Tom,
Your thoughtful posts again get me thinking. I’m maybe less sure than you are that your Greenleaf anecdote is in line with the Fifth Tradition.
re: “…‘why are we in this business?’ Their unanimous answer was ‘for our own healing.’” and “Tradition Five – Each group has but one purpose: to help others affected by dis-ease to heal.”
When I think of servant leadership, I tend to think of an ethical duty simply to serve. I don’t think of a concern or desire for self healing. Whether or not I get “healing” seems secondary to the goal of serving others. In fact as it stands, Tradition Five seems silent on a benefit to the servant leader. There’s only ONE purpose: to heal others.
Does that make sense? For instance, think of a parent’s duty to serve his child. It seems odd to me if the parent says, “You know why I decided to be a parent? To ‘be in this business’? ---To heal myself, and raise my child to be healthy, wise, free, autonomous, etc. (best test).”
But I personally expect the parent to only be “in the business” to raise the child well, whether or not he or she heals himself or herself.
I agree healing oneself is a common side effect of helping others. (In your anecdote is Greenleaf holding out a carrot [self-healing] to lure the unsure into servant leadership?!!) But to me, servant leadership is duty to others, whether or not there’s a benefit to myself.
Thank you for your time and effort on these Traditions postings.
Chris,
Not sure my posts are really all that thoughtful, but more about about paraphrasing AA's book "The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" and Alanon's "How it Works" and then trying to find a link to Greenleaf's writings. For me it is basically an easy way to come up with a blog topic that interests me. Just glad that someone else takes an interest in them and challanges me to do some real thinking. Thanks.
Not sure if you have a copy of Greenleaf's "The Servant as Leader" essay, mine comes from his book "Servant Leadership", but he concludes the "Healing and Serving" section with a discussion about Alcoholics Anonymous as another example of an institution (besides ministery, theology, and psychiatry) that is actively engaged in the practice of "healing". I put my own twist on Greenleaf's example to support the Tradition, where he used AA as an example of an "amateur" healing organization, but he did conclude this section by writing "Whether professional or amateur, the motive for the healing is the same: for one's own healing". I probably should have included more on this in the post, but was going to save the connection for another upcoming post on some of the later traditions that deal with the "amature" status of AA.
As a parent of two teenage daughters, I can relate to your thoughts on parenting. When I first got into this business, my last thought was that I was doing it for the kids sake. But having managed to stay in business so far, one thing I am sure of is that my daughters have brought much healing to my life. I am not so sure that I have done the same for them, I hope I have, but to me it seems I have probably gotten more out of the deal then they have. They unfortunately get to learn from me many of my unhealthy practices along with any possible healing I might do.
So based on my experiences, I would not say that Greenleaf is holding out any carrots, but more so simply telling it like it is. He doesn't seem to be one that approved of the use of "carrots" in influencing others.
I can say with no hesitancy that your posts are thoughtful and thought-provoking. Twelve Step programs are common in our world, and I think your "connecting the dots" to servant leadership is unique and helpful.
I would wholeheartedly agree with you that Greenleaf is "telling it like it is," and children can bring much healing.
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