I just got back from a business trip in Indonesia, and given the absence of a high-speed internet I didn't have the chance to blog (I did try but I figured I would age faster if I waited for the internet to upload and download stuff, so I gave up in the end).
Apart from having research meetings at a few universities, I had the privilege to address some of the key people at these universities and share about a topic that is close to my heart, servant leadership. These talks convince me even more that there is a deep-seated desire within most folks to be the kind of leaders who are authentic and holistic. The preoccupation with performance and growth is not quite a thing of the past, but people are tired of this fixation which in the end belittles and manipulates people, all in the name of growth. If the recent global financial meltdown is not considered as a powerful reminder of the inherent limitation of performance-oriented leadership, I don't know what will.
Servant leadership, on the other hand, done rightly, maintains its primacy on developing others to become what they are capable of becoming through serving and empowering them. In the biblical language, servant leaders serve others to be the very person God wants them to be. There are no 'mini-me' followers in the process. The emphasis is not even the organization's goals. It's the followers' though servant leaders are accountable not only to the followers but to other stakeholders.
All in all, it's encouraging to see the enthusiasm is out there to learn, practice, and implement servant leadership in organizations, no matter how counterintuitive it may sound to most people.
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