Servant Leadership as Strange Attractor

Trevor's excellent presentation of Autry's Five Ways of Being has prompted me to share some recent thoughts that are related but are, perhaps, more philosophical.

From my worm's eye view, those of us who feel it is important to share widely the ideas of servant leadership face at least two temptations, both of which are based on Western thinking and hubris.

First is the lure to turn this into a controlled movement rather than allow it to be a "strange attractor" that is available to people, organizations, even governments who seek order in their chaos. In chaos theory, a strange attractor is the element that prompts systems to self-organize into higher levels of order. It is not a predetermined order imposed from without.

We can, and should, passionately teach, explain, evoke and invoke the principles articulated by Robert Greenleaf. We can, and should, study implementations of servant leadership and apply our best science to understand and measure outcomes, skills and capacities of servant-leaders; but we should not believe all of that is the point. The point is reorganization of universal principles and operational dynamics inside individuals and organizations. The minute any of us try to do that for others, we've blown it. It's best to start by choosing to lead ourselves in that effort and then join others as fellow seekers. This allows order without control, and it's tough to do.

The second temptation is to reverse the order of the words "servant" and "leader." In "The Servant As Leader" Greenleaf explained the difference, and I suggest we hold his distinction close to our hearts because EVERYTHING depends upon it!

Briefly put, a leader-servant considers servanthood a subcategory of leadership. The servant role becomes one of choice and strategy, not identity. This gives the traditional leader internal permission to continue with practices that can ultimately be based on fear, grandiosity, the pleasure-pain principle, and shared mythologies about The Way The World Works. Many of these ideas are supported by popular books on leadership (but not Autry’s). For a servant-leader, the servanthood role is the larger, more encompassing system of thought and identity. One leads in service of servanthood, not the other way around.

I only bring up these temptations because I succumb to them all too often. They seem logical to this can-do American. The problem is, when I begin to act out of my own will to power, the promptings of spirit tend to hide. Spirit and its cousin soul are shy creatures, but they are patient. They poke their heads out when I take down the self-important walls.