EU: what is a servant leader?

The essence of servant leadership i find in a quote by Arthur Koestler :

The egotism of the social holon feeds on the altruism of its members.

For me, servant leadership is the application of the mechanism described above. The servant leader is at the border of the social holon.

She (he) is not an altruistic member, because she does not "give away" in the sense of a zero sum game. Nor is the servant leader the holon itself, because it is not her (his) egotism that is being fed. The servant leader is the point of least resistance between the holon and its members.

The servant leader pays no attention to the members. She (he) pays 100% attention to the social holon. The servant leader "feels" the total of the members' altruism / energizing life force / that brings the social holon into existence. And she (he) gives direction to this energy.

The holon can not live without its members. But the servant leader is "lifted" by the total energy of the group, and into the position that is like a crossroads ; it is the speed and the volume of the energy that keeps the servant leader going. This in effect is a state of "doing nothing", or "wu wei". For a better understanding please consult Joseph Jaworski's book "Synchronicity : the inner path ofleadership"..

The servant leader never "looks" at the members, because the members "look" at her (him) ; after all, she IS the leader. If she were to look at the members, it would confuse the members because then their attention would reflect back onto themselves, and their altruism ("giving") would necessarily cease to flow.

Unfortunately, there is no substitute for experience.
Nevertheless i hope that my writings have shed some light on my personal beliefs.

Hope this helps,
Best regards, Ron
Senator at Europe United
Author of "Bilocality and the inner world of attention"