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Pastor Tomson Dube
Part IV

In my last article, I looked at the application of servant-leadership and discussed three of the attributes of a servant-leader which included healing, awareness, persuasion, and conceptualisation.

Today, I discuss the last of the other attributes of servant-leadership that include foresight, commitment to the growth of people and building community.

The heart of a servant-leader brings order and meaning to employees.

When employees feel order and meaning and that they are a part of a team that stands for something good, that there is higher calling than just working to get a salary, that they are improving mankind, there is an energy level that explodes and great things happen.

My major question is will we see the same in this newly inaugurated Cabinet by President Mnangagwa?

Will Zimbabwe be recognised as one of the most admired countries in the world year after year because of a servant leader? Is the 2030 vision real?

It is my informed position that servant-leadership principles provide the foundation for altruism, defined as the constructive, gratifying service to others, and one of the core values for a successful organisation.

Many organisational leaders see themselves as servant-leaders today.

I have seen and heard on the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation television news from most Honourable Ministers, that they are now themselves servant-leaders.

There is need to serve first. Greenleaf theorised that servant-leadership was to be identified by personal growth of the followers, by the existence of several specific and personal follower outcomes.

Remember, the personal outcomes of servant-leadership are that the followers are themselves healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to become servants.

Foresight – Closely related to conceptualisation the ability to foresee the likely outcome of a situation is hard to define, but easier to identify. One knows foresight when one experiences it.

Foresight is a characteristic that enables the servant-leader to understand the lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely consequence of a decision for the future.

It is also deeply rooted within the intuitive mind. Some literature proffers that foresight remains a largely unexplored area in leadership studies, but one most deserving of careful attention.

“Prescience, or foresight, is a better than average guess about what is going to happen when in the future”.

The servant leader is to possess a kind of sixth sense, first seeing events, and then, almost intuitively, understanding where these events might lead, especially if the consequences were negative.

Thus, the servant leader provided a sort of paternalistic advance warning system for their (less sensitive) followers.

Stewardship – Organisational stewards, or “trustees” are concerned not only for the individual followers within the organisation, but also the organisation as a whole, and its impact on and relationship with all of society.

This is an area that President Mnangagwa will have to work very hard at. Servant-leaders are stewards.
Peter Block, author of Stewardship and The Empowered Manager—has defined stewardship as “holding something in trust for another”.

Robert Greenleaf’s view of all institutions was one in which CEOs, staff and trustees all played significant roles in holding their institutions in trust for the greater good of society.

Remember followers of servant-leaders are to become healthier, wiser, freer, and more autonomous.

They were also, Greenleaf wrote, more likely to emulate the servant-leadership style by becoming servants themselves.

Greenleaf’s writings captured growth as a shared process; one where the leader facilitated, removed obstacles, encouraged, and provided the opportunities for their followers to grow in one of the above ways.

Followers were not viewed as inept, unskilled, and ignorant — needing management (discipline), but as fellow human beings, capable and willing to make their unique contributions – given the proper environment.

I believe the New Dispensation has opened up to people for critiquing its governance structures, its adherence to the rule of law and the wheels of its justice system.

The New Dispensation ushered the Second Republic and this is why there is a clarion call by the masses for accountability.

This was anathema in the past 37 years. Currently, there is freedom of speech before, during and after talking.

So people are waiting, Mr President, to see more of your office exercising your gifting to correcting what has been wrong for a very long time — 37 years to be precise.

Servant-leadership, like stewardship, assumes first and foremost a commitment to serving the needs of others. It also emphasises the use of openness and persuasion, rather than control.

Commitment to the growth of people – A servant-leader shows a demonstrated appreciation and encouragement of others.

Per Greenleaf, “The secret of institution building is to be able to weld a team of such people by lifting them up to grow taller than they would otherwise be”.

The key to continuously grow as a leader – How does a leader train himself? Servant leaders believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contributions as workers.

As such, the servant leader is deeply committed to the growth of each and every individual within his or her organisation.

The servant leader recognises the tremendous responsibility to do everything in his or her power to nurture the personal and professional growth of employees and colleagues.

In practice, this can include (but is not limited to) concrete actions such as making funds available for personal and professional development, taking a personal interest in the ideas and suggestions from everyone, encouraging worker involvement in decision-making, and actively assisting laid-off employees to find other positions.

The current situation in Zimbabwe is seeking a servant-leader that is aware of the skill and level of competence for his team. President Mnangagwa assembled a brilliant Cabinet (I will always say that).

What he has told the world out there is this is a New Dispensation that is determined to grow people. He is declaring that Zimbabwe is not short of intelligent people.

What needs to happen is to configure the people into the right places. It is important for the New Dispensation to mark a great difference from the First Republic.

An appointment can be revoked or a re-assignment employed because of configuration. People need to be put in the right places for good results. The First Republic appointed its officers through entitlement.

We are very grateful to the First Republic that brought independence. It was very good…but this New Dispensation should move beyond entitlement and deliver.

It should demonstrate the commitment to the growth of people and provide the freedom that comes through serving.

Building community – The final attribute that relates to servant-leadership’s application is community building.

Greenleaf spent a career in a prototypical organisation, but wrote of organisational responsibilities beyond profit and self-perpetuation.

He argued that organisations had more stakeholders than just their investors, and that a gap existed between what a society could be, and the present state of affairs of his day.

He wrote that organisations should act to make a positive difference in their communities: that they should be stewards of that which they had accumulated.

The rise of large institutions has eroded community, the social pact that unites individuals in society.

According to Greenleaf, “All that is needed to rebuild community as a viable life form…is for enough servant-leaders to show the way”.

How do servant leaders show the way? People believe in their leaders. If leaders cry, people will cry more.

If as leaders we laugh they too would laugh the loudest. I listened recently to Professor Amon Murwira, Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development when he was speaking at a forum where he said people believe in (us) you as a leader.

They believe in you because of your level or label. People look at you as the giant in the room or organisation.

They expect you to behave well. You therefore have to rebrand your level or label if you had faltered.

As a leader when you speak, people listen, so you need to speak well. This for me is building confidence in oneself and the followers.

It is my belief, and it has also been my own experience, that there is no place that servant-leadership cannot operate.

What is my final word on these attributes? Let me take a couple of slices at this. First, I think it’s important to realise that anybody can choose to practise servant-leadership wherever they are.

It does not require the approval of your manager or CEO, and servant-leadership is within us and it’s about who we want to be and how we want to try to relate to other people.

We don’t need anyone’s approval to act as servant-leaders within organisations. I think it’s important to recognise that.

We can start practising servant-leadership within ourselves and within organisations where we work.

When we get to the point that institutions begin to embrace servant-leadership, that’s great, and for sure, so far, I haven’t found any particular areas where it’s not possible to practise servant-leadership.

What it means is that anyone who is interested in servant-leadership genuinely can seek to practise it.

Of course, one can feel lonely if they feel like they are the only person who’s attempting to practise servant-leadership within an organisation, so trying to find allies within one’s own organisation is a good starting point.

I take it that the President of the Second Republic, President Mnangagwa’s life experience, of course, has become a major part of his desire for practising servant-leadership.

Some of the best servant-leaders have never heard the term “servant-leader,” or read anything about it.

You don’t have to have read anything about servant-leadership to be an effective and faithful servant-leader.

The New Testament (for Christians of whom I am) is an extension of the Old Testament, stating that Jesus was the prophesised Messiah of the Old Testament.

The New Testament says of Jesus, that he did not come to be served, but to serve (Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45).

On one occasion Jesus illustrated the need for sacrificial service by sending his disciples out to preach the gospel (serve) without supplies, without expectation of payment, even without food (Matthew 10, Luke 9).

He told them that service in his cause would require sacrifice and that people would even hate them (Luke 21:16, 17).

The apostle Paul, credited with penning over half the New Testament, also called Christians to serve, “through love, serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).

Paul also set moral standards for leaders, “And let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach” (1 Timothy 3:10). In the next article, I will look at issues of integrity as a servant leader.

l Pastor Tomson Dube is a lead pastor at a local city church in Bulawayo and the University Chaplain at the National University of Science and Technology.

He writes this article in his own personal capacity as a leader and a voice to the nations. You can get hold of Pastor Tomson Dube via e-mail on [email protected]