Light From Many Lamps

Light from many lamps , W. Beran Wolfe

        From my readings of the anthology Light from Many Lamps so far,  I have learnt many valuable life lessons which I will bear in mind during my pursuit of education in leadership.  I , as a student of leadership, don’t know yet what my final style of leadership is going to be ; maybe it will be a mix of different models that I hope to develop and evolve along the way , or maybe it will be variable depending on situations  .  What I do know is that I will always be someone who will seek to work for a bigger good.

To this end I found W. Beran Wolfe’s story very inspiring. First of all , I found it very easy to identify with him in his role as healer, and leader. I fully agree with Dr Wolfe when he states that ‘ no one can be happy in work which is centered entirely about his own person, and deals exclusively with the satisfaction of his own immediate needs’ , and ‘ to find happiness we must seek for it in a focus outside ourselves’. This goes very well along with the model of servant leadership as I understand it in my readings so far . As per Greenleaf ( 1977)  “ a servant leader is someone who ”entrusts his/her authority to staff and helps them achieve a shared vision by developing their full potential “ . I believe for a leader to be successful in leading and influencing, they need to be committed to not just their own work and development , but also to the growth of the organization and the people they work with . Quoting Dr Wolfe again “ for those who seek the larger happiness and the greater effectiveness open to human beings there can be but one philosophy of life, the philosophy of constructive altruism “ .

Since starting my study of leadership , I have learnt and reflected on some very exciting ideas about leadership. I have started extrapolating them to myself and other leaders and followers I come across in my work and personal life. What I do know so far is that altruism is and will be a very important part of my repertoire as a human being , leader and follower. I already practice it at a small scale in my daily work as a physician ; there have been many a times where I have foregone lunch because a patient was late ,  gone back to see a patient at the nursing home at the end of my work day, or called family members in the evening during my off duty hours.  I hope to carry on this spirit in any future roles I take up, and to be able to  inspire my team members to do the same . I hereby close with another quote from Dr Wolfe , “we must seek happiness not as if it were a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow , but among human beings who are living richly and fully the good life” .

References

Greenleaf ,R. ( 1977) . Servant Leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. New York. NY : Paulist Press .

Watson, L.E. ( 1951 ) . Light from Many Lamps . New York: Simon and Schuster.