Page 74 - Harnessing the Strengths

Dilemma 1: Leading Versus Serving ■ 57

most internationally known authors and experienced pro-
fessionals in this fi eld come from the West, which is why
they are so used to thinking from a power model, and why
it seems that the logical fi rst step is to start with serving and
go in the direction of the other style.
It is also typically Western to assume that a servant-leader
represents the pyramid on its head. This is generally right, but
a servant-leader will also make sure that the pyramid is set
right again with the broad bottom as a base. In times of crisis,
when a top-down approach is necessary, a servant-leader will
take the reins, and that is what is expected of him or her. For
leaders in an Eastern culture, serving is the status quo; the
real challenge is in strengthening their leadership.
This is the case in practice. It takes two weeks of train-
ing to teach an American fl ight attendant how to appear
to enjoy serving passengers. This is in stark contrast to
fl ight attendant from Singapore Airlines or, indeed, from
Southwest, where Colleen Barrett brought in the concept
of servant-leadership years ago. In their case, the notion of
serving seems to sit in their cultural DNA.
Employees from both are formed by their cultures and
bring these with them to work. For the American fl ight
attendant, serving is an area of development, while the Chi-
nese colleague would need to give extra attention to personal
leadership qualities. For a servant-leader, it does not matter
where the circle begins. Some leaders are busy for the fi rst
fi fty years of their lives gathering enough authority to be
seen as a leader. During the following ten or twenty years,
the leader uses this authority to serve. Others have served for
years in order to become a leader in a later stage. Whatever
the starting point, the servant-leader is about two-way traf-
fi c and mutual dependence, because dependence as a pure
servant is not sustainable, just as top-down power is not. A