(an excerpt from Vital Staff Newsletter – No. 6 2022 by Michael Herbert )
How do we help colleagues and students feel purposeful, confident, motivated, energised and successful? In his book Alive at Work, Daniel Cable argues that one of the best ways is to adopt the humble mind-set of a servant leader.
At a recent function, a Principal told me he insists his leadership team is last to eat when having a meal with staff. This is a simple but powerful example of the servant leadership model, first explored by Robert Greenleaf in 1970. His vision of a servant leader is an individual who shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible…..the very themes many schools aspire to with both colleagues and students.
Servant leadership puts aside the traditionally authoritative style, approaching leadership as a servant first. It is not a recent concept – in the 5th century, the ancient Chinese philosopher and poet, Lao-Tzu wrote: “If you want to govern the people, you must speak to them humbly. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.” For many of the schools that subscribe to Vital Staff Newsletter, the Gospels such as John 13:1-7 and Mark 9:35 provide pertinent examples of this style of leadership. In fact, most of the great spiritual traditions that have withstood the test of time are pivoted on the model of servant leadership.
Every staff member is a leader of someone, be it a colleague, a student or a volunteer. To improve the quality of our leadership, we might reflect on the words of Greenleaf: The first and most important choice a leader makes is the choice to serve, without which one’s capacity to lead is severely limited.
The wonderful cycle created by servant leadership is identified by Greenleaf’s Center for Servant Leadership and goes something like this:
The wonderful cycle created by servant leadership is identified by Greenleaf’s Center for Servant Leadership and goes something like this:
listening leads to empathy,
empathy leads to healing,
healing leads to awareness,
awareness leads to persuasion,
persuasion leads to conceptualisation,
conceptualisation leads to foresight,
foresight leads to stewardship,
stewardship leads to commitment to the growth of people, and finally,
the growth of people leads to building a vibrant and genuine community.
In our case, a vibrant and genuine community creates a powerful and positive school climate
It is a vibrant and genuine community that so many people crave – young and not so young – in a world of pandemic and invasion. Research shows that for schools, the ripple effect will be cast so wide as to support everything from greater student achievement to high levels of job satisfaction among staff.
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David Spike
Learning Leader: Formation
