The idea of being a servant-leader is much more different than that of Divine Right leadership. Divine Right is the notion that God has chosen the monarchs/rulers; therefore, they have the right to ascend to the throne, justifying their leadership. A servant-leader comes with being a servant first and wanting to serve, then deciding to lead. A servant-leader always wants to make sure that their followers’ highest priority is being fulfilled. This can go the other way around too with a leader-servant. This is a person who wants to become a leader due to selfish reasons, to gain power or material wealth, then choose to serve after gaining that leadership position. It seems like there is a good number of leaders in our world who follow this path. I liked Greenleaf’s analogy of the servant and the wheel. No one wakes up in the morning thinking that they want to reinvent the wheel. A servant, however, is always searching for the next, better wheel to emerge.
I agree with Greenleaf’s statement that more servant leaders are speaking up for injustice in our society, however, not all are in political positions. One person who particularly stands out to me is Greta Thunberg and all of the other children fighting for climate change activism. There are many things that a leader needs, both inspiration and to initiate, whichever of his leaders trust him will be the ones who follow. Leaders also need to establish a goal with their followers, either a goal they set themselves or decided on collectively with their followers. The person must have followers who trust them to be able to achieve their goals. To gain their trust they need to be confident in themselves and their qualities like their values, intelligence, ability to lead, etc. This reminds me of the threshold of narcissism a rule must have to be a competent leader. Yet, these leaders need to know the perfect balance between confidence and cocky, so that they are able to remain humble.
I also agree with the writer’s claim that more servent leaders are coming up in the workplace. My question, however, is how effective would a servent leader be to our democracy. A full democracy where all the followers’ ideas were met would cause chaos and fundamentally no consensus.
I also agree with Greenleaf’s claim that more servant leaders are fighting against the injustices in our society, and I think that makes sense given the qualities that he says a servant leader should have. The type of person who wants to take on the role of leading a social justice movement is usually a person who values serving others.
I agree that servant leaders are fighting for issues they see within society, specifically because their main goal is to make the best situation for their followers because they were once in their shoes. However, do you believe people like Greta Thunberg were truly servants before beginning their leaderships roles, or had they just not started from the position of a leader, but they also were not a servant.? I think that sometimes it is hard to distinguish what type of person is stepping forward. But, I do agree that Greta is leading with our best interest in mind, and is calling other leaders to action.
I like that you brought up specific examples of servant leaders who are not in political power. As we have talked about in class, perhaps we as a country think we want a servant leader in office but in reality, when it comes time to vote, people will not vote for a servant leader. Maybe this is because we think they will not get the job done or maybe because they might not be confident enough in their own ideas and look too much to the people for help. We may think we want someone to listen to what we want but I think people do not want to put in the work and want a leader to do it all for them. In that sense, with how our country is right now, a servant leader would not get elected or work in a high political position.