Service Activity that Made a Contribution to the Community
The following paper "Servant Leadership: A Curious Paradox" was written for my Leadership Theories class. For this assignment we had to complete an outside service activity. The activity I chose to work on was my churche's annual ladies retreat. The paper discusses many of my responsibilities at the retreat, as well as discussing my personal growth and reflection on how my service changed my perspective on leadership.
Selection
Servant Leadership: A Curious Paradox
“Life is full of curious and meaningful paradoxes. Servant-leadership is one such paradox that has slowly but surely gained hundreds of thousands of adherents over the past 35 years” (Spears, 2004). Even though servant-leadership has now been around for many years, I just recently had my first experience in being a servant-leader when I volunteered to help organize and run my church’s annual women’s retreat this past October. I have worked as a volunteer for this retreat for four years now; however, this year’s experience truly opened my eyes to a new way of looking at service and leadership.
Project Summary/Description
Part of my responsibility for this retreat was helping to design and make centerpieces and set everything up before the retreat began. However, my true service work began once the retreat started. During the retreat, I worked to keep my areas of responsibility organized and productive. I also helped plan many of the other retreat activities such as icebreakers, skits, praise time, and door prizes. As a facilitator among leaders, I helped keep other activities going and on track as well. During the retreat, I also spent a lot of time with many of the women who just needed someone to talk to, someone with whom they could share their burdens.
I chose to use the women’s retreat as my service project because it is something that I have done in the past and I knew that I could be of help in many areas. I also knew that I had enjoyed working this event in the past, and I knew that I would get great satisfaction out of my service time. I am very familiar with the organization because it is the church I attend regularly. However, this year by thinking in terms of servant-leadership I saw a new side of the organization’s mission for the retreat. Never before had I understood just how important it was for the organization to serve its members. For the first time, I learned that the organization/retreat was there to serve people and to lead them by serving them. This concept defines servant-leadership; “choosing to serve first, and then lead as a way of expanding service to individuals and institutions” (class discussion).
My Experience Framed in Servant Leadership
Understanding the concept of servant-leadership was a very important part of my learning experience as a servant-leader. According to Robert Greenleaf, “true leadership emerges from those whose primary motivation is a deep desire to help others”; servant-leadership “begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first” (Spears, 2004). Once I understood this concept of servant-leadership, I began to see that serving others was a great desire of mine. I enjoy volunteering to help with the retreat because I feel that serving others, both other leaders and the visitors, fulfills my purpose or calling.
In my work at the retreat, I have the opportunity to demonstrate many characteristics of a servant-leader. Listening is one characteristic that I displayed during the entire retreat. “The servant-leader seeks to identify the will of a group and helps clarify that will. He or she seeks to listen receptively to what is being said” (Spears, 2004). One of my favorite parts about serving at the women’s retreat is that I had the opportunity to listen to so many women. Many of them just needed someone to lend an ear to their problems or just listen to a story that they wanted to share. By listening receptively, as they share I began to understand what they needed, I was then able to share their needs with the other leaders and they could implement activities and programs that would be especially beneficial and fulfilling to the women’s specific needs.
Empathy and healing are two more servant-leader characteristics that I used during the retreat. In my experience as a servant-leader during the retreat, I felt that portraying empathy towards the women with whom I was working gave way to the healing that took place within all of us. “The servant-leader strives to understand and empathize with others” (Spears, 2004). During the times that I talked and worked with the women, I would find myself listening and truly beginning to understand and empathize with their situations. The greater my understanding of their situations, the more I empathized with them and the more I would talk, pray, and counsel with them. Through these actions, I could see that healing was taking place in all of us. I could see that women who came with burdened spirits had been freed of their burdens and many hurts were healed. Many just needed someone, to listen and empathize, to “not reject them as people” and to “accept and recognize them for their special and unique spirits” (Spears, 2004). This understanding and empathy that I showed towards them helped to bring the healing that they so desperately desired. The healing that comes out of servant-leadership is not only for those you are serving, but is also for the servant-leader. Serving has the “potential for healing one’s self and others” (Spears, 2004). I experienced a great deal of healing during the retreat, as did the people I was serving. Through my service, I felt that I made a difference and that I accomplished something very important, something life changing. I felt I learned more about my purpose or calling in life, and in doing so my spirit of uncertainty and self-consciousness was being healed. Through my work at the retreat I learned that “many people have broken spirits and have suffered from a variety of emotional hurts,” but I also learned that as a servant-leader I have the opportunity to “help make whole” those I serve (Spears, 2004).
The final servant-leader characteristic that I feel I portrayed during the retreat was commitment to the growth of people. “The servant-leader is deeply committed to the growth of each and every individual within the institution,” and they will “do everything possible to nurture the growth” of those people they serve (Spears, 2004). I feel that I portrayed this characteristic throughout the retreat because I was there to serve. I was there to help people. That was my goal for the weekend; I wanted to make a difference - to help someone grow. I feel that I was very committed to my service toward the women at the retreat. I was there for them whenever they needed, day or night and many times both, and they knew this. They could feel my commitment to them and in return, I could feel their gratitude.
Personal Growth
My personal experience as a servant-leader has truly changed the way I view leadership. In the past, I always thought that in order to be a leader you had to have the title, and everyone had to know that you had the title. I thought that being a leader meant you were in charge. However, my view of leadership could not be more different now. I have learned that I do not need to have the title of leader to be a leader. Being a servant-leader is more than holding a title and telling people what to do; it is about understanding, empathy, healing, growth, and service. My service during the retreat was never formally recognized and I received no major rewards or credit for the work I did. In the past, this would have bothered me greatly; however, modeling my experience in terms of servant-leadership taught me that the service I completed and the healing I received were my rewards. Seeing the difference and growth that my service made in the lives of others was all the recognition I needed.
Conclusion
I am so thankful for the opportunity to experience servant-leadership for myself. I could have read about the theory all day long but until I experienced it for myself, I never could have understood just how important it is in life. “Servant-leadership is a long-term, transformational approach to life and work - in essence, a way of being” (Spears, 2004). Servant-leadership is a way of life, a way of living where you choose to serve first and then lead. Everyone loves a good leader, however most do not see that a “great leader is first experienced as a servant to others, and that this simple fact is central to the leader’s greatness” (Spears, 2004).
Works Cited
Spears, Larry C. (2004). Practicing Servant-Leadership. Leader to Leader,Fall 2004, 7-11.
