Last year, when I was preparing for a presentation talking about air pollution, I realized that presenting pictures and theories of the polluted environment was not enough. Then I decided to do a research to find out the perspective of the local people. I interviewed more than twenty people, including pregnant women, securities, customers, young generations. Generally, I asked them four questions: Have you ever heard about the water pollution or air pollution in this country or other counties? What kinds of reasons lead to the consequences? How do you think these pollutions will affect people? Could you please recommend some solutions? During this research, I surprisingly found out that this polluted topic, with which I was very familiar, was kind of a new issue for most of them, especially the young generation. I took records of their words and organized them after going back home. The result of this research had greatly changed the content of the solution part of my presentation. Not only was the audience very interested in this research, but also the suggestions gave in the presentation were recognized by all of them. The most significant part for me was that I realized the true world is the perfect combination of both theories and research.
Furthermore, in my experiences, research is an essential tool for servant leadership. I was a mentor in a company and my job was to pass the knowledge and skills required in the work to all the new staff and part of the old staff. I always considered teachers as servant leaders and was behaving this way all the time. In order to make the course timetable perfect for everyone, I decided to change their course arrangement once. Most of the old staff resisted this change at first for thinking that their personal time would be changed as well. I made a survey and did the research to find out the available time of everyone. I also adjusted the arrangement of different courses to make sure everyone was on the right course and right time. With the help of the research, the staff resisting the new timetable found my plan plausible and reconsidered it. In the end, my decision was agreed by all the staff and everyone was delighted with the new arrangement. In my opinion, research played a crucial role in making my decision come true and accepted by other people smoothly.
I always believe that the goal of servant leadership is to serve other people in the best way and to make everyone a better person. To achieve this overarching goal, leaders should possess the capacity and the capability of using different skills and tools. I firmly hold that research is one of them, and I am looking forward to learning more by the end of this course.