By Barbara Wang
What if leadership could restore balance to our chaotic world? Explore the revolutionary concept of Servant Leadership, a fusion of Western and Eastern thought, where the very essence of Yin-Yang guides leaders towards harmony and collaboration. This article unveils how this powerful approach, steeped in cultural depth, can dismantle division and pave the way for a more ethical and interconnected global future.
The world is grappling with multiple, multifaceted challenges—stagflation, AI ethics, environmental degradation, ideological divides, and geopolitical conflicts—all of which are contributing to a growing crisis in leadership. These crises stem from deep-rooted cultural differences between the West and East, highlighting the urgent need for intercultural leadership. This approach of servant leadership is crucial right now because many current leaders in politics and business are prioritising self-interest and power, leading to widespread mistrust, unethical practices, and a lack of genuine concern for societal well-being. Servant Leadership, developed over four decades, integrates well into Eastern cultures, particularly in Confucian Asia, including China (Hong Kong, Taiwan), Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Combining Western transformational and Eastern paternalistic leadership, it bridges cultural gaps, promoting diversity, understanding, and collaboration.
Servant leaders lead by moral example, without direct intervention. Through “non-action,” they achieve order by self-improvement rather than imposing their will on society or organisations.
Servant Leadership is a leadership philosophy founded by Robert. K Greenleaf, and prioritises serving others first and leading second. It is characterised by selflessness, empathy, humility, and a focus on the well-being of others. Servant leaders prioritise the growth and development of their followers and seek to empower them to achieve their full potential. They also strongly emphasise ethical and moral behaviour and strive to create a positive and supportive work environment.
By blending Western and Eastern leadership strengths, Servant Leadership fosters a balanced, inclusive approach that nurtures relationships, builds trust, and promotes mutual respect across cultures. To gain a deeper understanding of Servant Leadership, it can be examined through three different levels:
1. The Cultural DNA: Yin-Yang
The theoretical foundations of Servant Leadership are rooted in Chinese philosophical concepts, particularly the Yin-Yang doctrine. This doctrine describes the remarkable harmony that arises from the interdependence and interconnectedness of opposing forces, which operate in a cyclical manner. This belief is shared by Eastern philosophies such as Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism and forms a significant part of the DNA of Servant Leadership.
Servant Leadership is distinguished from other leadership values by its emphasis on the unity of opposites, which manifests in six fundamental ways: a shift from linear to cyclical thinking, from one-way to two-way direction, a focus on combining opposites, a holistic perspective, a move from top-down to bottom-up leadership, and a shift from analysis to synthesis. For example, a leader practicing the unity of opposites might balance assertiveness with empathy, ensuring that decisions are both firm and considerate of team members’ needs.
2. The General Principle: Achieve proper order without interfering
The core concept of Servant Leadership prioritises selflessness, empathy, and awareness of group dynamics. Its values include humaneness, benevolence, humility, ethical modeling, respect, community well-being, and social responsibility. These values align with achieving proper order naturally, without imposing intentions. Servant leaders lead by moral example, without direct intervention. Through “non-action,” they achieve order by self-improvement rather than imposing their will on society or organisations. For example, a servant leader might focus on personal development and ethical behavior, inspiring their team to follow suit and naturally fostering a collaborative and respectful work environment without resorting to micromanagement.
3. Servant Leaders’ Behaviours
Servant leaders typically exhibit seven behaviours:
- Serving followers. This involves assisting followers with their work and career, and setting aside the leader’s own work to help them.
- Being authentic means acting with integrity and honesty, allowing followers to challenge decisions, following through, being accountable, and using humble language.
- Building leader-follower relationships involves constantly listening to followers’ opinions and emotions, spending time in one-on-one meetings with followers to share personal challenges and feelings, avoiding favoritism and treating team members with equal respect.
- Acting morally and ethically, openly discussing ethical dilemmas, emphasising the importance of doing the right thing rather than looking good, and explaining the imperative of taking moral action rather than completing a task unethically.
- Providing meaning and purpose, including explaining followers’ roles within the organisation, their personal development, how they can contribute to the team’s overall mission, and the importance of their tasks for the team and organisation.
- Transforming followers. This involves mentoring followers, helping them navigate various professional and personal situations, empowering them to make decisions, take risks, and learn from mistakes on tasks.
- Taking responsibility for the well-being of the organisation. This involves prioritising the well-being and performance of the organisation/community, embracing diversity, and creating harmony by influencing others to work together across functions and cultures.
By embodying these seven behaviours, servant leaders can build strong relationships with their followers, create a sense of meaning and purpose within their organisation, and transform their followers to reach their full potential.
Becoming a Servant Leader
They are “doing” leadership rather than “being” leaders, as servant leaders focus on acting and serving others rather than asserting their authority or position.
A servant leader effectively leads multicultural teams, transforms organisations, and co-creates with the external environment. They are “doing” leadership rather than “being” leaders, as servant leaders focus on acting and serving others rather than asserting their authority or position.
Becoming a servant leader is an ongoing and cyclical process.
The process involves four stages: building an identity and mindset associated with the servant-leader, focusing on specific practices at specific times, and being aware of and maintaining relationships in various social settings.
- Stage 1: Self-cultivating. Yin-yang dualities exist as a whole person, encompassing mind-body, physical, mental, and spiritual aspects. Developing a servant leader’s identity and mindset involves pursuing a balance of heart and mind through self-cultivation.
- Stage 2: Moral role modelling. Developing a Servant Leader identity begins with one’s personal life in the family, where the authentic self is revealed and can be profoundly shaped to serve others and lead only to serve. Morality is nurtured and developed in intimate relationships within families, and as a result, servant leaders naturally create a sense of service to others outside their own family.
- Stage 3: Collectively transforming. Servant leaders naturally and effortlessly become “servants by nature,” forming interconnected relationships between self, family, and community. They help potential leaders reach their best, and followers emerge within the extended family or community. By blending service and leadership into a social and evolving belief, they enable the collective transformation of servant leadership.
- Stage 4: The Great Whole. This refers to the interconnectedness of individuals, families, teams, organisations, communities, and the environment. This interconnectedness is dynamic and individual-centred. When collective transformation occurs, the organisation becomes an organism developed by servant leaders who, by nature, can adapt to and serve a multicultural environment.
To summarise, adopting Servant Leadership enables organisations to thrive in increasingly challenging and fractured societies. It fosters an environment where individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds collaborate, embrace their unique identities, and integrate different cultural aspects to achieve high-performance results.
Barbara Wang
