Abstract: This essay explores into the servant nature
of leadership. Looking through the contemporary literatures on the topic
especially through the works of Robert K. Greenleaf who coined the term
“servant-leadership”, whereby the leader strives “to make sure that other
people’s highest priority needs are being served,” we see descriptions on the characteristics
of servant leaders as being a person of character who puts people first and is
commitment to the growth of people. The servant leader is also a skilled
communicator and compassionate collaborator who display strong listening
skills, empathy, and power of persuasion. Furthermore, the servant leader is a
systems thinker with a high degree of awareness, equipped with foresight and
the ability to conceptualise a vision and contribute to building the community.
Then looking through the scriptures on the life and ministry of Jesus, we see
that he is a servant for all, helping the poor and the outcast, with love and
mercy, in the face of rejection, suffering and persecution. Furthermore Jesus needed a team, however flawed the team members
happened to be, and these disciples left behind their possessions to serve in
this movement and became great apostolic leaders. Finally I applied these
insights to my vocation as a doctor and integrated them with the Hippocratic
Oath to construct my own career mission’s statement.
This essay explores into the servant nature
of leadership. First I will gain some understanding about the servant nature of
leadership through some contemporary literatures on the topic and summarise what
I understand. I will then examinethe scriptures on the life and ministry of
Jesus to find support for these points. Finally, I will apply these insights to
my particular vocation.
In 1970, retired AT&T executive Robert
K. Greenleaf coined the term “servant-leadership” to describe a kind of
leadership that he felt was largely missing from organisations.
He writes, “The great leader is seen as servant first,”
and that the “servant-leader” strives “to make sure that other people’s highest
priority needs are being served.”
It was Greenleaf’s belief that leadership ought to be based on serving the
needs of others and on helping those who are served to become “healthier,
wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants.”
Since then, more writings have appeared on
the topic of servant leadership. Spears
took consideration of Greenleaf’s original writings and summarised ten
characteristics of servant leaders: 1) Good at listening, which encompasses
getting in touch with one’s own inner voice, seeking to understand what one’s
body, spirit and mind are communicating. 2) Having empathy, striving to
understand and empathise with others. 3) Healing, of one’s self and one’s
relationship to others. Many people have broken spirits and have suffered from
a variety of emotional hurts. Servant-leaders recognise that they have an
opportunity to “help make whole” those with whom they come in contact. 4)
Making a commitment to foster awareness. 5) Reliance on persuasion, rather than
one’s positional authority, in making decisions within an organisation. 6) The
ability to look at a problem from a conceptualising perspective, which means
that one must think beyond day-to-day realities, and nurture their abilities to
“dream great dreams.”
7) Having foresight, therefore having the intuitive mind to understand the
lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely consequence
of a decision for the future. 8) Stewardship: Peter Block has defined this as
“holding something in trust for another.” 9) Commitment to the growth of people,
whereby people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contributions as
workers. As such, the servant-leader is deeply committed to the growth of each
and every individual within his or her institution.
10) Building community: The servant-leader senses that much has been lost in
recent human history as a result of the shift from local communities to large
institutions as the primary shaper of human lives. This awareness causes the
servant-leader to seek to identify some means for building community among
those who work within a given institution.
Sipe
and Frick summarised “seven pillars” of the servant leader,
some of which are similar to Spears, such as 1)being a skilled communicator
(good listener, good persuader, display empathy), and 2) having foresight. Other
characteristics include 3) being a person who puts people first through helping
others meet their highest priority development needs. Displays a servant’s
heart, is mentor-minded, and shows care and concern. 4) A compassionate
collaborator who strengthens relationships, supports diversity, and greats a
sense of belonging. Expresses appreciation, builds teams and communities, and
negotiates conflict. 5) A person of character who makes insightful, ethical,
and principle-centred decisions. In fact, many business experts believe that
leaders who are seen as persons of character are more likely to generate
loyalty, creativity and productivity among company employees. 6) Systems
thinking, which often involves moving from observing events or data, to
identifying patterns of behaviour over time, to surfacing the underlying
structures that drive those events and patterns. By understanding and changing
structures that are not serving us well (including our mental models and
perceptions), we can expand the choices available to us and create more
satisfying, long-term solutions to chronic problems. 7) One
who leads with moral authority: Worthy of respect, inspires trust and
confidence, and establishes quality standards for performance. Accepts and
delegates responsibility, shares power and control, and creates a culture of
accountability.
In summary, a servant leader in
contemporary literature is a person of character who puts people first and is
commitment to the growth of people. The servant leader is also a skilled
communicator and compassionate collaborator who display strong listening
skills, empathy, and power of persuasion. Furthermore, the servant leader is a
systems thinker with a high degree of awareness, equipped with foresight and
the ability to conceptualise a vision and contribute to building the community.
Whilst the points
mentioned in the literatures above are quite practical,
the authors did not quote directly from the scriptures. Agosto
takes a different approach in that he backs each of his points with scripture,
and summarises that first, attention to the poor is the fundamental quality of
gospel leadership. Second, candidates for gospel leadership include all groups,
especially the poor and outcast. Third, the gospel record emphasises the
sacrifice and service involved in gospel leadership. The gospels do not hide
the shortcomings and failures of disciples in their early exercise of gospel
leadership. The gospels also teach that gospel leaders cannot be “lone
rangers.” Even Jesus needed a team, however flawed the team members happened to
be. The egalitarian nature of gospel leadership in the early Jesus movement is
still evident in gospel record. People from all walks of life, especially those
least expected from the bottom of Roman imperial society, including the poor
and women, join the movement and even exercise leadership in it.
Looking through the scriptures on the life
and ministry of Jesus, we see a call for role reversal in leadership. “Whoever
wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). This is
a call of Jesus to the disciples about the reversal of leadership roles that is
to be expected in the reign of God that Jesus proclaims. The least become the
greatest; greatness will entail sacrifice and service.
This was a foreign concept in the Greco-Roman world, which functioned in a climate with the
“monopolizing of leadership by a narrow circle, generation after generation…”
This narrow circle kept their leadership intact by means of an informal, but
pervasive system of social relations known as patronage.
When disciples James and John (Mark 10:35-37) asked
Jesus to grant them a seat left and right of Jesus, Jesus clarifies that
assigning hierarchy in the kingdom will not be his doing (Mark 10:40) and that
the disciples should not want leadership in the order of the Empire that
oppresses them, but rather be willing to serve the people and in that way
become “great” (Mark 10:42-44). “For the Son of Man came not to be served but
to serve, and give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Servant leadership
does not entail sitting on a throne. Rather, servant leadership becomes the
lesson that the disciples must learn, both the disciples of Jesus and the
disciples and readers of Mark’s gospel.
An important leadership quality practiced by John in baptising Jesus was that
of humility and preparing the way for another.
The ministry of John the Baptist included a major word of protest against the
established leadership of Galilee and Judea, including the priestly aristocracy
in Jerusalem. Jesus followed in John’s footsteps and also confronted the
established leaders of the day.
Both John and Jesus did so out of a conviction that leaders, both Roman and
Jewish, had failed the oppressed masses of Israel’s countryside.
Furthermore, the synoptic gospels
consistently include one group in particular among those to whom Jesus focused
his attention: the poor and the outcast, those suffering the most, those to
whom nobody, not even the established political and religious leaders who could
help, pays attention.
In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, the inclusion of several “disreputable” women,
including Tamar, Rahab, and “the wife of Uriah” demonstrates that, at an early
point in this gospel, that outsiders, including Gentile women like these, were
included among the target audience for the ministry of Jesus (Matthew 1:3, 5,
6).
Jesus identified with those who suffer, and, therefore, according to the
gospels, became a great leader. “And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to
one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, truly I tell you, none of
these will lose their reward” (Matthew 10:42). Thus, the “little ones” were the
target of Jesus’ message and ministry. It should be the same for those who will
follow him. Jesus
creates around him a movement, “a community of the marginalised and
disenfranchised.”
Tax collectors, as well as the economically poor, represent social outcasts
that must be brought into the “big tent” Jesus is creating for his movement.
In Luke 18:9-14, the story tells about a self-justifying Pharisee and a
loathsome tax collector, both praying in the temple. The former thanked God for
his exalted status. The latter prayed for forgiveness of his sins. For Jesus
and the author of Luke’s gospel, the exalted will be humbled, and the humble
will be exalted.
From the parable of the “rich young ruler” (Mark 10:17-22), it can be
seen that leaders must be willing to leave behind their possessions, if need
be, to serve in this movement, especially because it is an itinerant movement.
Possessions could otherwise hold one down.Jesus challenges the rich young
ruler’s understanding of the commandments and the appropriate use of his wealth
in Mark 10:21. The young rich ruler does not understand the connection between
“inheriting the kingdom of God” and paying attention to the poorest of the poor
in his society. His potential for gospel leadership has thus been thwarted.
A heart of love and mercy is also seen in
Jesus’ ministry. Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount,” is almost universally
accepted today as the values of the kingdom for all followers of Jesus. The
“beatitudes” describes that the “poor,” the grieving, the “meek,” and those
who hunger must be the focal point of the ministry. Disciples must, therefore,
be “merciful,” “pure of heart,” and “peacemakers” in the midst of the violent
world of the Roman Empire. Such attitudes might bring persecution upon them,
but God and God’s reign would prevail.
Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and Sadducees as “You brood of vipers!” (Matthew
3:7). According to Jesus, they forget the “spirit” of the law: reconciliation,
faithfulness, integrity, nonretaliation, and love even for one’s enemies
(Matthew 5:21-47). Established leaders have also failed to practice authentic
piety. Piety in such spiritual exercises as almsgiving, prayer, and fasting
should be private, not public affairs.
Jesus challenged the elite temple leadership saying “I desire mercy and not
sacrifice”, and demonstrates this new kind of authority by healing a man with a
withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:7-13) and declared, “How
much more valuable is a human being than a sheep!”
In Matthew 8:8-10, even a Roman centurion understand the nature of leadership
as taking care of the leadership as taking care of the weaker ones among us. According
to Matthew, Jesus had found no such understanding among the traditional leaders
of Israel.
Jesus urges the elite leadership of the people that they should not just invite
to dinner people from their own socioeconomic level. Rather, “invite the poor,
the crippled, the lame and the blind,” precisely those who “cannot repay you” (Matthew
14:12-14). Jesus implies that although it is easier to be a leader among one’s
own kind, such is not the mark of a true, gospel leader.
Furthermore, Jesus experienced rejection, suffering
and persecution. John 1:10-11 tells is that Jesus “was in the world, and the
world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to
what was his own, and his own people did not accept him”. Unrequited love might
be the most painful of all human experiences. To love someone and not be loved
in return is a deep hurt, an excruciating ache. God experienced the pain of
unrequited love. Jesus
said “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s
friends” (John 15:13).
And indeed he laid his life down for the whole of humanity. Self-sacrifice is
the highest act. John 12:24 tells us, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel
of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it
dies, it produces many seeds”. The grain of wheat must die in order to give
life.
Jesus assumed and healed our human condition. In the crucifixion, Jesus subjected
himself to death, and in so doing lifted the whole world to himself: “And I,
when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John
12:32).
Matthew adds a warning about coming persecutions for those who would be
faithful (10:17-25). Jesus affirms that he sends the disciples “like sheep into
the midst of wolves.” Therefore, they ought to “be wise as serpents and
innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Suffering and persecution at the hands of
“governors and kings,” as well as religious leaders (10:17-18) will come; but
wisdom and courage must prevail. They must endure to the end.
Finally, the gospels also teach that gospel
leaders cannot be “lone rangers.” Jesus does a second commissioning of seventy
disciples (Luke 10:1-16).
These passages depicts some important aspects of gospel leadership, including
the need for an initial core group of leaders that must expanding into greater
numbers because the need is great. The opposition from powerful forces,
including established leadership, will also be great, but ultimately these
passages show that the powerless will be vindicated as more and more of the
commissioned respond to their needs even in the face of opposition and
rejection.
In summary, based on insights from the
scriptures on the life and ministry of Jesus, a servant-leader is one who is a
servant for all, helping the poor and the outcast, willing to leave behind
their possessions to serve in this movement, having a heart of love and mercy, being
prepared to face rejection, suffering and persecution, and to be able to work
in a team for the cause of God. Next, I will examine practical ways of incorporating
these insights into my vocation as a medical doctor. Greenleaf described that
servant-leadership begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve”. Jeffries,
the author of “The Heart of Leadership: How to Inspire, Encourage and Motivate
People to Follow You” often wondered where this feeling comes from and
concluded that it comes to us as a calling and often manifests itself in our
work.
Indeed, Kerridge, Lowe and McPhee
describes the word ‘professionalism’ as having more than one meaning and notes
that dictionaries define a profession as a ‘calling’, carrying the connotation
that health professionals are engaged in occupations that have a ‘higher aim’.
This aim is generally said to be the welfare of others. I have this feeling for
the people I serve in my vocation as a doctor so I believe career missions is
my calling in life. And indeed, health care itself is a service, an ennobling
cause, considered a ministry to many, and a spiritual practice to some.
Jeffries
adds that these days, more and more organisation executives are crafting their
mission statements, so when she work with organisations on their mission, they
are compelled to discuss how to bring the organisational mission and the
personal mission of the people who work there in alignment. Practically, I
think it is important for me to look at the Hippocratic Oath when I work out my
vocational mission statement. First, there is the principle of non-maleficence,
which is to use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and
judgement, but never use it to injure or wrong them.
The second is the principle of beneficence, or altruism, which is to use
treatment for the benefit of the sick, according to my ability and judgment.
In recent times, what has become known as ‘ethics of care’ has been developed
from within nursing ethics and contemporary feminist philosophy had a major
impact on the concepts of health care and professional roles. The importance of
the ‘ethics of care’ is that they have helped refocus our attention on the
importance of caring, relationships, emotion, tolerance and humanity and
returned beneficence to a central place in bioethics.
The third is the principle of justice, which refers to a more general sense of
fairness, whereby all persons, irrespective of wealth, power, status, religion
or affiliation, are offered the maximum of proper service which accords with
their medical and other health needs.
Fourthly, the principle of autonomy incurs an obligation not to constrain
unnecessarily the autonomous actions of others. It is a respect for persons,
promoting the view that the individual is both responsible for, and the
rightful determiner of, his or her own life.
Taking the above into consideration, I
would construct my mission statement as follows: Building a life-long
relationship with our patients, treating each
one as a whole person, taking into account not only the physical factors, but socially
and psychologically as well. With a sound grasp of professional ethics, working together with the patient as a team to
come up with an approach so that the patient can autonomusly make a well informed
decision, producing the best realistic outcome. The welfare of
the patients takes precedence over our financial gains, even when there is a
risk of business failure. Our clinic provides bulk billing service so that all
people can access healthcare irrespective of wealth, power, status, religion or
affiliation.
Furthermore,
Greenleaf
believe that any given group will have multiple leaders who serve different
roles, such as mediator, consensus finder, critic, meliorator, keeper of
conscience, process watcher, and titular head. After all, even Jesus needed a
team, however flawed the team members happened to be. In
fact, Cole
observes that in today’s ‘information age’, everyone has information and the
hierarchical model is collapsing. Organisations are becoming more ‘democratic’
so I believe each person in the work place should be treated as leaders with
different roles and work together respectfully as a team towards a common goal,
which is to serve in the best interests of our patients. My vision for my workplace would be a professional team of
excellence which aims to
constantly keep up to date with current knowledge and employ empathetic
communication skills in order to provide quality service to assist patients so that their self-esteem is renewed, with a sense of invigoration and
increased motivation to live a wholesome balanced life.
Another servant leadership role I can
consider in my vocation is to exert positive influence over the next generation
of doctors through teaching medical students, assisting them through creating
an environment for personal growth, so that they rise to their potential and
beyond.
Lore
believes that when we try to “transform our corporate culture… we plant the
seeds of value-based action.” So if I set a good example for the medical
students, I can also contribute to the transformation of the culture of my
vocational field. To exert such influence, living a spiritual life is critical.
Finally, if some time in the future, I experience a clear calling to join
disaster relief medical missions from organisations such as Samaritan’s Purse,
I may have to leave behind my possessions to serve in this movement, and be
prepared to face suffering and persecution, for the cause of God.
And in fact, some people, like Jeremiah, could be called by God into a ministry
where everything he did failed.
Or even the ministry of Nehemiah and Ezra, where the building of the walls of
the city and the building of the wall of the law failed to change the human heart.
Nevertheless, Nehemiah persists in the work of building, reforming, and praying
to the end. And so should I, when I encounter hardship or failure in ministry,
as it is better to be a failure in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to
be a success in a cause that will ultimately fail.
Bibliography:
Agosto, Efrain. Servant leadership: Jesus & Paul. St. Louis: Chalice Press,
2005.
Briggs, J. R. Fail: Finding
Hope and Grace in the Midst of Ministry Failure. Downers Grove:
InterVarsity Press, 2014.
Cole, Kris. Management: theory and practice. Frenches Forrest: Pearson
Australia, 2013.
Crossan, John Dominic. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. San Francisco: Harper San
Francisco, 1994.
Dempster, S. G., “The Place of Nehemiah in
the Canon of Scripture: Wise Builder”, Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 9
(2005), 38-50.
Goffee, Rob and Jones, Gareth. “Managing
Authenticity.” Harvard Business Review,
83 (2005): 90.
Greenleaf, Robert K. The Servant as Leader. Indianapolis: The Robert Greenleaf Centre
for Servant Leadership, 1970.
Greenleaf, Robert K. The Institution as Servant. Indianapolis: Robert Greenleaf Centre
for Servant Leadership, 1972.
Greenleaf, Robert K. Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and
Greatness. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1991.
Greenleaf, Robert K. The Power of Servant Leadership. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler
Publishers, 1998.
Jeffries, Elizabeth. “Work as a Calling.”
In Insights on Leadership, edited by
Larry C.Spears, 29-37. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1998.
Kerridge, Ian, Lowe, Michael, and McPhee,
John. Ethics and Law for the Health
Professions. Katoomba: Social Science Press, 1998.
Kouzes, James M., and Posner, Barry Z. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 2002.
Leverage Networks, “Leverage Networks, a
hub for all things systems.” Accessed May 3, 2015. https://www.leveragenetworks.com
Lincoln, Abraham. “Abraham Lincoln Quotes.”
International Business Times, Februrary
12, 2014. Accessed May 18, 2015. http://www.ibtimes.com/abraham-lincoln-quotes-25-inspirational-sayings-celebrate-presidents-205th-birthday-1554923
Lore, John S. “Servant-Leadership in a
Christian Organization: The Sisters of St. Joseph Health System.” In Insights on Leadership, edited by Larry
C.Spears, 297-307. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1998.
MacMullen, Ramsay. Roman Social Relations: 50 BC to AD 284. London: Yale University
Press, 1974.
Melrose, Ken. “Putting Servant-Leadership
into Practice.” In Insights on Leadership,
edited by Larry C.Spears, 279-296. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1998.
Mitchell, Kenneth R., Kerridge, Ian H., and
Lovat, Terence J. Bioethics and Clinical
Ethics for Health Care Professionals. Katoomba: Social Science Press, 1999.
Olsen, David C. and Devor, Nancy G. Saying No to Say Yes: Everyday Boundaries
and Pastoral Excellence. Lanham: Rowman& Littlefield, 2015.
Sipe, James W., and Frick, Don M. Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership:
Practicing the Wisdom of Leading by Serving. New York: Paulist Press, 2009.
Smith, James Bryan.The Good and Beautiful God. London:
Hodder and Stoughton, 2010.
Theissen, Gerd. Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity. Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1978.
Wang, Ying-fan Yvonne. Dr Yvonne Wang’s Blabberings.
Last modified May 28, 2015. http://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com.au.
