Servant-Leadership by John

Servant-Leadership by John - May 2018 Scholarship Essay

Well, I’ve been lucky enough to have plenty of role models in my experiences so I could be exposed to a variety of different styles and leadership philosophies. But I think the most fruitful opportunity I’ve had to develop my own leadership style has been through the Boy Scouts of America. I’m a proud member of the BSA and I was privileged enough to earn the rank of Eagle Scout after 10 years in the program. Now the capstone requirement of the Eagle rank, is of course, the Leadership Service Project – which is a final example of our responsibility to the community.
For my project, I installed a 1000sq. ft. paver patio for a local American Legion post that was pretty active in the community themselves but could have used a better space for themselves – it wasn’t in particularly good shape. So I saw this as an opportunity to give back to veterans and improve the quality of community spaces. And so the responsibility of leadership fell to me.
Here’s the thing: so many times I’ve worked on other projects for other people and it’s very clear to me that their leadership style is one of delegation. They sit back, they have the master plan, and they tell everyone else what to do. Now from a productivity standpoint, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s efficient and it makes good use of time and resources, and it’s an important part of any project. But I feel it’s insufficient. I have been heavily influenced by servant-leadership, and I believe that if the leader is not doing the most work and is the most involved, there’s a problem.
We lead by example, by learning, and leadership is an opportunity to teach. It seems paradoxical, but I believe my ultimate goal as a leader is to eliminate myself from the equation. To teach the “followers” and enable them to be leaders themselves for others. That way, instead of creating a system of dependence that can be taken down with one person, we build a stronger system of interdependency, and hopefully, a stronger community as well.
And I think my project managed to do that. I learned a lot from the professionals who got involved, I was transparent with my volunteers, many of them Scouts themselves, so they could get a sense of how to do a similar project themselves. But ultimately I was most excited to see the change that happened from within the American Legion post. In many ways my project was a catalyst for continued developments for the Legion: we managed to enable and empower them to see their own projects through to the end. Enabling the community: it’s a pretty great feeling.