Page 181 - Harnessing the Strengths

164 ■ Getting Started with Servant-Leadership

From the previous chapters, it is clear that servant- leadership
is the most effective model in an intercultural context.
Servant-leaders have the ability to not get lost in a quagmire
of clashing cultures.
There are many different thoughts about leadership.
Some think that “you either have it or you don’t.” If that
were really the case, there is little hope for those people
who “haven’t got it.” Experience teaches us, however, that
there are some born leaders, but leadership, and specifi cally
servant-leadership, can defi nitely be developed. The same
thing goes for organizations: by focusing on developing cer-
tain processes and systems, it is possible to unveil dilemmas
and to create a “reconciling or servant organization.”
Developing people and organizations in the direction
of servant-leadership is exactly what keeps the Greenleaf
Center for Servant-Leadership, as well as Trompenaars
Hampden-Turner (THT), busy. Until recently the focus at
THT was on the question of the competence of a servant-
leader to reconcile differences. Today, there is good insight
into the qualities that are effective in intercultural environ-
ments, and attention has been shifted to the next question:
How can you connect these qualities with better perfor-
mance and competitive advantage, through the implemen-
tation of servant-leadership?
The Internet is used intensively to research this, by gath-
ering information about participants of various workshops.
The codifi cation and analysis of more than 8,000 dilem-
mas that leaders deal with has led to interesting insights.
An example of this is the “Golden Dilemmas.” The Golden
Dilemmas are those that enable us to chart the effectiveness
of the leader and the organization. Even more interesting,
with this analysis, it is possible to predict the effectiveness
of leaders and organizations.