Today, I’ve been ruminating on the topic of obstacles.
The natural way to think about obstacles is, of course, barriers that are placed on us from the outside. External obstacles that some face:
- Lack of clear goals – not knowing where we are going
- Insufficient resources – not having enough to sustain the journey
- Inadequate communication – not having enough direction from leadership
- Ineffective team dynamics – negative workplace culture
- Lack of autonomy – mistrust showing up as enfeebling
This list cuts deeply into a servant leader, because teams experiencing any of these obstacles is discouraged, needing listening, empathy, and healing to even engage in some level of trust, even before the application of other characteristics.
However, obstacles also can be internal to the one served, and these are as devilish, even to the point of creating the external obstacles:
- Lack of focus – too many ways of direction or distraction
- Poor self-awareness – Intentional or non-intentional gaps in self-assessment
- Fear of change or loss – Doubt, even to the point of paralysis, of being able to move in a new perceived direction
When encountering these internal obstacles, an application of further servant leader characteristics such as awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, and foresight give those led not only the space to build trust, but give them encouraging directions to be more wise, experience freedom, engage autonomy, and pick up the mantle of serving others; this truly is the measure of a servant leader.
