Servant Leadership

Mahatma Gandhi Before reading this blog I would like to acknowledge that Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organisation where people develop their communication and leadership skill by executing and taking voluntary roles and responsibilities.
(A Division director is responsible for a division which comprises of various 'areas' and each area covers some Toastmaster clubs usually 3-4 in number ) 
Last week, I was chatting with an outgoing Division Director and casually asked her – “How was your leadership experience?” She said – “Oh, it was so frustrating. My team members were so irresponsible. In my office, when I give a task to my team, I give them the required data and a deadline and I expect them to deliver. This approach doesn’t work at all, in Toastmasters.”
I could barely control myself from laughing out loud. She had totally missed the point. Instead of learning how to be a ‘Servant Leader’ she had tried to be a good manager. It may work in a setting where one has a ‘formal’ authority, but it will never work in a voluntary setting.
So what is this ‘Servant Leadership’ we talk about in Toastmasters? Let me share a story with you. There was a French monastery known throughout Europe for the extraordinary leadership of a man called Brother Leo. Several monks began a pilgrimage to visit Brother Leo to learn from him. Almost immediately, they began to bicker about who should do various chores. On the third day, they met another monk going to the monastery, and he joined them. This monk never complained or shirked a duty, and whenever the others would fight over a chore, he would gracefully volunteer and do it himself. By the last day, the others were following him without even realising it.
When they reached the monastery and asked to see Brother Leo, the man who greeted them laughed. 'But our brother is among you!' And he pointed to the fellow who had joined them.
Brother Leo was a servant leader. Often, people seek leadership positions, not so much for what they can do for others but for what the position can do for them: status, connections, perks, advantages. They do serve as an investment, a way to build an impressive resume.
There is another model of leadership, where leaders are preoccupied with serving rather than being followed, with giving rather than getting, with doing rather than demanding. Leadership based on example, not on command. If only my friend the division director, had understood this style of leadership, her year would have been so very different. Her team members would have willingly worked for her, if only she had ‘asked’ them instead of ‘telling’ them.  All she had to do was to help them reach ‘their’ goals, which would have ultimately resulted in reaching ‘her’ goal, without the heartburn.

David Foster Wallace put it so well when he wrote - “A leader’s real ‘authority’ is a power you voluntarily give him and you grant him this authority not with resentment or resignation but with happiness.”

We are all familiar with one very prominent example i.e. of Mahatma Gandhi, who not only just preached cleanliness but himself went and cleaned the filthiest of latrines in poorest of localities. He never forced anyone to do that but people volunteered themselves for even toughest and dirtiest of jobs.
This is the power of Servant Leadership.

Rise&Shine
Kabir
This post is an improvement over a post by DTM Nagaraj Rao. I would like to heartily thank him for this wonderful piece that changed my life.