Leadership is a High Form of Servitude

leadership is not about control it’s about serving those whom you chose to lead

Reader, I want to talk to you about leadership today because I think many of us get it wrong. Leading means serving those whom you have decided to lead. It means listening more than speaking. It means empathising rather than pontificating. It means self awareness, i.e. continually monitoring your own inner terrain for anything that blocks your ability to serve others.

“The simplest way to explain it would be to say that servant leaders focus on identifying and meeting the needs of others rather than trying to acquire power, wealth, and fame for themselves”. — Kent Keith

Leading requires us to focus on what’s external to us, it requires us to direct our attention to meeting the needs of those around us, rather than our own needs. Leading requires humility.

If you seek fame and glory and attention from leadership, you’ll make a crappy leader. If you fear confrontation and making necessary decisions that others might not like, you’ll make a crappy leader. If you don’t listen to the fears and concerns of those whom you lead, then what are you doing? Why won’t you take fears and concerns seriously? Why won’t you understand that ignoring fears and concerns simply causes people to escalate?

Fear might seem silly and annoying to you, it’s very real to the one plagued with fear. Fear is physical, like hunger. Does hunger go away in its own when you ignore and dismiss it? No it doesn’t. Imagine that someone’s fear is like your hunger, a thing that needs attention and remedial care.

Reader, let’s look at the above chart from Jory McKay at Planio. Can you see the contrast in leadership styles? What do you notice? I notice responsiveness, a bottom-up approach, a reliance on personal connection and empathy and understanding, over authoritative communication, coercive control, belittling, power-tripping. What impact would this have on the organisation? What does that look like, up close?

Reader, I think coercive control features quite significantly in leadership style these days. What do I mean by that? Well, think of cancel culture, surveillance, guilt-tripping, manipulation, gaslighting. Think of belittling those who express fears and concerns. Think of the leader making the situation about themselves rather than those whom they lead who express their fears and concerns.

I think many people seek leadership roles for the wrong reasons, i.e. for ego-based reasons. I think it creates many problems and it weakens organizations and compromises the integrity of the structures of organisations which make up our society. Ultimately, I think it compromises democracy and human freedom

Do we have a leadership crisis in our modern day society, reader? If we do, how do we address it?