The three principles of Servant Leadership I would like to exemplify are; Foresight, Commitment to growth of People and Building community.
- Foresight. Foresight is the Servant Leader’s ability to know the future based on past experiences and present occurrences.
In 2008, the world was shaken by the worst economic downturn since the great depression. This downturn had its epicenter in the United State. Investigations into the economic crisis proved that the rate at which the players on Wall Street and the mortgage companies where behaving in their business conduct which was noticed years prior to the melt down, and the fact that some economic analysts warned vehemently of an impending crisis if the primary and secondary issuance of subprime loans did not stop. Also insider trading on wall street as well as lenient supervision from the government agencies meant to regulate wall street was alarmingly pointed out by a few but ignored. The ability of many to have foresight concerning the erratic behavior of some, if heeded would have save the world and people’s savings amounting to trillions of dollars.
- Commitment to the growth of people. A Servant leader should hold the development and career growth of his people in high regard. In fact Northouse states a servant leaders should place a premium on treating each follower as a unique person with intrinsic value that goes beyond his or her tangible contributions to the organization and commit to helping each follower grow.
I wrote to my leader about 2 months ago when I was in the process of enrolling for this Masters program. In my email to him, I made a hearty request seeking sponsorship for this Masters program from my organization. Given that my income as a pastor isn’t sufficient to pay for my tuition alongside other responsibilities but most importantly given the immense opportunity I would be able resourcefully serve my organization in the future if I got the opportunity to take this program. It was a steep ask because it has never happened in the history of my organization but it got the leadership thinking concerning the need to commit to growing the people who serve the vision of our organization. Since it’s a new request, Its still under review and our leadership is actually proposing an entire policy created around the area of career development. I’m still praying my request for support goes through, so pray for me as well.
- Building community. According to Northouse, servant leadership fosters the development of community. A community is a collection of individuals who have shared Interests and pursuits and feel a sense of unity and relatedness.
I serve a church community of about 2,000 people. About 70% of them are directly under my charge as youth and men’s pastor at my church. Serving them effectively required me to rethink community. I embarked on a leadership selection process to choose around 60 leaders who would help me serve the wider community. I had to build a community of leaders, identify the passions and unique value proposition each leader brought to the table and to ensure each leader is equipped to be able to help me serve the wider community. It has been a tough challenge but very rewarding given that the youth department of our church is perhaps the healthiest and busiest in the entire organization.
The principle that is likely to be the most challenging for me is Foresight.
As a Pastor to the youth, majority of whom are teenagers, the rate at which the global culture of trends is evolving is faster than we can keep up. Since the world is more connected and teenagers are having access to this fast paced trendy world in real time through mobile devices and internet accelerators, serving them in the future is going to be difficult. Right now, almost every year, we have to change approach on some of our methodologies in reaching out to young people because trends have changes and it is taxing. So having foresight in what the future looks like for the teenagers is indeed going to be a challenge for us in the youth ministry and for me as a servant leader serving young people.
The question to close with is;
Since the concept of Servant Leadership finds its roots in the teachings and practices of Jesus, has it really found merit and ground for practice in non-Christian Organizations?
References
Northouse, P. G. Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition. Sage publications,2016. Pages 228-229.