“Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Be a leader, not a boss. Lead by Serving.
How? We serve ourselves when we serve others: an aptitude Dr. Martin Luther King knew very well, fueled by his art of Servant Leadership as a humanizing art.
We have reached a tipping point, one resulting from necessity. A change, Invisible yet relentless, in the paradigm of humankind.
If you listen to leaders, you will hear them say they no longer feel like traditional leaders. This happened to the great conductor Benjamin Zander when he realized that teaching musicians how to become the best artist they could be, was the most important aspect of his professional life. “– What happened to you? – my orchestra asked me, sensing a change”.
More and more partners and collaborators are seeing and feeling a change in relationships.
Does this change only entail the achievement of personal goals?
The answer to this question might be found in the core function of Servant Leadership, which requires gaining awareness of what is occurring in the present without altering the experience, but rather changing the relationship one has with the experience, and with others.
When this new perception is the result of a new sense of awareness, people can go beyond certain organizational patterns, like cultures, structures, roles and economics, which often limit or undermine ethical action, in order to think and act in accordance to one’s values and aspirations.
All of this produces a completely different circumstance for all people, unlocking our full, collective and organizational potential.
The paradigm shift is actually occurring right now, somewhere in your company, possibly several levels below you and unbeknownst to you, where someone has decided to try something new.
It is a silent revolution that can develop into an evolution, if you are able to read the signals.
If you can locate these people and their initiatives, and if you embrace them, you will be starting a journey: a cultural voyage where you will have to reconcile contradictions, negotiate with the unknown, plunging into purpose, identity, belonging, trust and respect.
And it will be fun, exciting, intense and engaging.
And it will bear fruit, new and inconceivable. There is no doubt about it.
Paolo Marizza
