Leadership Essentials
Listening - The Foundation
Perspective
Diversity
Community
Empathy
Compassion
Forgiveness
Foresight
Humility
Shared Decision Making
In his seventeen years as CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, Larry Spears conducted an exhaustive content analysis of Robert Greenleaf's work. In his review, Spears identified a number of major characteristics associated with servant-leadership including listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building community. Spears identified "listening" as the foundation for all the other characteristics. Spears, as quoted by Ferch (2012), states:
Leaders have traditionally been valued for their communication and decision-making skills. Although these are also important skills for the servant leader, they need to be reinforced by a deep commitment to listening intently to others. The servant leader needs to identify the will of a group and helps to clarify that will. He or she listens receptively to what is being said and unsaid. Listening also encompasses hearing one’s own inner voice. Listening, coupled with periods of reflection, is essential to the growth and well-being of the servant leader (p. 130).
Each of us approaches and experiences life from our own unique perspective, we view the world through our own unique lens. Our perspective is shaped by our experiences, our education, our values and beliefs, our own unique personality. As Dr. Michael Carey (2012) points out in his essay Heraclitean Fire: Journeying on the Path of Leadership, as soon as we meet another individual, we become conscious that we are different from them in some fundamental ways (p. 6). Increasing diversity and complexity in today's intertwined world calls for a synthesis of perspectives, a progression of emotional, intellectual and spiritual thought that moves away from self-embeddedness in one frame of reference towards a more holistic maturity of mind, heart and soul. Scharmer and Kaufer (2013), in their Leading from the Emerging Future, remind us that leaders, as decision makers, need to be more open, more attentive, more adaptive, requiring a willingness to let go of deeply held preconceived notions, to stop downloading from the past, and to embrace a view of the whole system from the perspective of multiple participants, specifically those who are the most marginalized (p. 12). To broaden our perspective requires that we maintain an open mind, an open heart, and an open will. When we open ourselves up to different perspectives, we increase the opportunity for shared learning and for significant innovation to occur. Our task as servant-leaders is to embrace multiple perspectives to promote integrated thinking and self-transcendence. One of the keys to great leadership is the ability to transcend any one lens, any one perspective, keeping in mind that there is always a view that is "more holistic than that which one presently possesses - that one can, in fact, know more and know it in a deeper way (Carey, 2012, p. 16).
We live in a rapidly changing, increasingly diverse society. As diversity increases, interactions with diverse others will become more frequent. People will encounter others in their daily lives who are from a different national origin, a different racial group, a different gender, socio-economic class, age, or sexual orientation. In his essay Heraclitean Fire: Journeying on the Path of Leadership, Dr. Michael Carey (2012) states that the challenge of leadership today is not the fact that different people have different ways of making sense of the world around them, but rather the extent to which a given leader is constrained by his or her way of making sense (Carey, 2012, p. 8). As leaders, opening ourselves up to increasing diversity and diverse viewpoints increases knowledge sharing and provides for a variety of perspectives and approaches to problem solving. Increased diversity can lead to greater tolerance and may reduce negative stereotypes and perceptions of diverse others (Laurence, 2011). Creativity, in general, may be enhanced by greater diversity (Putnam, 2007). Diversity may lead to increased economic growth (Putnam, 2007), enhanced information processing (Mannix & Neale, 2005), deeper analysis and more synergistic outcomes, creating shifts in strategy, power and community priorities. Today's leaders are well-advised to be aware of, and capitalize on the increasing diversity to increase trust, tolerance, and to renew civic life for the benefit of society.
Robert K. Greenleaf (1970) in his The Servant as Leader essay said that " All that is needed to rebuild community as a viable life form for large numbers of people is for enough servant-leaders to show the way, not by mass movements, but by each servant-leader demonstrating his or her unlimited liability for a quite specific community-related group" (p. 22). Peter Block, in his book Community: The Structure of Belonging (2008), acknowledges our interdependence and reminds us that we each have a desire to create a structure of belonging (p. 1). Servant-leaders have the responsibility to create community where each individual experiences connectivity to those around them and acknowledges that the safety and success of all is dependent upon the success of others (Block, 2008, p. 5). Servant-leaders understand that it is only when we are connected through community and each of us cares for the well-being of the whole that a civil and democratic society is created (Block, 2008, p. 9). It is through the development of strong personal relationships, valuing the differences of others, and fostering collaboration among diverse parties that servant-leaders are able to develop community. The growth and well-being of the individual and the growth and well-being of the community are mutually beneficial. The whole purpose of servant-leadership is to create a more serving, caring society. As Horsman (2014) explains, "As a profoundly relational choice serving-first is focused toward creating greater meaning and fulfillment, greater relational engagement, greater personal, group, organization, community transformation—in short greater personal and general human flourishing" (p. 11). Building and nurturing community benefits the servant and the served for the good of society.
In his book To Know As We Are Known: A Spirituality of Education, Parker Palmer argues that restricting the use of the instruments of our cognition negatively affects our ability to fully understand, "narrowing and impoverishing reality" (p. 52). Quoting E. F. Schumacher, he states "Knowing demands the organ to be fitted to the object," said Plotinus... Nothing can be known without there being an appropriate "instrument" in the makeup of the knower. This is the great truth of adequatio... the understanding of the knower must be adequate to the thing to be known... "Knowledge [said Thomas Aquinas] comes about insofar as the object known is within the knower" (p. 51). Empathy, an essential characteristic of servant-leadership, is the compassionate ability "to see life through the eyes of another" (Ferch, 2012, p. 140). A servant-leader, to be successful in their service, must practice empathic listening. As Ferch (2012) states: "the empathic listener sees the heart of the other and values the heart of the other" (p. 140). In his "Empathy Lectio," Dr. Michael Carey (n.d.) states that empathy is not a linear, step-by-step process, but rather a "continual spiral of deeper awareness of self and other" (pp. 1-2). Carey (n.d.) suggests that this spiral process involves purposeful deep listening, which leads to a deeper, interior understanding, and the sincere validation of the other. This process further strengthens trust, care, and understanding, strengthening relationships and communities, which are elemental responsibilities of servant-leaders.
In their quest to create a more serving, caring society, servant-leaders embrace a moral intelligence which includes a number of critical universal principles, including compassion. Compassion involves accepting the responsibility to serve others - to actively care for others and to support them in their endeavor to achieve self-actualization. When Robert L. Greenleaf first introduced his philosophy of servant-leadership in the 1970’s, his work included what has come to be called the “best test” for servant-leadership. When introducing his “best test,” Greenleaf asserted that the desire to serve begins with a “natural feeling.” Greenleaf’s “natural feeling” to serve others can, in many ways, be closely compared to the topic of compassionate love. In her work, Underwood (2009) examined the concept of compassionate love, described as a particular kind of love that is centered on the good of the other, a caring love that carries with it the weight of significance and a nourishing quality. It is possible that the roots of Greenleaf’s “natural feeling” can be found within the expression of compassionate, other-centered love as explored by Underwood and others. Compassionate caregiving may be seen as closely related to the art and practice of servant-leadership, and the various outcomes of personal growth, health, wisdom, freedom, and autonomy, as expressed in Greenleaf’s “Best Test for Servant Leadership.” Compassionate acts also tend to invite reciprocation (Horsman, 2013). In compassionate acts, we not only communicate our respect for others, but we also create an environment that fosters reciprocal acts of compassion. A morally intelligent leader is a compassionate leader (Horsman, 2013, pp. 13-14).
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is oft quoted as saying “when we love the oppressor, we bring about not only our own salvation, but the salvation of the oppressor” (Ferch, 2012, p. 13). As Ferch points out, “servant leadership evokes love, and love evokes forgiveness” (p. 158). Love for our fellow human beings is a part of our responsibleness. Leadership, character, and agape love are in many ways synonymous. Just as listening is identified by Spears in Ferch (2012) as the source of servant-leadership characteristics, love is identified by the Apostle Paul as the source of many other characteristics which are critical to healthy relationships, including patience, kindness, humility, respectfulness, selflessness, forgiveness, honesty and commitment. Love is a transcendent reality which servant-leaders can engage, and through love, be transformed and transform the lives of others. Love is found on the edges of an expanded humanity which reaches out in service to others. Love, the willpower to love, to make the right choices to serve in the best interests of all is a deep healing process for the self and for others. Forgiving someone can be seen as an act of compassionate love, an act which must be practiced regularly for the benefit of relationships and of society. As Spears points out in his Forward to Forgiveness and Power in the Age of Atrocity, Robert K. Greenleaf expressed a hope for a “justice that restores us to one another through acceptance, forgiveness and love” (Ferch, 2012, xvii). In Greenleaf’s (1970) own words, “We have known this for a long time in the family. For a family to be a family, no one can ever be rejected (p. 10). This love, Spears continues, requires collective and personal responsibility. The responsibility of a servant-leader includes the intentional act of forgiveness as a method of healing for others and for the self in a world that desperately needs it.
Robert K. Greenleaf considered foresight to be the central ethic of leadership. Greenleaf's claim implies that if foresight is not happening, leadership is not occurring (as cited in Horsman, 2015). Matesi (2013), citing Greenleaf’s servant leadership framework, stresses the importance of the “conceptualizing power of leaders” in which foresight is recognized as “the only genuine ‘lead’ that a leader has” (p. 3). As leaders, great visionaries must step out in front and show the way. To do this, the leader must be visionary, but also be capable of identifying a pathway into the future. If the pathway does not exist, then they must create the necessary path using imagination, intellection, and insight. According to Horsman (2015), Greenleaf’s descriptions of prophets and seekers are similar to what Leavitt (1986) described as pathfinding. Pathfinding-foresight is about learning from the future as it emerges before us (Horsman, 2015, p. 2), which leads to planning, which is an important part of any organizational decision-making process. Great visionaries have developed Pathfinding-foresight by developing awareness, being attentive, listening, perceiving, feeling, and sensing in such a way that they become acutely present in the moment. To do this, visionaries are able to open their mind, their heart, and their will, suspending the voice of judgement, cynicism and fear to allow new things to emerge (Scharmer and Kaufer, 2013, p. 23). By opening themselves up to the possibilities, and blocking the negative voices, visionary leaders are capable of making sense of sensory data in such a way that they are able to integrate new insights and new ways of understanding that allow the future to emerge before them in a conscious way. In this way, the visionary leader is more capable of anticipating the needs of the world around them and assume the responsibility to create something new and introduce it to the world (Horsman, 2015, p. 9).
In his essay, an Introduction to Servant-Leadership, Dr. John Horsman (2014) reminds the reader that servant-leadership is about "authenticity and integrity, a more expansive relational perspective, and principally humility” (p. 3). Humility opens us up, it allows us to be more authentic, more available to relationship. Humility is often-times equated with weakness. The servant-leader however knows that there is strength in authenticity and that power for the servant-leader emerges from being transparent in regard to faults and weaknesses as well as strengths. As Ferch points out in Forgiveness and Power in the Age of Atrocity (2012), humbleness of spirit can lead to strength in relationship and collective understanding (p. 24). As servant-leaders seek to build up trust, to strengthen relationships, they must also strengthen their own self-awareness, being careful to be honest with the self in regard to their own capabilities and importance. If we, as servant-leaders, are blind to the limits of our own competence our overconfidence can lead to insensitivity and poor judgement. Kouzes and Posner (2011) remind us that self-honesty, the discovery of self and self-knowledge are critical to building leader credibility (p. 189). As we are faced with increasing diversity in our everyday lives, the need for dialogue to facilitate meaningful progress has become increasingly important. As Paulo Freire in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2012) so eloquently states, dialogue cannot exist without humility: "The naming of the world, through which people constantly recreate that world, cannot be an act of arrogance. Dialogue, as the encounter of those addressed to the common task of learning and acting, is broken if the parties (or one of them) lack humility" (p. 90). And again, Freire reminds us that humility is essential to great leadership:
“Someone who cannot acknowledge himself to be as mortal as everyone else still has a long way to go before he can reach the point of encounter. At the point of encounter there are neither utter ignoramuses nor perfect sages; there are only people who are attempting, together, to learn more than they now know" (p. 90).
Servant-leadership, with its commitment to the growth of people, advocates a group oriented approach to decision making. Such an approach leads to the professional and personal development of the individual by acknowledging the ideas and suggestions of all those involved and strengthens the organization. Robert Greenleaf felt that involving more people in the decision making process would result in a higher level of quality decisions within the organization, the leader would have a reduced level of stress as more emphasis was placed on shared decision making, that there would be an increase in group ownership, and those who were involved in the decision making process would grow in a way that might otherwise have not been possible, fulfilling some of the requirements of Greenleaf's "Best Test for Servant Leadership" (Ferch, Spears , McFarland & Carey (eds) 2015, p. 92). Good decision making involves collaborative consultation with the followership (Ferch, Spears , McFarland & Carey (eds) 2015, p. 186).
References
Block, P. (2008). Community: The structure of belonging. San Francisco,CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Carey, M. (n.d.). Empathy lectio. Spokane, WA: Gonzaga University.
Carey, M. (2012). Heraclitean fire: Journeying on the path of leadership. Spokane, WA: Gonzaga University.
Ferch, S. (2012). Forgiveness and power in the age of atrocity: Servant leadership as a way of life. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Ferch, S.R., Spears, L., McFarland, M., & Carey, M. (2015). Conversations on servant-leadership: Insights on human courage in life and work. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Greenleaf, R. (1970/1991). The Servant as Leader. Indianapolis, IN: The Robert K Greenleaf Center.
Horsman, J. (2013). Foundations of servant-leadership: Listening and communication issues. Spokane, WA: School of Professional Studies, Gonzaga University.
Horsman, J. (2014). Foundations of servant leadership: Introduction to servant-leadership. Spokane, WA: School of Professional Studies, Gonzaga University.
Horsman, J. (2015). Chapter two: Evolving pathfinding-foresight. Spokane, WA: School of Professional Studies, Gonzaga University.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2011). Credibility: How leaders gain and lose it, why people demand it. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Laurence, J. (2011). The effect of ethnic diversity and community disadvantage on social cohesion: A multi-level analysis of social capital and interethnic relations in UK communities. European Sociological Review, 27(1): 70-89. 10.1093/esr/jcp057
Mannix, E., Neale, M. (2005). What differences make a difference? The promise and reality of diverse teams in organizations. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 31-55.
Matesi, L. (2013). The significance of foresight in vision and narrative leadership. Unpublished article. University of Wisconsin, U.S.
Palmer, P. J. (1993) To know as we are known: A spirituality of education. San Francisco, CA: Harper.
Putnam, R. D. (2007), E pluribus unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-first century. The 2006 Johan Skytte prize lecture. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30: 137–174. 10.1111/j.1467-9477.2007.00176.x
Scharmer, C. O. & Kaufer K. (2013). Leading from the emerging future: From ego-system to eco-system economies-applying Theory U to transforming business, society, and self. San Francisco, CA: Barrett-Koehler.
Underwood, L. G. (2009). Compassionate love: A framework for research. In Fehr, B., Sprecher, S., & Underwood, L.G. (Eds.), The Science of Compassionate Love: Theory, Research, and Applications (ch 4). Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK.