Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a wonderful film and
a fitting end to the series. If you have any mental and emotional bandwidth
left over as you’re watching Harry save the world, you might also put your
leadership lens on for some examples of servant leadership in action.
Servant leadership is based on the principle that the leader
is the servant of the people that he or she leads. Servant leaders have a
desire to serve first and lead second. The concept was first articulated by an
AT&T executive named Robert Greenleaf in the mid-20th century and he
eventually wrote a book on the subject - Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
The president of the Greenleaf Centre, Larry Spears, has
identified ten characteristics of servant leaders. You will find that Harry Potter
embodies all or most of them. Here they are:
•Listening
•Empathy
•Healing
•Awareness
•Persuasion
•Conceptualisation
•Foresight
•Stewardship
•Commitment to
people’s growth
•Building community
As you watch Harry Potter in his last movie, look for those
characteristics of a servant leader. Perhaps
those qualities are one reason the books and movies have been such a
phenomenon. People want to be around and be led by people who embody those
traits. Maybe we see in Harry what we
hope or would like to see in ourselves. Maybe the magic was not so much in the
wand and the spells as in the way Harry led others. If that’s the case, all of
us may actually have a shot at being leaders who make a difference. It just
comes down to our motivation and how we act.
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