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The
Leadership of Listening
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By David Diggs and John Engle
What is the common image |
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a leader in our society? Many
picture a leader
as
someone
speaking to |
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A
small group discussion during an Open
Space gathering in Haiti that brought Haitian and
international leaders together to focus on ways of finding
more resources to support community-based projects.
Creating space for leaders to listen to and learn from
one another is a key Beyond Borders strategy for developing
greater leadership. |
cheering
crowds, issuing
orders, and surrounded by handlers and bodyguards. This
image is prevalent because power is often taken as a
license to talk and not listen, to tell and not ask,
to demand and not serve. This command-and-control style
of leadership is widespread in Haiti, too, where centuries
of autocratic rulers sought to centralize power and
eliminate other forms of leadership.
Through The Experiment in Alternative Leadership, Beyond
Borders is promoting a different model of leadership
in Haiti, a model based on the teaching of Jesus, who
said, “Whoever would be greatest among you must
become the servant of all.” This “servant
leadership” model is grounded in the belief that
the best leaders are not marked by the ability to amass
and centralize power into their own hands, but by the
ability to empower others to lead and take charge of
their lives and their communities.
The Experiment in Alternative Leadership has been promoting
servant leadership in a wide variety of settings in
Haiti: in local non-governmental organizations, with
school teachers and administrators in elementary and
secondary schools, with organizations that care for
street children, children in domestic servitude, and
children with disabilities, for several organizations
that promote literacy and adult education, for leaders
of youth organizations, and more.
One tool we use to promote servant leadership in Haiti
is called Open Space Technology.
Open Space is a method for organizing meetings in a
way that allows everyone in attendance to participate
in creating the agenda. It is widely known that whoever
creates the agenda for a discussion or a meeting exercises
great control over the outcome of the meeting. Voices
outside the periphery of power may never be heard because
their issues never appeared on the agenda. Open Space
allows everyone to participate in creating the agenda,
giving voices |
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were |
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| previously
silenced a space to be heard and causing the invisible
walls we erect within organizations and society to come
tumbling |
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| down.
Participants in Open Space |
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Young
Haitian leaders participating in an Open Space gathering.
Topics for group discussion have been posted by participants
on the wall above.
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and Reflection
Circles
begin to capture a different vision of leadership,
a vision embodied in Jesus, who day in and day out
had the heart and courage to listen to voices that
others turned off. He made himself vulnerable. He
was out there and unprotected—no office door
to shut, no secretary to screen calls; he did not
even have a house to go home to. Whether it was the
poor widow, the leper, or the religious leaders mocking
him, he was available to hear what people had to tell
him.
Perhaps to some, servant leadership sounds idealistic
and impractical. Someone has to “lay down the
law” to keep things from degenerating into chaos,
they believe. In our experience, though, servant leadership
is the most effective way to stimulate creativity,
initiative, and motivation among people. The growth
that happens in a setting like this may be less predictable,
but it is far more organic and vibrant than growth
within a command-and-control structure. Some leaders
will find it difficult to talk less and listen more;
and sharing power will not come easily. But for leaders
who are tired of always being in control, servant
leadership can be a liberating alternative. And, in
fact, that is what servant leadership is ultimately
about—liberating rather than controlling people.
And as we are liberated to pursue our calling we are
freed to listen to and be led by the Holy Spirit,
which is the most liberating leadership of all.
Learn more about the Experiment
in Alternative Leadership.
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Learn more about Beyond Borders' efforts to promote the
development of more local lead ership in Haiti through the
Experiment in Alternative
Leadership.
"The
most basic of all human needs is the need to understand
and be understood. The best way to understand people is
to listen to them."
![]() Ralph Nichols
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