In search of servant leaders

We have a frightened world desperately looking for a way to go back to a “normal world” or a “new normal” which we can all live with. The problem is that there is no consensus on how we could work ourselves out of this pandemic. It seems that until a vaccine is found, we will have to learn to live with this crisis.

Because there are no clear answers, almost every viber group I know now have “experts” who are proposing their own formulas for survival. Even worse, every viber group has all these people who keep reposting other messages and formulas from other people. This has become so prevalent that I have called it the Lockdown fad.

The more serious side to all these uncertainties is that people are looking for that elusive thing called “leadership.” In a sense, most of us are looking for a “messiah” who can lead us to the Promised Land.

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that people will debate on the meaning of leadership. There are those who advocate for “strong leadership” or effective leadership. We should, however, heed the warnings about the consequences of wrong leadership.  Even the Bible, in Matthew 15:14 warns: If the blind leads the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

In these extremely troubled times around the world, there is only one type of leadership which people desperately need. It may be called different names; but, the best name for it is Servant Leadership. In the history of our country, we have had very few servant leaders. But I will not name them because I do not want to politicize this column.

Social media has brought a lot of life stories to our attention through the smartphone and iPads. We see people unfairly deprived of aid from government agencies. For example, I saw a plea on social media from Coron, Palawan begging for assistance because she and her three children were not included in the list of beneficiaries. However, I do not want to dwell on those stories because I would rather focus attention on the many little stories of people organizing efforts to try and make life better for those that are truly suffering. They have not waited for government decrees or publicity to mobilize what resources they have to try and reduce the pans of this pandemic. Their efforts have ranged from hundreds of millions of pesos in value to a few thousand pesos. But I believe that the value is not material and if they have done this on their own, then they can be called servant leaders.

A certain Marti once wrote: “A noble leader answers not the trumpet calls of self promotion, but to the hushed whispers of necessity.”

It is important to note that the concept of servant leadership implies that a good leader is also a good servant. Some of those in history, who have lived up to the title of servant leader are Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi and Lao Tzu. But many servant leaders willingly toil in anonymity like the doctors and nurses who refuse to give up and come back every day to struggle to save as many lives as they can.

Robert Greenleaf in his book Servant Leader explains: “The servant leader is servant first...It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, serve first. This conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. ...The leader first and the servant first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed that there were fundamental principles that harked back to natural law tradition which means that there are moral standards for judging the legitimacy of a law. He explained: “A man made code that squares with the moral law or law of God is a moral law.  But a man-made code that is inharmonious with the moral law is an unjust law....Let us not forget the memories of the six million Jews who died, that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was legal and that everything the Freedom Fighters did in Germany were illegal.” Until the year 1865, slavery in the southern states of the United States was legal.

With courage and goodwill, Martin Luther King Jr. reaffirmed the vision of a “higher law,” the idea that government laws must be judged by moral standards, a bedrock for liberty going back to ancient Greece more than 2,000 years ago.

There are several ways the servant leader is different from the traditional leader. Greenleaf cites a few key ways in his book:

• The traditional leader believes the ultimate is the bottom line – financial results or acquisition of more power. The servant leader believes the ultimate test of leaderhip is asking the questions: Do those served grow as persons? Do they while being served become healthier, wiser, freer more likely themselves to become servants? And what is the effect on the less privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least will not be further deprived?

• Traditional leaders view the organization as a pyramid and themselves as master builders. Servant leaders view the organization as a garden and themselves as gardeners.

In the midst of this pandemic crisis, we must continue to look for the servant leaders who will lead us into a golden age.

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