Individualism VS Collectivism (nº 6)

Introduction

One of the problems I've seen so far in my career affecting relationship and cohesion in Organizations lies in the extreme individualism of some people, who only seek their personal glory and aggrandizement even above the Project itself.

Reading a post on the blog "1+" by my friend Gurutz Echaniz (called "Los Iluminados Occidentales"), I started thinking deeper about this matter. After we interchanged some messages, Gurutz gave me a couple of interesting ideas related to individualism VS collectivism.

First he told me the following sentence when we discussed about the existence of people who think only of themselves, people who do not have a collective vision of work (at least they do not show it by their actions)

"individual's happiness based in making the difference with the others instead of being different with the others";

Secondly he talked to me about the concept Danah Zohar is promoting right now, the one that says spiritually intelligent people are servant leaders. 

I liked the union between these two words; "leader" + "servant". Strange, isn't it? I decided to go forward in the knowledge about this concept, so this is what it means.

Servant leaders

It seems this concept was born in the early 70s and was created by Robert K. Greenleaf (1904-1990). Until then, the terms "leadership" and "server" were opposit ones, fully antagonistic in business culture.

This is the transcript of the definition of this term made by Mr. Greenleaf:

"The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The best test is: do those served grow as persons: do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived? (Greenleaf, 1977/2002, p. 27)".

Today a lot of creative thinkers are promoting this concept, considering it as a XXI century leadership paradigm.

In Danah Zohar's undbreaking book on quantum sciences and leadership, Rewiring the Corporate Brain (1997), she goes so far as to state that, “Servant-leadership is the essence of quantum thinking and quantum leadership” (p. 146).

Conclusions

It is clear to me that the concepts of leadership (or head) of the past seem obsolete in the XXI century. Managers of people will have to have abilities to serve those who will accompany him on the project (check post nº 7 to see the defiend characteristics for a servant leader).


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