The following Leadership Considerations are part of a longer reflection that I entered into my journal in November, 2005.
Leadership: A ‘traditional’ definition = ‘leadership is identified with solving problems and the purpose of leadership is finding solutions.’ For me, a counter-cultural approach to leadership is Robert K. Greenleaf’s concept of Servant-leadership. Servant-Leadership is about serving others so they grow and develop in ways that enable them to be ‘healthy’ (Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally & Spiritually) and in ways that enable them to understand problems, polarities, paradoxes and dilemmas and in ways that enable them to engage problems, polarities, paradoxes and dilemmas ‘effectively.’ Leadership, for servant-leaders, is a by-product of the relationship between the leader and the led. The leader also supports the led and also helps hold the led accountable; the led also supports the leader and also helps hold the leader accountable – a movement between I-You-We becomes apparent with the ultimate being the ‘We’ (as in, in the end, WE are responsible). The breadth and depth of the complexity contained in this way is great indeed and thus it is crucial that both the individual (leader or led) and the relationship (leader and led) be attended to in ways that nurture the health of both (PIES, again), in ways that identify and use gifts and talents of both, in ways that identify and respond to the capacities of both that need to be developed or developed more fully. Moreover, to make things complicated and challenging, at times the leader must take on the role of the led and the led must take on the role of the leader.
All of this is complex (an understatement to be sure) and yet, our lives, our work, our organizations, our societies, our environment, and our world continue to become more and more complex and to do so at a faster and faster rate. Interdependence (I-You-We) is crucial and servant-leadership offers one way of moving toward interdependence in ways that are, I believe, inherently moral, ethical and ‘healthy’ (PIES, again).
Within the concept of Servant-Leadership, we are challenged to move from metaphors that are personal (the charismatic leader) to a metaphor that incorporates ‘I-You-We’ – a Community metaphor. We are also challenged to move from our current cultural metaphors of ‘banking, war-sports, mechanical’ to metaphors that are ‘organic’ (i.e. that are truly developmental in nature). For example, not only must we move toward integrating a Community metaphor, we must move toward being ‘communities of responsibility.’ The organizational and societal challenges we face require people to become more and more connected, require people to become more and more interdependent, and require people to develop powerful learning-working relationships. Greater complexity engenders greater threats and so communities provide those within the community a safe-haven to search, to learn, and to develop. This safe-haven also provides respite from the raging whitewaters of change that continue to wash over us tsunami-like and that continue to drown us with their tsunami-like intensity.
Given all of this, consider that servant-leaders are committed to capacity-development – in themselves and in others. Here are a few of the capacities I believe they need to develop:
- capacity to be present
- capacity to be attentive
- capacity to help make meaning (e.g., the work one does must, in its self be meaningful)
- capacity for healthy development (PIES)
- capacity for being trustworthy and for helping to build trust
- capacity for integrity
- capacity for polarities and paradoxes (to understand and to embrace)
- capacity for dilemmas – right vs. right & harm vs. harm dilemmas (to understand, to dissolve, to accept, to embrace, to choose)
- capacity to live within both faithfulness and effectiveness
- capacity for commitment
- capacity for high achievement (more than competition)
- capacity for metaphor – understanding and development (Personal-Relational-Organizational-Societal-Global) levels
- capacity to be a continual learner (searcher, seeker, beginner)
Searcher-Seeker 