Building Up People By Jean-Pierre Mulumba Tshimanga ECD Field Secretary

 Traditionally, we have three Leadership styles:  1. Authoritarian (autocratic) Leadership  Leaders tell their followers what they want done and how it should be accomplished. Leaders dominate and feel superior to the peoples  2. Participative (democratic) Leadership  Leaders and followers are involved in decision-making processes and determine what to do and how to do it.  It uses committees as means of administration  3. Delegative (free reign) Leadership  Followers make decisions, but leaders are still responsible for the decisions made. It is also called LAISSEZ-FAIRE. It sounds negative but if well used, it can bear fruit. Trade Unions use it. This is different from Anarchy (chaos), which is the absence of Leadership. A servant-leader uses the last two types with emphasis on service.

Who is he?  The Servant-Leader Is one who is servant-first. In The Servant as Leader, Greenleaf said: “It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test is: do these served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”  Servant-Leadership is a long term transformational approach to life and work-in essence, a way of being – which has the potential for creating positive change throughout the society.  Servant-leadership deals with the reality of power in everyday life –its legitimacy, the ethical restraints upon it and the beneficial results that can be attained through the appropriate use of power.”

 There could be more characteristics of the Servant-Leader as per the types of leadership.  The following Ten appear to be central and critical to the development of Servant-Leaders.  They focus on the fact that The Servant-Leader ship is experienced as these leaders act as servants of others, and that this simple fact is central to their greatness. True leadership emerges from those whose primary motivation is a deep desire to help others.

 Leaders are valued for their communication and decision- making skills.  They have to be deeply committed to listening intently to others: listen more and speak less  The servant leader seeks to identify the will of the group and help clarify that will.  He listens to what is said, and not said.  He listens to his own inner voice seeking to understand his spirit and mind as they communicate with him  He reflects on what he listens to very regularly.  He is not afraid of silence even in the middle of the dialogue. “In saying what I have in mind, will I improve on the silence”. Great leaders are great listeners.

 The Servant-Leader strives to understand and empathize with others.  People need to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique spirits.  One assumes the good intentions of co-workers and does not reject them as people, even when one is forced to refuse to accept their behavior or performance.  He can be rejected, but never rejects.  The most successful Servant-Leaders are those who have become skilled empathetic listeners.

 The healing of a relationship is a powerful force for transformation and integration.  One of the great strengths of a Servant-Leader is the potential to heal one’s self, one’s relationship to others.  Many people have broken spirits and have suffered from a variety of emotional hurts.  The Servant-leader has to recognize them as an opportunity to help make them whole.  Both the Servant-Leader and the led share the search for wholeness. They will effective as soon as healing takes place in their hearts and minds.

 General awareness, and especially self-awareness, strengthens the Servant-Leader.  Making a commitment to foster awareness can be scary- you never know what you may discover about yourself, but it will do good service to you  It will help you to be able to view most situations from a more integrated, holistic position. “Awareness is not a giver of solace – it is just the opposite. It is a disturber and a awakener.  Able leaders are usually sharply awake and reasonably disturbed. They are not seekers after solace. They have their own inner serenity.” Robert Greenleaf

 Servant-Leaders must rely upon persuasion, rather than using one’s position authority, in making decisions within an organization.  The Servant-Leader seeks to convince others, rather than coerce compliance. He is different from the traditional authoritarian model of leadership.  The servant-Leader is effective at building consensus within the groups.  This emphasis on persuasion over coercion has its roots within the beliefs of Christian organizations.  It is about changing people by inspiration rather than by force and authority.

 Servant-Leaders seek to nurture their abilities to dream great dreams. They have the ability to look at a problem from a conceptualizing perspective by thinking beyond day- to-day realities.  Managers find this difficult as they are interested in achieving short term operational goals.  This is the role of boards, looking outside the day-to-day operations  Servant-Leaders are to provide the visionary concept for the institution, even if sometimes they become involved in daily operations – which is unfortunate. E,g. a Union President trying to lead a local Conference by getting involved in their daily operations.

 Foresight is closely related to conceptualization.  It is the ability to foresee the likely outcome of a situation.  It helps the servant-Leader to understand the lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely consequence of the decision for the future.  It is deeply rooted within the intuitive mind.  It is very resourceful and cannot be exhausted, if given careful attention.

 Stewardship is holding something in trust for another ( Peter Block).  Both servant-Leader and the led must hold their organization in trust for greater good of the society.  Servant-Leaders, like stewardship, assume a commitment to serving the needs of others.  It also emphasizes the use of openness and persuasion, rather than control.

 One of the roles of a leader is to help people grow. Servant- Leaders believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contributions as workers.  The Servant-Leader is deeply committed to the growth of each and every individual within his institution.  He recognizes the tremendous responsibility to do everything with his power to nurture the personal, professional and spiritual growth of employees.  This includes (but is not limited to) concrete actions such as making available funds for personal interest in the ideas and suggestions from everyone; encouraging worker involvement in decision-making; and, actively assisting laid- off workers to find other employment.

 Servant-Leaders sense that much has been lost in recent human history as a result of the shift from local communities to large institutions as the primary sharper of lives.  The Servant-Leader seeks to build community among those who work in the businesses and other institutions.  Servant-Leader must build communities by individually showing the way and demonstrating their own unlimited liability for a quite specific community, related group.

 Servant-Leadership is positive  1. It uses rewards such as Education, independence etc to motivate employees while negative employers emphasize penalties and act domineering and superiors to people.  Negative leaders believe authority is increased by frightening the people  2. It uses delegation and teamwork while duplicating themselves building people to replace them, may need arise.  Servant-Leaders are leaders per excellence.