Even though servant leadership is an ageless idea, the slogan ‘servant leadership’ was invented by Robert K. Greenleaf in, The Servant as Leader, a composition that he originally printed in the year 1970. According to Greenleaf, a “servant-leader” is first a servant first. This starts with the natural sense that one desires to help, to serve. It is then that cognizant choice makes one develop the aspiration to be a leader (Davis & Selvidge, 2015). Such an individual is clearly different from a person who desires to be, first, a leader maybe due to the desire to usurp power or attain material properties. The two are the extreme ends; servant-first and leader-first. There are a lot of things that separate these two in terms of blends and shadings which form an immeasurable diversity of human nature. A servant-leader concentrates mainly on the progress and welfare of individuals and the societies that they come from (Davis & Selvidge, 2015). Whereas old-style leadership normally encompasses the accretion and exercise of authority by the individual at the “topmost level,” servant leadership is quite the opposite sincethe servant-leader does not hold onto power by him/herself. On the contrary, such a leader is mostly concerned with the desires and wishes of others and endevours to assist others in developing and attaining their goals.
The world is still rejoicing the sainthood of one of its leaders, mother Teresa, who has a great history along the lines of charity, love, and compassion. Her deeds and actions are spread over the whole universe, and her legacy is passed from generation to generation. The leader worked towards building a ‘soul' in the city she lived in as well as the world at large. To her, there was a need for the inner beauty of the universe other than the physical appearance of people. In her days of service, servant leadership mainly focused on putting the needs of other people first and helping them develop. As a result, mother Teresa worked towards supporting the needy to add on the beauty of their souls. Most of her actions are based on the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church on the message of love for neighbors and free service to the poor.
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Who Was Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa was born in the year 1910 with her family being of an Albanian descent- a community in Macedonia. Most people have commonly known her as Teresa, but her baptismal name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Being brought up by entrepreneurial parents, Agnes faith was mainly based on the activities she saw her parents practice. Her father died when she was eight years old making her closer to her mother who taught her the art of giving and participating in church activities. Despite being brought up in poverty, she was raised with utmost love and care where she learned to share despite the situations. Her parents were devoted catholic members hence founding the religion basis of Teresa.
Religious Calling and "Call within a Call"
The calling to be a nurse came to her at an early age where she majored in helping and serving the poor. She later joined a group of nuns in Ireland hence the start of her early service. After training, she was sent to India where she took her vows to be a nun in the year 1931 and chose to be called the patron saint of missionaries. In her first years in India, Teresa worked as a teacher until the time of calling when she requested for permission to leave the school and devote herself to serving the poor.
It was in the year 1946 when Teresa was traveling from Calcutta to Darjeeling for religious retreat when she received her lifetime inspiration on what she called a "call within a call ” (González-Balado, 2016, pp. 4). The calling was more of an order which she could not fail to obey because she had already taken the vows of devotion and obedience. Her calling at this time was to be associated with the poorest of the poor communities. The primary target was to improve the lives of those living in the slums of Calcutta before extending to the broader community. For nearly two years, she devoted herself to this new program while still working towards forming a religious community. In the year 1948, her local Archbishop Ferdinand Perier gave her a go ahead to continue with the calling.
After gaining her Indian citizenship, it became easier for her to travel across the country and initiate more support programs. Though no one had discovered it yet at the early stage of her initiatives, it is at this time that now Agnes became ‘mother' Teresa through actions. The programs mainly depended on divine providence and voluntary helpers for financial support. One of the motivating quotes that kept her moving was based on love in that; when love remains on itself, there is no meaning. People have to share it and put it into action.
Missionaries of Charity
In the year 1950, Teresa won a canonical recognition for the new congregation which she had founded with other thirteen members. Majority of these individuals were those she worked with when she served as a teacher and some of her students. It was commonly known as the missionary of charity and worked towards caring for the hungry, naked, blind, homeless among other needy groups. Most of the people who felt like they had become a burden to the society mainly due to their illness and health complication sought for rescue at the congregation. By the year 1997, the group had grown from thirteen assistants to more than four thousand sisters who helped in taking care of the members.
As the donations continued to pour from all regions in India, she expanded her charitable activities and established an orphanage, leper colony, clinic, and nursing homes. One of her most famous hospice is the Kalighat home where she developed a temple that was no longer in use into a home for the dying. Here, the affected members received medical facilities as well as an opportunity to die in faith and dignity. The reason is that they were treated based on one's religion where the Muslims practiced the actions of the Quran while the Hindus and the Catholic members practiced their faith. The primary goal was to formalize the aspect of a beautiful death which mother Teresa described as a service for those people who had experienced hard lives hence they were given a chance to die like angles (Morin et al. 2015). The feeling of being catered for and loved.
The congregation expanded to cover other countries with the first American-based house of charity being established in the year 1971. Others include the charity of brothers of the year 1963, branch of the sisters of the year 1976, and Charity Fathers which was founded in 1984. All these facilities combined the aspects of charity work and the priesthood of different faiths. However, being a staunch Catholic member, she took a strict line on cases of abortion, divorce and death penalties. Her life was brought to a more extensive public attention by Malcolm in the mid-twentieth century where he wrote a documentary named “ Something Beautiful for God ” referring to the actions of Mother Teresa.
The success of all these projects is based on the fact that she did not concern herself with the political structure of different communities. At some point, she received critics from various society leaders, but she was so determined for her faith to be moved. For her, the leading rule was to show love and compassion to others while connecting them to God. She commented that though most of the countries she was serving were materially prosperous, there was a prevalence of spiritual poverty which needed to be addressed from time to time.
International Pursuits
The programs started were not limited to India in that they extended to cover other nations such as Tanzania, Europe, Rome among others. One of her international deeds is when she together with other red cross volunteers rescued thirty-seven children in a hospital in Beirut. The action of crossing the war zone to reach the hospital is considered as self-denial and desire to help others. After the mission of charity received acceptance in the communist countries, they had an opportunity to extend their care to other groups of victims including those affected by the earthquake of Armenia and the radiation victims of Chernobyl.
When describing herself, Teresa was an Albanian by birth, a Catholic by faith, an Indian by citizenship and a world member through calling. She could speak more than five languages which she learned as a tool to help her travel across nations extending her services. On the growth of the congregation, mother Teresa started sending some of her sisters to serve in other countries where new programs were being established. In the year 1996, her projects had developed to cover more than one hundred countries worldwide with nineteen of them being set in India.
As a world figure, the Catholic church brackets Teresa as a holy member because of her deeds and attachment with their leaders (Endresen, 2015). She is an international messenger of love and compassion for almost all situations that require care. Even though at some time people tend to confuse her with being a social worker, her guidance was religion based. Before her death, she also managed to venture into some of the riskiest countries due to religious indifference such as Israel and the Arab capitals.
Challenges Faced During the Pursuit
During this times it was often that her towering personality was faced with significant challenges. First, there was rejection and religious indifference among the countries she visited. Being a Catholic member, it was hard working with the Muslim and Arab countries especially when extending her charity to cases of war. The reality of faith among the world communities is mainly described as the ability to share hope and evidence for things that are unseen. In this case, not all communities accepted the religious connection to help settle their indifference. Most of the communist nations rejected her missionary work claiming that she was more of a worker than a spiritual leader.
Additionally, the lack of funds to support her programs was among the primary challenges. In the beginning, the plans mostly depended on volunteers and other church leaders who had a similar calling. For Teresa to stabilize her colonies, there was the need for extra funding to send her assistants to other countries, build new establishments for the various groups of the needy, set additional services for those requiring medical assistance and establish schools to support the street children. Other personal problems include struggling through her doubts and the tough Christian journey (Kwilecki & Wilson, 2016). When speaking about her experience, she once said that at some point the presence of God was unfelt hence the need to pray for divine intervention.
Awards and Recognition
After expanding internationally, Mother Teresa received many awards among them being:
The Nobel prize
Padma Shri Award in the year 1972 for distinguished service
Title of a good Samaritan awarded by Boston city
The Kennedy International Award
The patronal medal
Foundation award for humanity and peace
Order of Merit gifted by Queen Elizabeth II
Honorary citizen of the USA
The honors are numerous with the known ones adding up to more than seven hundred for her tireless and effective charity to the world. Her first recognition came from her home Country-India where her services had started before venturing into other nations. The Indians, therefore, view Teresa as a symbol of hope to the aged, diseased, neglected and those suffering from various conditions. The Catholic world also honors her publicity and association with their faith. With the church being more involved in charitable functions as compared to other organization, her legacy is found in most religions.
Additionally, the government and civilian organizations also recognize her actions in line with service for the community and humanity at large. Others include learning institutions such as the universities in India which awarded her with honorary degrees for her education and spread of religion as a subject. The earthly awards were useful because they helped her support the needy, but when asked about what she had gained from her publicity, she inclined her success to love and peace for the world.
Teresa has therefore been commemorated in museums and some churches as a symbol of love. Recently, in the year 2017, the Catholic church named one of their headquarters St. Teresa Cathedral in honor of her name and deeds. There is a mother Teresa public holiday in Albania where she originated before going out to reach for the other communities. Additionally, there is a university that goes by her name in India that was established in 1984. The organization mainly majors in research on health sciences and also runs a charitable facility for needy girls in commemoration of their founder. Numerous documentaries, books, films, and television shows have been done to credit the attention to Mother Teresa.
Controversies, Death, and Legacy
Despite the widespread praise, Mother Teresa's life is also faced with some disputes. She has drawn some criticism for being associated with the Catholic faith and yet interacting with other groups of faith. Most people viewed her support of other religious groups as a form of blackmail where she desired to transform people into her religion (Davis & Selvidge, 2015). Similarly, there is an opposition of some of her doctrines on issues such as opposition to contraception. Her advocate on ‘no vote' on the constitutional ban on divorce in the year 1995 is also highly criticized. Some people even argue that Teresa glorified poverty in her favor.
Teresa's health started declining in the 1980's where she was suffering from a heart attack. The issues progressed to the next century with the cardiac problem becoming more prevalent than before. She lastly visited Pope John Paul II abroad in the year 1997 before returning to Calcutta where she died at the age of eighty-seven. Since her death, the world has commemorated her in various ways with the main one being spreading her message of love. She is often blessed as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a patron of faith. Today, her aids stand out to be among the most significant humanitarian actions of the 19th and 20th century. Her leadership combined both the traits of a servant leader and profound empathy. Summing up her life in a universal way, Teresa said that she belonged to the world, but her heart was entirely dedicated to serving Jesus.
References
Davis, A. P., & Selvidge, M. J. (2015). Women Nobel peace prize winners . McFarland, 41-63.
Endresen, C. (2015). The nation and the nun: Mother Teresa, Albania's Muslim majority and the secular state. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations , 26 (1), 53-74.
González-Balado, J. L. (2016). In my own words : The Words of Mother Teresa. GK Hall, 1-50.
Kwilecki, S., & Wilson, L. S. (2016). Was Mother Teresa maximizing her utility? An idiographic application of rational choice theory. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , 205-221.
Morin, A. L., Yoke, K., Lu, T., Brady, S. E., & Lord, C. G. (2015). The Mother Teresa Effect: Counterproductive Effects of Touching an Altruist’s Possessions on Charitable Giving. Current Psychology , 34 (4), 693-701.
