How to guide ‘complexity’ in a style of service

The first day of the international conference of the heads of the Camillian Disaster Service,  in which 57 people from 15 countries are taking part, was marked by a long moment of thought and retreat on the subject of ‘servant leadership’. The question that guided the paper of Father Joseph Banchong (Salesian) centred around: ‘how can one live leadership in a style of service?’

After a survey of some leadership styles (boss, democratic, laissez faire), he analysed theories of the 1970s that had been promoted by Greenleaf in the United States of America. The central concept is that if you want to be a good manager you must set yourself to serve, valuing, and working on, a sort of ‘natural’ predisposition to service. Father Banchong offered a detailed analysis that sought to compare and contrast the approach of Greenleaf and the approach of the Gospel.

Supporting life, generating energy, and assuring growth and maintaining it, are the various stages of servant leadership. The paper witnessed the alternation of moments of discussion with the presentation of personal experiences of the author. The central message of the paper can be summarised in the following way: a good leader must be a person who is capable of offering service. In other words, a leader who is capable of offering service provides support; is aware; is capable of building the future; is able in foreseeing what will occur; promotes accompanying; and is committed to making people grow, thereby constructing community with a style of animation. Such a leader cultivates a culture of trust. This style of leadership promotes other leaders. It encourages people and tries to ‘sell’ rather than to say. It tries to convince and not to manipulate. It places at the centre of things not myself but us. The final part of the paper was dedicated to the figure of King Rama IX, the King of Thailand, who died recently after a reign of seventy years lived in a style of service.

PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY