{"id":267,"date":"2018-11-17T18:50:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-17T18:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/?p=267"},"modified":"2018-11-17T18:50:08","modified_gmt":"2018-11-17T18:50:08","slug":"unit-8-light-from-many-lamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/2018\/11\/17\/unit-8-light-from-many-lamps\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 8 – Light from Many Lamps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frederic Loomis<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The best medicine is to stop thinking about yourself, and start thinking about other people.<\/span><\/p>\n

In reflection on his deathbed, Dr. Frederick Loomis determined that though we may struggle through life and in death, there is little fruit that comes from being obsessed with our own woes. Rather, it is to our benefit and development to \u201cstop thinking about [our]selves, and start thinking about other people. [We] can lighten our load by doing something for someone else\u201d. (Watson, 1951, \u00a0pg. 224). From a leadership perspective, it is best to focus on investing in other people, as this has furthest, enduring impact. Additionally, we are changed as leaders ourselves through the process. We can never go wrong by investing in others. <\/span><\/p>\n

Servant leadership has been defined as the act of a leader meeting others\u2019 needs first so that they grow as persons. It has also been discovered that while serving, leaders themselves are transformed to become healthier, wiser, and freer (Greenleaf 1970, as cited in Northouse 2019, pg. 228). Embracing a servant leadership style releases us and frees us as leaders to really know who we are and to become authentic people. <\/span><\/p>\n

Caldwell and Dixon (2010) define further that in servant leadership love, forgiveness, and trust are three key characteristics in a leadership that that is empowering to employees, giving them freedom to develop self efficacy (pg .91). It seems strange that love and forgiveness should be part of a leadership structure. Trust is understandable, as employees need to trust their leaders, but love and forgiveness? Doesn\u2019t that make a leader vulnerable and is that being too personal? Caldwell and Dixon (2010) discovered that no, indeed it does not. In fact, numerous scholars have shown that it is one of the most powerful acts of leadership. By authentically loving others and giving our lives to them, leaders demonstrate respect as a valued end in and of itself, \u00a0rather than as a \u201cmeans to achieve our desires, our sought after outcomes, or our self gratification\u201d (Erich Fromm, 1956 as cited in Caldwell, C., Dixon, R. 2010).<\/span><\/p>\n

What does \u201clove\u201d really look like in a corporate world? What does it mean to really invest in others? Yes, studies have shown that servant leadership leads to greater follower productivity, and this is often the motivation to adopt this leadership style. However, \u00a0if we are to have respect and love as a means unto itself, we need walk with employees through the<\/span> \u201cmessy unfolding of personal events that impact their performance at work\u201d (Barter, 2018). It means being intentional to focus on the growth and development of others, helping them to discover who they really are, rather than succumb to the pressure of what culture tells them who they should be. And encourage them to pursue their own passions so that when they get to the end of their lives, they know that they, too, invested in others and made a better future for them (Barter, 2018). This is all before focusing on work performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a servant leader, what does this mean for me to focus on others with authentic love to facilitate forgiveness and healing in their lives? First of all, I need to accept accountability for those under my care, particularly young people whose self identity is just forming. To do so, it would be helpful to set up an accountability partner or mentorship that will challenge me in my daily practice in this area (Barter, 2018). Secondly, to support others, I can set up one-to-one meetings with employees to not just focus on task completion, but talk about their personal development and the lessons learned from mistakes. Thirdly, I can set up structures to glean feedback from employees about the transparency in our organization and how they feel valued. Finally, I can set up celebrations of others. These celebrations can focus on task performance, but also acknowledge the personal growth and development of people, in order to encourage them on their journey (Percy, 2018).<\/span><\/p>\n

No matter how successful a career, or how much money one has at the end of his or her life, the biggest heritage one can leave behind are people who will impact the future. As leaders, our first priority is to focus on developing other people, giving them a piece of us to take to the next generation. Through this process, our lives are enriched as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

References:<\/span><\/p>\n

Barter, A. (2018, January 3). <\/span>Servant leadership: Real accountability is investing in people\u2019s lives. <\/span>Talent Culture. <\/span>\u00a0Retrieved from: <\/span>https:\/\/talentculture.com\/servant-leadership-real-accountability<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Caldwell, C., Dixon, R. (2010). Love, forgiveness, and trust: Critical values of the modern leader. <\/span>Journal of Business Ethics<\/span><\/i>. (93)91\u2013101. \u00a0doi: 10.1007\/s10551-009-0184-z. <\/span><\/p>\n

Northouse, P. (2019). <\/span>Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed)<\/span><\/i>. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. <\/span><\/p>\n

Percy, S. (2018, August 2). <\/span>Are you ready to become a servant leader? <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Forbes<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>\u00a0Retrieved from <\/span>https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/sallypercy\/2018\/08\/02\/are-you-ready-to-become-a-servant-leader\/#16688445bc7d<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Watson, L.E. (1951). <\/span>Light from Many Lamps<\/span><\/i>. New York: Simon and Schuster.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frederic Loomis:\u00a0 The best medicine is to stop thinking about yourself, and start thinking about other people. In reflection on his deathbed, Dr. Frederick Loomis determined that though we may struggle through life and in death, there is little fruit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":344,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,38],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-unit-8","tag-light-from-many-lamps","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}