Servant leadership is both a blessing and a curse, I've decided.
Much of my adult life has been spend in servant leadership. Certainly public school teaching positions qualify as servant leadership. In fact, leading any group, as a volunteer, comes under the umbrella of servant leadership.
Sometimes I long to just be a volunteer, not a leader of volunteers. To me, there is, inherent in the term 'volunteer', the ability to cease being a volunteer. Yes, there are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of volunteers across our nation, and, even more if you consider world-wide. I look at Habitat For Humanity, which to me is a gold-standard of volunteerism. The same for the Peace Corps, Red Cross, and USO. Lending one's self is the ultimate in sharing and caring.
Locally, I can think of dozens, even hundreds, of volunteer positions in schools, churches, food pantries, soup kitchens, literacy councils, Boys and Girls' Clubs, Scouting, 4-H, nursing homes, hospitals, libraries..... The list is endless.
But, the bottom line is that the volunteer has the control over his/her time. I believe that, if you interviewed most volunteers, they would agree that flexibility is a prominent reason for volunteering versus having a paid position. Volunteers can go on vacation, choose to take a road trip, take a tour bus into the city to see a musical or visit a museum. This is not the case for the servant leader.
The leader, who is a volunteer as well, has accepted the unspoken expectation of sempre fi, always faithful. Or, to put it another way, always present. The volunteers that I lead are skilled, dedicated and thoughtful participants.............who can come and go at their leisure and, I envy that!
But, I really envy their flexibility of time and choices.................................
OK, enough whining.
Ancora imparo
