Response to Change Makers ET2 Post Leader

Sea Breeze, in the blog post,  provided some very good insights towards Transformational Servant Leadership (TSL) within the Educational setting.  In particular, I want to respond on the last point regarding Thinking Big Picture.  Sea Breeze appears to suggest because the foundation of TSL originated from the teachings of Jesus, TSL is not likely to be implemented or accepted within the secular educational settings.  I certainly agree the concept of TSL is difficult in practice, as mentioned by Sea Breeze “even born again Christians struggle to emulate Jesus’ humble servant-like attitude all the time”.  However, concur with Layla’s response and I would also challenge Seabreeze’s suggestion of TSL can only be emulated by Christians and it’s only effective in the Christian setting.  The historical fact of Jesus Christ’s ministry on Earth approximately two thousand years ago is the ultimate example of displaying TSL in a non-Christian environment.  The definition of TSL is to engage followers to achieve the organizational purposes by attending to the needs to the followers (Imbenzi et al., 2013, para. 34).  In the biblical scriptures, we can see Jesus doing exactly that.  If what Seabreeze mentioned in the post is true, then there is no hope in any of us.

I believe there are many secular people and organizations already recognized the importance of attending the needs of others and have implemented some form of TSL, even though it may not be called that.  If you read my introduction post, I love coffee! While Starbucks’ coffee is average, in my opinion, I have to agree that Starbucks is a great international coffee company that is non-christian and yet, demonstrates TSL.  Starbucks mission  is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.”  (Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J., 2016, p. 55).  Starbucks’ values also include the following as mentioned in Ungerer et. al. (2016):

• Acting with courage, challenging the status quo and finding new ways to grow our company and each other.
• Being present, connecting with transparency, dignity, and respect.
• We are performance driven, throught the lens of humanity. (p. 55)

From Starbucks’ mission and value statements, we can clearly see they are a company that has implemented TSL in the workplace.   I have known many people that have also worked at a Starbucks and the responses that I received when asked how they enjoying working there, is that the company really values their employees and provide many opportunities to learn and to excel in the workplace.  TSL is a concept that can be practiced in any type of setting and environment, whether its education, health care, or at a food establishment.  The strength of TSL lies in its humanity-focused strategy in order to engage others to achieve common organizational goals.

References:

Imbenzi, G., Williaume, D. & Page, D. (2013). Transformational servant leadership. Unpublished manuscript, Master of Arts in Leadership. Trinity Western University: Langley, Canada.

Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigating strategic possibilities: Strategy formulation and execution practices to flourish.Randburg: KR Publishing