Let me ask you a question:
If I play tennis and I don't have an eye on the ball but on the scoreboard what do you think will happen?
Author Ichek Adizes observed "Managing only for profit is like playing tennis with your eye on the scoreboard and not on the ball."
What is leadership?
In the book “Leading at a Higher Level” Ken Blanchard defines profit as “the applause you get for satisfying your customers and creating a motivating environment for your people. For years authors have defined leadership as an influence process. It is believed that anytime you try to influence the thoughts and actions of others towards goal accomplishment in either personal or professional life, you engaged in leadership. In recent years, the definition of leadership has changed to reflect the capacity to influence others by unleashing their power and potential to impact the greater good.
The new President of the United States Barack Obama has been my inspiration for this new leadership model. His leadership qualities and thought provoking speeches has raised a collective awareness of self-responsibility like we have never seen before. In his inaugural speech he spoke to his fellow Americans but his message resonated with the world when he said, “Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age”. He was explicit in the way we were to unleash the power and potential to impact this world for the greater good.
This raises the thought, “Self-serving leadership vs Servant Leadership?
Which one will help us through this tough Eco-nomic crisis? We can choose between being self-serving and serving, just as Nelson Mandela did, we can make choices to live and lead at a higher level. But when you look at the leaders around the world whether they're running countries, businesses, churches, educational institutions - too many people are choosing to be serving rather than to serve. Why is that ? Because until now they didn't have a different leadership role model. Self-serving leaders think that leadership is all about them and not about the best interests of those they serve. Leadership should not be done purely for personal gain or goal accomplishment: it should have a much higher purpose than that. They forget about acting with respect, care, and fairness for all involved. It's only when you realize that it's not about you that you begin to lead at a higher level. You make the world a better place, because the goals are focused on the greater good. Leaders falsely believe that they can focus on both at the same time. In business, when it becomes obvious that profit, which is a legitimate goal, is the driving reason for being in business, everyone - stockholders, top managers, employees, customers, suppliers, and the community quickly become self-serving, with a focus on their own agenda and personal enrichment. Employee loyalty and passion often go out the window as the point of work becomes simply to get as much as you can for as little effort as possible.
What keeps people from becoming servant leaders ?
The human EGO. It means Edging Good Out and putting yourself in the center. The greatest achievement of humanity is not works of art, science, or technology, but the recognition of its own dysfunction, its own madness; it’s what Eckhart Tolle calls the EGO pathology. Fear, greed, and the desire for power are the psychological motivation forces not only behind warfare and violence but between nations, tribes, religions, and ideologies, but also the cause of incessant conflict in personal relationships. They bring a distortion in your perception of other people and yourself. There are two ways ego gets in the way. First, is false pride. The antidote for false pride is humility. People with humility don’t think less of themselves, they just think about themselves less. Humility tames our judgmental nature and motivates us to reach out to support and encourage others. That’s where your power comes from (not from position, but from the people whose lives you touch.) Second, is self-doubt or fear. The antidote for self-doubt or fear is love. You love your kids unconditionally right? What if you accepted that unconditional love for yourself ? People who live in fear often don't live at all. Embrace servant leadership and act to impact this world for the greater good.
How can we help leaders to believe that they can focus on both "the mission of their organization and on the scoreboard" in the best interest of every one involved?
Blanchard, Ken., and founding associates and consulting partners (2007). Leading at a higher level
