A MOTIVATING SPEECH BY PRESIDENT OF INDIA

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalaam's Speech in Hyderabad                               
                                                                           
 "I have three visions for India. In 3000 Years of our history, people from
 all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered
 our minds.                                                                
                                                                           
 >From Alexander on wards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the          
 Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and      
 looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other
 nation.                                                                   
                                                                           
 We have not conquered anyone.We have not grabbed their land, their        
 culture, and their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them.  
 Why? Because we respect the freedom of others.                            
                                                                           
 That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got  
 its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence.
 It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on.         
                                                                           
 If we are not free, no one will respect us. My second vision for India is 
 DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing ! nation. It is    
 time we see ourselves as a developed nation.                              
 We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP.                  
 We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas.                             
 Our poverty levels are falling.                                           
 Our achievements are being globally recognized today.                     
                                                                           
 Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation,   
 self- reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?                     
 I have a third vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe
 that, unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only   
 STRENGTH respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power
 but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune 
 was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept
 of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr Brahm Prakash,
 father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of  
 them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.          
                                                                           
 I see four milestones in my career: Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was   
 given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first        
 satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years 
 played a very important role in my life of Scientist.                     
                                                                           
 After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of     
 India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its  
 mission requirements                                                      
 in 1994. The Dept of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous           
 partnership                                                               
 in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss.  
                                                                           
 The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving  
 to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing   
 nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact 
 that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we    
 have developed this new material. A very light material called            
 carbon-carbon.                                                            
                                                                           
 One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences    
 visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that  
 he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these   
 little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg.
 each, dragging their feet around.                                         
                                                                           
 He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients.                     
 In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300-gram calipers   
 and                                                                       
 took them to the orthopedic center. The children didn't believe their     
 eyes. >From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they cou! ld  
 now move around. Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth
 bliss!                                                                    
                                                                           
 Why is the media here so negative?                                        
 Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our    
 achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success 
 stories but we refuse to acknowledge them.                                
                                                                           
 Why?                                                                      
 We are the first in milk production.                                      
 We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.                           
 We are the second largest producer of wheat.                              
 We are the second largest producer of rice.                               
 Look at Dr Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a        
 self-sustaining, self-driving unit.                                       
 There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in 
 the bad news and failures and disasters.                                  
 I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the
 day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place.   
 The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture 
 of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an
 orchid and a granary.                                                     
 It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details  
 of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried   
 among other news.                                                         
                                                                           
 In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.            
 Why are we so NEGATIVE?                                                   
 Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things?
 We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology.  
 Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that       
 self-respect comes with self-reliance?                                    
                                                                           
 I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me  
 for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I    
 want to live in a developed India.                                        
 For her, you and I will have to build this developed India You must       
 proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed
 nation.                                                                   
 Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.           
 Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is  
 yours.                                                                    
                                                                           
                                                                           
 YOU say that our government is inefficient.                               
 YOU say that our laws are too old.                                        
 YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.               
 YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke,              
 The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their            
 destination.                                                              
                                                                           
 YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute     
 pits.                                                                     
 YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?                            
                                                                           
 Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name-YOURS. Give him    
 a face - YOURS.                                                           
                                                                           
 YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best.       
 In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the   
 stores.                                                                   
 YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5       
 (approx                                                                   
 Rs 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or     
 Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM.                                       
                                                                           
 YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have 
 over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status
 identity.                                                                 
                                                                           
 In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU?                              
 YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai.              
 YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah.         
 YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London 
 at 10 pounds (Rs 650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are
 billed to someone else."                                                  
 YOU would not dare ! to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and   
 then                                                                      
 tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). 
 I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost."                  
                                                                           
 YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage 
 pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand.                         
                                                                           
 Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo?                          
 Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in         
 Boston???                                                                 
                                                                           
 We are still talking of the same YOU.                                     
                                                                           
 YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but
 cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road  
 the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and         
 appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here 
 in India?                                                                 
                                                                           
 Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay,     
 Mr Tinaikar, had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the   
 streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said.   
 "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the          
 authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the 
 officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the       
 pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up        
 after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do 
 that here?" He's right.                                                   
                                                                           
 We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all      
 responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the         
 government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally     
 negative.                                                                 
                                                                           
 We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking
 garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray  
 piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide 
 clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.
 We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and     
 toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least            
 opportunity.                                                              
                                                                           
 This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to 
 the public.                                                               
 When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry,
 girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and       
 continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? "It's! the whole system   
 which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights 
 to a dowry." So who's going to change the system?                         
 What does a system consist of?                                            
 Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, 
 other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me 
 and YOU.                                                                  
 When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system 
 we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into
 the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr Clean to come along &
 work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the    
 country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to    
 America to bask in their glory and praise their system.When New York      
 becomes insecure we run to England. When England                          
 experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When   
 the Gulf is                                                               
 war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian        
 government.                                                               
 Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding  
 the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.                         
                                                                           
 Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great  
 deal of  introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J 
 F Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans! to relate to Indians????       
                                                                           
 "ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA    
 WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"                       
                                                                           
 Lets do what India needs from us.                                         
                                                 
 Thank you,                                                                
                                                                           
 Dr Abdul Kalaam                                                           
 (PRESIDENT OF INDIA)                                                      
                                                                           

A nice article about an ethical Indian Industrialist by another (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow/1185093.cms)

 

Hi All,

On Friday’s Edition of Economic Times I came across an interesting article on JRD Tata by Narayan Murthy. Wanted to share this with you all.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow/1185093.cms

 

Reproduced the above article below for your convenience.

 

Gives an Insight into one of the pioneers of modern managerial practitioners, JRD, in neo-Modern India.

 

Hope you find it an interesting read.

Regards,

Chirantan

 

 

 

The Economic Times Online Printed from economictimes.indiatimes.com > Editorial
Why Narayana Murthy admires JRD Tata N R NARAYANA MURTHY [ FRIDAY, JULY 29, 2005 02:25:01 AM] Surf 'N' Earn -Sign innow I remember a 1970s film called Chupke Chupke, in which the hero (Dharmendra) gets sick of his wife’s (Sharmila Tagore’s), penchant for turning every conversation into a paean for the virtues of her Jijaji. Dharmendra finally decides to teach Jijaji a lesson and succeeds very well at that! My case was not much better: most conversations with my then-friend and now wife, Sudha, were spent in her extolling the virtues of “Apro JRD”, as she always called him. Unlike Dharmendra, when I got to meet Sudha’s hero, I was bowled, neck and crop, by his simplicity and affection for his younger colleagues. It was a wintry evening in 1979, when I took a taxi from my Nariman Point office to pick up Sudha, from her office at Bombay House, on my way home. I had been delayed in the office. It was completely dark and I was worried that she would be alone on a deserted road. As the taxi ground to a halt, I saw a tall, old gentleman talking to Sudha. When I got out of the taxi, I met JRD for the first time. His words, which I remember even today, were a gentle admonishment that I should not make my young wife wait in the dark. I believe he saw her waiting alone outside Bombay House when he was leaving the office, and decided to wait with her till I picked her up. I was stunned by this gesture from India’s biggest industrialist to a young and lowly executive in his company. Most great people are remembered for their small acts of courtesy. This is what makes them great. To them, these are natural rather than put-on. A few years ago, my daughter, studying in the US, wanted to profile an industrialist as part of her course on Leadership. I suggested she profile Ratan Tata. Sudha and I took her to meet Ratan. The perfect gentleman that he is, Ratan gave her two hours as against the scheduled half an hour. During this talk, we asked if ever he saw JRD abandon his principles, even slightly. Ratan was unequivocal. He said the old man always came on the right side of every issue no matter how tough the choices. That, to me, is JRD — a man who had simple values and stuck to them every time. We, at Infosys, have been unabashed admirers of what he stood for. In fact, the first hi-tech conference room we built in our heritage building, was named the JRD Hall. Of course, we had the privilege of Ratan inaugurating our even more impressive and, perhaps, Asia’s most advanced corporate conference room named after Jamsetji N Tata, a hero to many of us, but particularly to my colleague, Nandan, and Sudha. Most of what I learnt about JRD was from Keynote, a compendium of his speeches, a gift from Sudha on my 40th birthday in 1986. Many of my own values and opinions were fortified by JRD’s views. In fact, there are only two public figures whose death evoked deep emotional reaction in me. The first was our young, dynamic and idealistic leader, Rajiv, whose ghastly murder deprived India of a fine leader. The second was JRD, who demonstrated, much before all of us, that ethical business was possible in India. JRD sought excellence in every thing he did. When I irritate my colleagues with my insistence on excellence, I have sought refuge in JRD’s words — I confess to being excessively intolerant of slipshod work and irritatingly insistent on pursuing excellence even in tasks which hardly demand it. To him, honesty was extremely important even from people who opposed him. He admired and respected people who were honest in voicing their opinion even if he did not agree with him. No wonder, his favourite politician was Jayaprakash Narayan. He had tremendous affection for even fiery union leaders like Prof Bari because they were honest with him. He believed that the high growth rate (he once put it as monstrous growth) of India’s population would be a burden for the country’s stretched resources. He did not lose a single opportunity to call for serious effort in controlling our population. Unfortunately, even today, our politicians do not pay heed to his advice. He totally believed in the welfare state, whose aim should be to assure every Indian the basic necessities of life, the right to work, and the right to earn a decent living. In his speech to the Rotary Club of Bombay in 1970, he said: “In the economic, if not the philosophical plane, a welfare state is the very essence of 20th century socialism to which I subscribe unreservedly”. He did believe there was a role for the public sector but a public sector removed totally from political and bureaucratic interference which has progressively increased over the last 30 years and emaciated every institution of promise in the public sector. JRD was equally clear about his antipathy for what he termed negative socialism mindset of our politicians and the bureaucratic rigidities “which aimed at and have been aiming at preventing undesirable things being done rather than encouraging desirable ones; at reducing the income of the relatively well-to-do rather than increasing that of the poor; at restraining initiative and action by good elements because of misconduct by a few bad ones; and at pursuing ideological goals, however detrimental to the economy rather than harnessing all forces for producing wealth and taxing them for welfare purposes”. In a speech given by him at a Planning Commission meeting of industrialists in 1968, he said: “In fact, the only fearsome concentration of economic power, that exists today, lies in the hands of ministers, planners and government officials. It is this concentration of power which is a real threat to democracy.” On communism, he was very clear: “The Indian socialists cling to a 19th century Marxist form of socialism notwithstanding the fact that almost every economic theory and prophesy of Marx has been falsified in the last hundred years.” His belief in corporate social responsibility was pioneering. His sense of fairness and transaction-orientation is something that I have come to cherish and practise. Such qualities generated warmth for JRD in even fiery union leaders like Prof Bari. What would his dream for India of 2030 be? In his lecture — India 2030 A D, delivered in 1981, he envisioned an India which will control her population growth rate; where women will see value in family planning; where Indians will make spectacular success in genetics, molecular biology and other sciences and technologies; and an India which will have reached 6% annual growth rate in GDP. Well, successive governments from Narasimha Rao’s to Manmohan Singh’s have made this possible. If only our communist friends show a little bit of foresight, I am confident we will be able to fulfill the worthy dream of one of Inda’s finest sons. (The author is chairman, Infosys)

 

©Bennett, Coleman and Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

Servant Leadership : All About

Servant Leadership:

Is it an Academic Jargon or a Lifestyle?

Although the subject of servant leadership has generated considerable academic interest, the paper argues that it is not a subject that remains in classrooms but a lifestyle that expresses high level leadership. Briefly, this paper argues that true a servant leader is the one who goes out there to practice the principles of servant leadership. The paper argues that one cannot consider him/herself as a servant leader, unless there is a practical expression of loving service to followers. Using a high-quality leader member exchange relationship (LMX), the servant leader seeks trust and follower compliance as prescribed by the biblical principles of 1 Corinthians 13, and using the model of Jesus Christ as the perfect prototype of the servant leader.

Since Greenleaf wrote about servant leadership in 1977 a lot of books and articles have been written; organizations have been founded; and existing organizations have extracted Greenleaf’s teachings and incorporated them in their programs. In this paper, I want to explore the practicability of servant leadership with the hope of trying to answer the question whether servant leadership is just academic jargon learnt for scholastic purposes or whether it is a lifestyle to be espoused. I will explore the definitions of academic jargon, the meaning of a servant, and the meaning of leader then I will provide the practical aspect of servant leadership and show that servant leadership is not just classroom concept but a life that needs to be lived by those who have been entrusted to leadership. This will be done by exploring the concept of leader member exchange (LMX). In this concept the relation between leader and follower is emphasized and it explains that effective leadership can be greatly achieved if the leader is deliberate in how he/she interacts and relates with the follower. This concept agrees with the teachings of Jesus Christ in relationship to how the leader interacts with followers and servant leadership is a proponent of the sort of leadership Jesus ascribes. Jesus spent a long time explaining to His disciples that in a dyad relationship, the leader should consider him/herself not as a boss to the follower but as subordinate to the follower. This follows that the true test of a servant leader is not how competent or knowledgeable he/she is but how he/she relates to his/her followers and how much transformation takes place between them.

Academic jargon defined

Merriam Webster dictionary defines jargon as the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group. It explains that jargon is an obscure and often pretentious language marked by circumlocutions and long words. The principal occupation of the academic community is to invent dialects sufficiently hermetic so as to prevent knowledge from passing between territories. By maintaining a constant flow of written material among the specialists of each group, academics are able to assert the acceptable

2 Servant Leadership: Is it an Academic Jargon or a Lifestyle? - Ndoria

Technique of communication intended to prevent communications. This, in turn, establishes a standard that allows them to dismiss those who seek to communicate through generally accessible language as deformers, or popularizers. Many concepts are discussed in classrooms but never leave the classroom to enter reality and so they remain classroom concepts. Einstein’s special theory of relativity is an example of such concepts (Russell, 1997).

The meaning of servant

Bauer (2000) explains that the Greek word doulos, which is translated servant, has different usages. He posits that the word can be used as a verb to mean to be owned by another or be subjected to another. He mentions that is can also mean to act or conduct oneself as one in total service to another, perform duties of a slave. It can also mean to serve or to obey. The noun of the verb has been used to mean to put in someone’s total control, or to be subject to someone. In a positive sense, Bauer explains that a servant can mean being obedient in a humble way by showing that the one being served is superior or more important. It is in this usage I will further explain. If one were to serve another, he/she needs to consider the person being served more important because it is the presence of the one being served that provides the opportunity for the one serving to assist in that capacity. God expects us to serve others– because humans are important to God. Therefore, it is a special honor to be given the responsibility to serve others. Jesus washed His disciples’ feet in the upper room and gave His disciples an example to follow (John 13:1-17). Biblical servant hood is responsive, respectful, willing, loving, self-sacrificing, and submissive (de Pree, 1997). Servant hood does not mean unthinking obedience. It means that one has a willingness to lower oneself, to humbly serve another person, to put the best interests of someone else above your own enjoyment and concerns.

The meaning of leadership

Yukl (2002) defines leadership as a process that involves intentional influence by one person over other people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or in an organization. Garner (1986) defines leadership as the process of persuasion and example by which an individual induces a group to take action that is in accord with the leader’s purposes or the shared purposes of all. To explain his definition of leadership, Gardner has assigned different tasks to leadership as follows: (1) the leader has the responsibility to envision goals; (2) he/she affirms values; (3) he/she motivates followers; (4) he/she has the responsibility of achieving a workable unity among followers; (5) he/she shares information of what is going on and why; (6) he/she serves as a symbol to the organization; (7) represents the organization as well as renewing it during times of change. With these tasks in mind, it imperative to understand that leadership has to do with how the individual undertakes his/her responsibility to extract the best out of others. Biblical leadership is responsible, compassionate, understanding, accountable, competent, respectable, authoritative, pioneering, exemplary, and God-fearing. Being a leader does not mean making all the decisions. Nor does it refer to being the "boss" in organizations, but it implies taking initiative, accepting responsibility, and shouldering the weight of accountability before God.

Servant leadership defined

How can servant hood and leadership be compatible? From the definitions of servant hood and leadership, it is instructive to note that it is not a contradiction of terms, but an all encompassing concept that defines some of the highest forms of leadership. Servant leadership espouses a concept that reveals the nature of the leader in relationship to the followers. Spears (1998) defines servant leadership as is a practical philosophy concerned with the ethical use of power and authority. He explains that servant leaders believe that power and authority are for helping others grow, not for exploiting, ruling, or taking advantage by setting groups or individuals against each another. Spears (1998) explains that servant-leadership is a practical philosophy supporting people who serve, first, in their life, and then, work. To spread out that service to individuals and institutions, they choose to lead, whether in a formal position or an informal position. In either position, they encourage trust, insight, listening, cooperation, and the ethical use of power. Servant-leaders also have the courage to become the change agents they wish to see in the world. In biblical use of the concepts, leadership does not mean dictatorship, nor is a servant someone who is mindlessly compliant to every impulse of a master.

Jesus had the right to dictate by virtue of His authority and power, but He came to earth and took on human flesh (John 1:14; Phil 2), patiently putting up with flawed and obstinate people in order to provide mankind with the highest form of leadership. He provided strong leadership; nevertheless, His love for people permeated His leadership style. He did not compel anyone to follow Him. Rather He earned the reverence and compliance of

Servant Leadership Research Roundtable – August 2004 3

men and women and they willingly followed Him. That's the kind of leadership men/women need to provide today.

In his reading of Greenleaf, Spears (1998) has identified a set of ten characteristics which he ascribes to the servant-leader. These include the following:

1. Listening receptively to what others have to say. Willingness to listen to the will of the group and make informed decisions from the group’s voice as pertaining to vision of the organization is critical to servant leadership. James 1:19 instructs us to be slow to speak and quick to listen. Listening allows one to tap resources from others.

2. Empathy. – choosing to accept and recognize people for their unique spirits to identify individual needs and concerns. Jesus never ignored human needs but He identified Himself with them and met those needs (John 5).

3. Healing – seeking to be a potential for mending broken spirits. This is a critical characteristic because it describes a willingness to seek to minister to the deep personal needs of individuals. This is a practice that was apparent in the character of Christ who laid down His life for the same of others and His life on earth constantly portrayed this characteristic when He not only met physical need of healing, but He also forgave sins (Mark 2).

4. Awareness – being sharply aware and reasonably disturbed, about oneself and the environment. Biblical teachings encourage discernment and good judgment (1Cor 2:14). Servant leaders should cultivate the ability to judge all things and test every situation. A good leader is the one who makes sound judgments and discerns problems through well thought out spiritual disciplines. The servant leader needs to appreciate that he/she has own shortcomings and needs to understand that the work of leading other comes from a higher calling – therefore dependence on God in making decisions and discerning the surrounding environment.

5. Persuasion – It is the duty of the servant leader to convince instead of coercing or using positional authority. Just as the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin (John 16:8) without coercing us into blind obedience, follower compliance should be sought from persuasion instead of coercion because convincing is more effective than coercing. The reason for this is that followers’ self motivation can never be coerced.

6. Conceptualization – seeking for the ability to dream great dreams for oneself, the followers, and the organization. Only a person who is totally committed to others can dream great dreams for others because people have a propensity to seek only for one’s good. Due to the fallen nature of humans, selfishness plays itself in almost all people and only a person who has genuinely been changed is capable of dreaming for others. 1 Cor. 13 intimates that love seeks the good in others.

7. Foresight – using the lessons from the past, realities of the present, and the likely consequences of the decisions one makes for the future. Prov. 29:18 (KJV) states, “Without a vision, people perish.” Ross (1991, p. 1116) comments that Israel’s well being depended on obedience to divine revelation. If prophetic revelatory vision in Israel was missing then the nation had no direction, resulting in disobedience to the law. Leaders that do not communicate the vision will be unproductive due to lack of follower direction and motivation.

8. Stewardship – cultivating a sense of holding something in trust for another. Any responsibility the servant leader has for the organization, he/she would have to uphold with trust and conviction because he/she is supposed to do all things for the sake of the organization. Whatever one does in an organization should be done for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). This would be done with the conscious knowledge that he/she is only entrusted responsibility for a season.

9. Commitment to the growth of the people – consistently reminding oneself that people have an intrinsic value beyond their contributions as workers. The servant leader takes up responsibility knowing that that God created humans in His own image and likeness (Gen 1:26). He/she serves to develop the better not only to be better workers, but also better humans. If God gave humans such an incredible value, then the servant leader should emulate God by placing the same value on them.

Published by the School of Leadership Studies, Regent University 4 Servant Leadership: Is it an Academic Jargon or a Lifestyle? - Ndoria

10. Building community – the servant leader should demonstrate his/her own unlimited liability for a specific community related group with the belief that each community has its own personality and hopes. Recognition that people are part of each other and that they need each other is critical to building a great organization. Ephesians 4 teaches that the Christians are the body of Christ and each organ of the body needs the other such that when one suffers, all suffer.

 

LMX theory

Leader- member exchange theory (LMX) provides a diagnostic tool for analyzing relationships between a worker and leader. LMX theory defines leadership as the specific work interactions between a leader and an individual worker. LMX theory also gives us a greater ability to improve the leadership function. For example, understanding the LMX process can aid managers in improving communication with workers, reducing unwanted turnover, and improving worker performance (Graen, Scandura, & Graen, 1986).

LMX theory operates on two basic foundations:

1. LMX theory hypothesizes that leader-worker relationships can be divided into two basic categories: High-quality relationships or in-group relationships, where the leader and follower both perform work roles above the norm for a given workplace (Cashman, Dansereau, Graen, & Haga, 1976). In this relationship a leader gives in-group members greater job autonomy, flexibility, and rewards (Waldron, 1991). (Kozlowski & Doherty, 1989) posit that high-quality relationships have more frequent leader and follower communications, greater exchange of work related information, and development of increasingly similar perceptions of the work environment.

2. LMX relationship is a low-quality, or out-group, LMX relationship. In these relationships both the leader and the worker typically conform to minimum output levels implied by the work contract. Also, communication between parties (Kozlowski & Doherty, 1989) and mutual perceptions of the workplace will deteriorate throughout the existence of the relationship (Waldron, 1991).

 

In servant leadership LMX as described by high-quality relationships defines the most effective relation between the leader and follower. One who is committed for the good of the followers will most likely be one who has close interactions with the followers. Relationships between the leader and follower can predict job satisfaction and low turn over rates because both the leader as well as the followers performs their tasks beyond the prescribed work roles. Yukl (2002) proposes that leaders identified as close to the constituents are often described in terms of follower motivation, task behavior, and identification with the leader. This quality is more apparent in servant leadership because the leader is in close proximity to the constituents. In other words, the servant leader motivates the workers to go the extra mile because of the high-quality relationship. The greatest servant leader ever lived is Jesus Christ who has a high-quality relationship with His disciples such that after His departure from the earth, the disciples were able to continue with the work of evangelism because they were both motivated and they had learned from the close proximity of Jesus Himself.

Servant Leadership is a learned lifestyle

Leadership without loving service produces an unbalanced, ugly creature. To be willing to take the role of a servant requires deliberate acts of love. The kind of man/woman worth following expresses the love described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. The love described in 1 Corinthians 13 has the following characteristics:

1. It is kind and therefore does not hold grudges. The servant leader has to be conscious that he has been committed to represent the organization, which is in itself and honor. That means that his/her dealings with the followers have to be genuine without any trace of holding grudges against any of them – whether he disagrees with them or not.

2. It is patient and therefore always hopes the best and thinks of the best for the others. Even when the followers make mistakes, the servant leader is likely to chastise them with love and patience and will not rejoice in the evil that would happen to them.

3. Love protects others. The servant leader knows he is a steward who has been entrusted with responsibility of leading people. He tries as much as he can to protect the followers and he hopes that some good will come out them. He believes in their abilities and rejoices in truth such that

Servant Leadership Research Roundtable – August 2004 5

before he/she can believe any rumor concerning one follower, he/she must establish the truth first before taking any formal action.

4. Loves covers a multitude of other grounds including: it is not easily angered; it not envious, boastful, proud, rude, selfish, and not a thinker of evil; it perseveres, trusts, and hopes in others.

 

A leader who expresses that kind of love prescribed by 1 Cor 13 won't have trouble finding followers who would be more than willing to submit to his/her leadership. Such love requires that a man/woman become vulnerable to being hurt and rejected, that he/she put aside his pride and humble himself for the good of others. This kind of leadership can only be exemplified by servant leadership. And it shows that love is not only a concept to be studied but it is also a life to be lived.

Spears (1998) posits that many individuals within institutions, along with some institutions themselves, have adopted servant-leadership as a guiding philosophy. He intimates that at the heart of the servant-leader concept is the importance of leaders to nurture both the institution and those individuals affected by the institution. One notable example is Greenleaf Center has made a significant impact on the development of community leadership.

Spears (1998), comments that around 1980 several articles appeared concerning the linkage between the servant-leader concept and experiential education programs. Servant-leadership is increasingly viewed as the ethical basis for many service-oriented education programs at colleges and universities, as well as some secondary school programs.

Spears (1998), explains that in the area of corporate training, servant-leadership is increasingly utilized as part of a broader program by consultants working directly with companies. A related area of activity has to do with the growing interest in bringing together servant-leadership and Total Quality Management (TQM). Several people have recently published pieces discussing the benefits of using both TQM and servant-leadership in the corporate setting.

Again Spears (1998) continues to highlight the importance of servant leadership by commenting that it is being integrated into a variety of programs involving Jungian psychology; feminist philosophy; men's awareness groups; and, twelve-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. In these diverse programs, servant-leadership is viewed as an ideal model for both personal growth and service to others.

Conclusion

Can the servant leader sit on the peripheries of academic utopia to explain concepts and not go out to the field – to the trenches to explore the applicability of the concept? No. The servant leader is the one who goes to the trenches with the followers and lovingly lead them into greater compliance and achievement through follower motivation. Through a high-quality leader-member exchange the servant leader develops himself as well as others is copying the greatest servant leader that ever lived – Jesus Christ, who, although He was equal with God, He become a servant so that He would deliver God’s people from bondage of sin. He constantly became a role model to His disciples by serving them and teaching them to follow His footsteps. His rallying call was “The one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant” Luke 22:26(NASB).

 

 

 

Power of Servant Leadership

A couple of weeks back I listened to a seminar conducted by Microsoft on "The Power of Servant Leadership".  Here is the Live Meeting link to this recording: https://www119.livemeeting.com/cc/marketing4/view?id=seminarbg&pw=650650&cn=servant&email=xx@servant.com&company=servant&fmt=lmm

The speaker was quoting Jesus, Bible, etc. but in a complete secular way.  Though I am not a Christian, I was amazed to see how effective he was in "absorbing"  the religious principles and able to apply it to practical situations like  Leadership without bringing in  the religion itself into picture.

- Chirantan Mandal
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To many time we confuse motion with progress. - Cyclops