To me the three most important principles of servant leadership are listening , foresight and building community
Listening is a learned discipline that involves hearing and being receptive to what others have to say ( Northouse , 2016, p.227) . In this definition the most important component is ‘being receptive’ . I practice listening in my role as a physician everyday . I am also very fortunate to be working with an immediate superior who is a great leader by virtue of his exemplary listening skills and empathy .
Foresight is the ability to anticipate future events and plan accordingly. As per Greenleaf, this comes with ethical responsibilities – “a leader should be held accountable for any failures to anticipate what reasonable could be foreseen and to act on that understanding “. I had a foresight moment today. A patient came in to our clinic with a ‘ cold ‘ . I was the only physician in the office, and being that we are on the verge of flu season, I called an impromptu meeting with our clinic supervisor and put our flu protocols in place, for protection of our patients and staff.
“A community is a collection of individuals who have shared interests and pursuits and feel a sense of unity and relatedness” ( Northouse, 2016, p.229) A good leader is one who inculcates a sense of oneness amongst his followers, so as the collective moves together towards a shared goal . I had a chance to go to my daughters school for a ‘meet the teacher ‘ barbeque event. It was a very well organized event, in collaboration between the teachers and parents. I commend the school leadership in fostering this community , where we are all working towards one goal i.e the education of our children .
The most challenging of these to me is foresight – getting a chance to implement future ideas is not always possible in a hierarchical setting
My question – I think foresight is something that you either have or you don’t . Can foresight be developed / cultivated ?
References
Greenleaf, R.K. ( 1970). The servant as leader. Westfield, IN: Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership Theory and Practice seventh edition. Los Angeles: Sage.
In reply to Simarjit’s post, I think that there are people who are specially gifted to be a visionary, but I believe that it is something that can be developed as well in people who think that they don’t have that gift. There might be other ways, like engaging in an organizational visioning exercise or participating in a planning workshop. I’m sure there are professionals who might be able to help. It might help to a certain degree. I know that there are people who are specially gifted and can see things beyond their time as the lessons of history have shown.
To build on Riggisolinap’s comments and also your own opinions around foresight. I feel that developing other characteristics of servant leadership will lead to a greater capacity to have foresight in situations.
For example, if you develop the ability to have awareness both self and with your peers, you are already showing you can take a step back and look at the bigger pictures of a situation.
The other area I believe would help with foresight is the skill of conceptualization if you deepen your understanding of complex organizational systems then your ability to have vision over the system in the future surely must be advanced?