LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT SERVICE

Arguably the most important title the Pope bears is Servus Servorum Dei – ‘Servant of the Servants of God.’

If it is good enough for Jesus that ‘the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve’, then equally we should expect it of his delegate, the Pope, in whose hands the leadership of the church has been entrusted. Having a leader whose primary focus is that of service also says a great deal about the type of church community we desire and need.

There is much wisdom in the marvellous Irish proverb, ‘We live in the shelter of each other’. What a splendid image of service! Caring for one another is what strong communities do. Indeed, it was Pope John Paul II who reminded us that the quality of any community can be measured by the care it provides for its weakest members.

‘None of us is as strong as all of us’ was at one time the clever catch cry of fast-food giant McDonald’s. What a difference it would make to our world if we could all adopt the African philosophy of happiness expressed in the adage ‘I am because we are’!

A healthy community is one where people learn to value and respect each other, even if they don’t always get along or get their own way or have their needs met. Here they learn what it means in practice to say, ‘I am because we are’. Here they understand that life is about us, and not just about me. Community, above all, is the place where we respect and celebrate our differences.

In teaching young people about leadership over the years, I have often returned to some of the following quotations:

• It is not necessary to be an official to be a leader.

• To lead the people walk behind them (Chinese sage, Lao-tse).

• Leadership is the ability to make a group do what it knows it must do.

• Leaders inspire people to lead themselves.

• Leadership is the ability to declare a thoughtful ‘NO’ in the face of a chorus of empty ‘yeses’.

• Leadership is the struggle between approval and conscience.

• Leadership is never for its own sake. Leadership sets out to empower others to achieve what they need but do not have. Leadership fundamentally is about service.

• Leaders are not people who do great things for themselves. They are people who set out to do great things for others.

• The tragedy of life is to assume that what is must be.

• Leadership is the ability to pursue the greater good whether anyone else is going in that direction or not.

• Leadership is being a light in the darkness (see Psalm 112).

• A leader is a dealer in hope (Napoleon).

• Leadership is from the inside out.

Pope John Paul II kisses the tarmac at Canberra airport on his arrival in Australia in 1986.

One of the recurring themes here is that leadership is about service, about taking responsibility for oneself and others. Servant leadership is about empowerment and participation, about being ‘with’ and ‘for’ people, generally from below, non-violent and non-coercive, and allowing for failure and weakness.

When noted American author Margaret Wheatley was asked what servant leadership had to offer the world in the aftermath of September 11, she had this to say in an interview:

‘What I find in servant-leadership that I still find missing in the world is this fundamental respect for what it means to be human. And I think that right now the greatest need is to have faith in people. That is the single most courageous act of a leader. Give people resources, give them a sense of direction, give them a sense of their own power and just have tremendous faith that they’ll figure it out. We need to move from the leader as hero to the leader as host. Can we be as welcoming, congenial and invitational to the people who work with us, as we would be if they were our guests at a party? Can we think of the leader as a convenor of people? I am realising that we can’t do that if we don’t have a fundamental and unshakeable faith in people.’

As a world leader, Pope John Paul II had a remarkably strong faith in people. His many pilgrimages to far distant lands around the globe carried the message of hope to people of all ages : ‘You have the strength within you to build a better world, to promote unity where there has been division, to develop peace where there has been conflict and war’.

To the young people at Murrayfield, Scotland’s home of Rugby, he would offer the following challenge in 1982:

‘Left alone to face the difficult challenges of life today, you feel conscious of your own inadequacy and afraid of what the future may hold for you. But what I say to you is this: place your lives in the hands of Jesus. He will accept you, and bless you, and he will make such use of your lives as will be beyond your greatest expectations.’

There is an old African proverb which claims that ‘God gives nothing to those who keep their arms crossed.’ With outstretched arms constantly in motion, John Paul II reached out to embrace people of every persuasion across the world. His was a servant leadership of the highest order in which he strived constantly to live out one of the oldest titles popes have placed against their name – servus servorum Dei.