to guide and aid; to bring your community higher and further (or towards whatever your goal is). Must take a certain type of will too; to serve yet also keep to your own priorities and beliefs.
Difficult path to tread, and one I’d probably be awful at (for the moment). Always a learning curve!
Good post Mick, thought provoking.
Very true Heather… and don’t kid yourself about being awful at it (not even for the moment)… just look at your blog.. you are leading people to experiences in your field of expertise, building a community at your site and growing as you are doing so.
Seems to me you are already setting a fine example of some leadership…. but none of us should ever stop learning we can always get better at what we are doing.
I guess if we’re looking at it that way ‘awful’ was perhaps an overstatement – thanks Mick
I’d meant it more in the ‘ruling the world’ sort of sense when I was referring to the awful… seriously, who’d want that job anyway? Talk about stress.
Good point about learning – figure that if you’re gonna stop doing that you’re gonna stop living. Can’t have one without the other (though you can give it a good ol’ try of course).
Heather, you’re welcome
One of the points of the post is that leaders lead (whether they have formal leadership positions, or they lead because of the examples they set in smaller settings).
Rulers rule from a position of power, they do not neccessarily “lead” particularly not in the sense of servant leadership…a very important distinction.
Yep, don’t worry I hadn’t missed the point of the post lol.
Just happens to be the first thing I think of when thinking ‘benevolent dictator’.
I think that even in terms of servant leadership you still have to lead – just your motivations for doing so are different.
I think leading the way in aything is a good way to go, that said it can often be a lonely path and one fraught with a lot of criticism.
That said we need leaders and we need friends, good post brother
Thanks Ben, I think leadership can be lonely in a command and control type model, but if we are talking about servant leadership it should not be lonely because it is about relationships.
Appreciate the comment.
Thanks for the mention at your site Karen.
{ 2 trackbacks }