I was struck not only by the writings of W.H. Behren, but also by his story.
A young man who has pursued a career focused on helping others. An educated man, a physician, who, for the time period would be considered privileged, perhaps, superior. Embracing a profession that, as the story outlines, required daily contact with individuals who were self-centered, self-focused, people who were “…unhappy because they look inward instead of outward”. (Watson, 1951) And yet Behren was a man who was humble enough to recognize that his purpose came from serving others and in the center of an environment that consisted of self-focused individuals was able to persist and endure and retain his own outward focus. I am truly inspired.
Whereas the excerpt from Behren’s writings speaks to finding happiness, it also speaks to finding purpose and meaning: “No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellow men”. (Watson, 1951) W.H. Behren’s reflection identifies the only starting point possible in the pursuit of servant leadership as identified by Greenleaf (1970) in Nordhouse, 2016: “[Servant leadership] begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.” (p.226) Any person seeking to be a leader for the sake of power, authority, prestige or selfish ambition will not be happy, for all of these motivations are self-seeking. To seek leadership for the purpose of serving others will bring personal fulfillment and completeness. Having observed the opposite to be true in his practice, Behren was able to articulate the truth that servant leadership not only benefits the recipients, but also the leader.
The relevance of Behren’s writing to my own practice is multi-faceted. First is the reminder to me personally. As a leader in my work environment and as a representative of Christ I would be irresponsible to dismiss the reminder that “… the way to find happiness… is in doing things with and for others.” (Watson, 1951) Second, as a leader in a health care environment it is my role to model a focus that is outside of myself. As I focus on serving our employees they in turn learn to focus on serving their patients. Third, in an era where mental health concerns and issues are more predominant and increasingly a cause for lost time in our workforce, there is the potential to mentor others in changing their focus for their own mental well-being. Fourth, though it is recognized that this statement is a generalization and does not apply to everyone, a new generation of employees is entering the workforce with a strong sense of entitlement and “what’s-in-it-for-me” attitude. Behren’s insights highlight that there is a pressing necessity to attempt to negate these mindsets and attitudes for an individual’s own benefit. Lastly, as I focus on promoting servant leadership in my front line managers they in turn promote servant leadership in their employees. The work by Hwang et al, 2014 provides evidence that this will in turn impact the employee’s perception of their patient’s satisfaction with their care and trust in the healthcare system. Patients and families, the “end users” reap the rewards. Lasting change is created by the actions of one person as proposed in this quote credited to Mother Teresa: “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
The relevance of Behren’s reflections to my personal life is also multi-faceted. I travel to Kenya in June to visit with post-secondary students who would be living on the streets if not for the organization that I am a Board member of. The teenagers in my youth worship team are graduating to the adult worship team and are serving the entire congregation with excellence. These volunteer pursuits outside of my workplace make me happy. When it became necessary to step down from overseeing the adult worship program there was a sense of deep loss because I turned inward and self-focused; I recognize now that I created my own unhappiness. Coming to this awareness will help me from making the same mistake again and equip me to help others avoid the same pitfall.
Behren’s excerpt in Watson, 1951 states: “To find happiness we must seek for it in a focus outside of ourselves…” (p. 13). Where have you found this to be true in your life?
Hwang, HJ et al (2014). The influence of a leader’s servant leadership on emmployee’s perception of customers’ satisfaction with the service and employees’perception of customers’ trust in the service firm: the moderating role of employees’ trust in the leaders, Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 24 (1), 66-76.
Nordhouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Watson, L. E. (1951). Light from Many Lamps. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc.