Pondering the Significance of Servant Leadership
By Nicholas Jones '17 - '17
People often confuse the meaning of “servant leadership.” They think it’s an oxymoron, or that it doesn’t make sense. They ask, “How can you lead someone if you’re serving them?”
The simplest example to clarify is the idea of the president of a country. By being a president, a person is leading their people. They are, however, serving their country by doing so. In the action of leading them and trying to help them have a better life, a president is serving them. This is the simplest idea that embodies “servant leadership.”
“Think about the children” is an often-quoted expression. Every presidential candidate discusses how the future of a society rides on the shoulders of that society’s youth. Guess what you do in servant leadership at Darlington? You help kids.
You go to the Boys & Girls Clubs and McHenry Primary School, and you play with them and provide them with a good outside influence. These kids look up to you, and see you as this playmate and good person. Kids who don’t have good parental figures see these Darlington students every afternoon, who not only help them and provide an authority figure, but also connect with them. By going to servant leadership, and being a good servant, you are leading these kids to a better future.
Social welfare programs are a topic that everyone has an opinion on. Ranging from extreme governmental aid on one side, to leave-them-in-the-cold on the other side, no one can reach a governmental or economic consensus on how to help the needy. What nearly everyone can agree on, however, is that food kitchens and homeless shelters are important in aiding the downtrodden, even if they don’t want their money going to fund those things.
That’s where servant leadership comes in. Servant leadership goes to the Rome Action Ministries Bagwell Food Pantry. They help serve the homeless, and give them a means to get their lives back on track. By doing Servant leadership, you are helping rehabilitate forgotten members of society and leading them to become contributing members of their community.
Art is an incredibly diverse and significant field. It is a vital part of society; a way of expressing thoughts and feelings that can range from abstract and imaginative to critical and political. Art has existed as long as humans have, as it is the rawest and purest form of expressing human thought and feeling. Servant leadership helps to foster the arts; it helps to foster the creative expressions that empower and enlighten people. Servant leaders volunteer at the Rome Little Theatre, allowing the organization to continue to function and allowing the arts to impact lives. Servant leaders also help with the Darlington plays, participate in arts events, and generally help to foster the growth and expansion of creative thought.
Lastly, servant leadership is a life-improving movement. Without servant leaders, many of the important events in our society couldn’t occur. Without servant leaders willing to participate in Light the Lake, R.A.C.E. Rome and our Blood Assurance blood drives, all of these fantastic events would fizzle out and die. Without servant leaders willing to work, and give up afternoons, and participate for the betterment of their community, society would be weaker as a whole. Servant leadership is a vital piece of incredibly important aspects of our community.
