Servant leadership is a phrase that, on its face, seems to be a contradiction. After all, we suppose, a leader is the one in charge, and the servant is the one the leader is in charge of. How can one be both? In the business world, the phrase “servant leadership” was popularized in the 1960s by Robert Greenleaf, who offered a new model to replace “scientific management” and other rigid, hierarchical models. Yet the concept was not new. It merely echoed the teaching of our Savior, whose example and teaching has inspired the Society’s model of servant leadership from the beginning.

When the sons of Zebedee sought a place of honor among the disciples, Jesus explained to them what this meant, saying, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” This was a radical notion for His time and for ours. Who seeks out leadership only to become the lowest?

Some members are reluctant, at first, to take on a leadership role because they do not see themselves as the kind of “commanders” or charismatic figures that the word “leader” conjures in our cultural imagination. The average Vincentian would rather help others as part of the team. Yet this very reluctance towards being in charge was one of the things the St. Vincent considered a key attribute for leadership. Indeed, he said that one brother’s “unimaginable passion for being in charge” actually “frightened” him! [CCD II:326] He even went so far as to say that if one thinks she should be a leader because “she is more capable, would be a better leader, has greater experience, is more prayerful…that’s a diabolical spirit”. [CCD IX:532]

Our Rule says that we should choose for “Council and Conference leadership positions [those] who will carry out their tasks with the same dedication with which they work within their own Conference.” This is not to say Council leadership should merely be like Conference work, but that leaders should “participate regularly in meetings and charitable activities of the Society and visit the poor as often as possible.” [Rule, Part III, St. 12] The commentaries explain further that Council leaders from District to National should “belong to a Conference…This a beautiful custom, which ensures that everyone operates at the ‘grass-roots’ level and ‘keeps their feet on the ground’.”

In the Society, leadership is an essential part of every member’s calling, and it is never removed or separated from the membership we share. As servant leaders, we do not command, but rather serve God, the poor, and each other. As Emmanuel Bailly, the first Conference President, and the first President-General, explained in an 1841 Circular Letter, “No member is above another member”.

Contemplate

If I am reluctant to be “in charge”, am I willing to be a servant?

By Timothy Williams,
Senior Director of Formation & Leadership Development
Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA.