Time for a New Paradigm in Leadership

How many of us think that we are leaders. The fact is that there are many who think that they are not leaders. Many of us are happy to be “members” of a team, an organisation, or whatever, and leave the leadership to some one else. The fact is different. Let us look at some of the well known definitions of Leadership. Noted Leadership consultant and author Ken Blanchard says “Leadership happens any time you are trying to influence the thoughts and actions of another individual to accomplish specific tasks or goals.” John C Maxwell, the noted author and Leadership Guru, states that one of the simplest, but most profound definitions of Leadership that he has come across is “Leadership is influence”. I could not agree with him more. You look at any leader; good bad or ugly; you will ultimately realise that they influence the lives of their “followers” in many ways, some of them good, some of them bad.  

Is there some one who still thinks that he/she is not a leader and “just a member”? Am I making some one uncomfortable? If it is any consolation, Let me assure you , this message is for those who do not consider them as Leaders, and also for those who consider themselves as leaders. That should cover all of us isn’t it?

Now let us come to the modern day leadership. Corporate, Political, Social, cultural, sports or religious leadership. Other than some noted exceptions what do we see? Power, wealth, size of following, area of influence etc are the parameters that decide the stature of the leader, and hence the organisation that the leader leads. Modern business teaches that good leadership means self- advancement at all cost. Goals and objectives are used to measure one’s effectiveness. Self-actualization is extolled as a virtue and success is measured by the size of a leaders' “team size” or “followership”. In other words, Self-serving leadership is rampant in the world today.

Now if I asked what you would like to do with your life, I don’t think many of you would say, You know Madana, what I would really like to be in life is a servant, right. Yes, Madana, I want to do those dirty jobs that nobody else wants to do. I want to change diapers in the nursery, I want to clean up the hall after a children’s party, I would like to distribute food to the poor at our food bank. Now, if we are honest with ourselves, being a servant is not the #1 thing to do on our list. But we don’t have to feel guilty about it. What we need to realise is the fact that there is a lifestyle that has the potential of not only changing the life of those whom they served, but changing their lives as well. This lifestyle or Leadership Philosophy is called Servant Leadership.

The term Servant Leadership is in itself an Oxymoron. You know what Oxymoron means. A term which is contradiction in itself. How can Servanthood and Leadership go together? It is against all our worldly instincts. Let me give you some statistics. If you use Google to search the word Leadership, you will come up with more than 90 million results. But just do a search for Servanthood, and you end up with just about half a million results. You see the difference? Do you see the importance (or lack of it) that the world pays to Servanthood?

Over my next few blogs we will examine the various aspects and attributes of Servant Leadership and see how we can reach there. There are several aspects to Servant leadership and ten attributes that we will look at. We will look at them one by one, in my future blogs.  

Victor Hugo is believed to have said “ There is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come”. I believe that the time for Servant Leadership has come.

Come and join the Servant Leadership Movement!!