Servant leadership isn’t a panacea. It isn’t the current buzz word in management training settings. It isn’t a quick fix to a problem that took a long time to create. In fact, it is a way of being – it is a worldview.
For an officer, it is a concept that is asking many of us to do something that we are not comfortable with because it asks us to be vulnerable. Vulnerability and the officer safety mindset don’t mix well. How can we bring a concept like servant leadership to a culture of officers who are cynical?
What thoughts do you have about how a worldview as basic and powerful as servant leadership can be cultivated in a culture which is suspicious by their developed nature? How can leaders assure those they serve grow and become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? More likely to become servants to their community?
I look forward to your responses.
Kim Edmondson