JB calls for servant leadership

Former president Joyce Banda has called on the world to embrace leaders who were servants of the people before they assumed power than leaders who become servants after assuming power.

Underlining that servant leadership is her philosophy of governance, Banda made the call last week while launching the Above the Parapet programme at the London School of Economics (LSE) in the United Kingdom.

Above the Parapet is a new programme at LSE, coordinated by the Institute of Public Affairs, which aims at exploring the journeys taken by the women who shape public life.

In her public lecture titled Investigating Women’s Journey into Public Life, Banda—quoting leadership theorist Robert K. Greenleaf—said the servant leader is servant first.

“Leadership begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.

“That person is sharply different from one who is a leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions,” she said.

Banda also said her mission in life has been to empower women and youths through business and education.

“I am a self-made leader. I have moved from where I was not sure where my next meal would come from. On this journey, I have believed that leadership is about falling in love with the people you serve and the people falling in love with you. I truly believe in servant leadership,” she said.

Chairperson of the Above the Parapet programme, Professor Baroness Haleh Afshar, hailed Banda as a woman with an extremely impressive track record and described her as a ‘formidable woman’.