Give a Fish or Teach to Fish that is the Question
After reading the Lesson 11 commentary and the Northouse chapter on servant leadership I thought about a criticism of the theory that wasn’t addressed in the readings. Are servant leaders taken advantage of and in certain instances seen as pushovers rather than true leaders? If we review the basic concept of servant leadership, my definition would be a leader who does what’s necessary to ensure his followers are successful. Is this what you really want from a leader? In my opinion that answer is no, you want a leader to exhibit these “I will help you by all means” characteristics in certain situations, but not all of the time. If this is done all of the time I see this “leader” as a targeted pushover. The lesson commentary referenced the role of parenthood as an example of servant leadership. “Parents serve their children’s needs so that the children can develop into healthy adults…so that they can help their own children develop” (Lesson 11 Commentary, p. 2 Houston). For us parents out there, we know that this can be a slippery slope. If you always come to the rescue of the child, they will not learn how to overcome that hurdle themselves and you will always be their crutch. There’s a quote that’s been taken and re-phrased over that originated by Anne Isabella Ritchie in a story she wrote in the 1880’s that read, “…if you give a man a fish he is hungry again in an hour; if you teach him to catch a fish you do him a good turn” (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/give-a-man-a-fish.html). This has been rephrased over time to “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Isn’t this what we are ultimately dealing with here? How much service do you give before it begins to hurt the requestor? One of the 10 Characteristics of servant leadership is foresight (Northouse, 2013). Shouldn’t the leader also use this foresight to see that if they continue to remove the hurdles that will do nothing but ultimately hinder the follower? In a 2010 article of management-issues.com, author Mitch McCrimmon wrote, “The servant leadership bandwagon is still on track but needs to be derailed. It’s a bad idea because it’s paternalistic and gets in the way of employee engagement.” I would have to agree with this statement. Although it is good to help when the person really needs help, I believe it is detrimental to both parties if you continue to bail someone out time after time. Eventually, you must allow someone to fall on their sword so they can learn a life lesson that they will then never repeat; this I believe is a “commitment to the growth of people” (Northouse, 2013). As many others have done to in the past to Anne Isabella Ritchie’s famous quote, I will put my own spin on it to close this article. It’s OK to give a man a fish when he’s really in need, but if you continue to give that man a fish every time he asks for one, he will become dependent on you and will never even consider learning how to fish on his own.
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (Sixth ed.). (pp. 221-222). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Penn State World Campus. (2014). Lesson 11: Servant Leadership. Retrieved July 25, 2014, from Psych 485: Leadership in Work Settings: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/su14/psych485/002/content/11_lesson/01_page.html
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/give-a-man-a-fish.html
http://www.management-issues.com/opinion/6015/why-servant-leadership-is-a-bad-idea/
jrr5536 says
“only a few years away from retirement and was not interested in further career advancement… even if it was at risk to his own position.”
This sounds like a great man and a wise one to boot. I find it very truthful that a man can share his experience with others despite his own well being, but the sad truth of that is that it comes from years and years on repeat, knowing your job inside and out and only when you are worn and done and ready to retire you are comfortable sharing your wisdom with others. I am not saying that he did this only when he decided to retire but I am saying that too often the most generous people are the ones with nothing to lose and nothing to gain.
One of his favorite sayings was “The most important thing you can do is take care of your people. You take care of them and they will take care of the mission.”
This actually inspired me to think about my life from a different lens. It is not passing a torch on, is it? Its passing a legacy and letting the person you pass it to make the most out of it, mold it and make it their own, only then can they pass it on to someone new. But it will not be the same, it will have gained fire and insight, that is amazing.
Matthew J Streng says
I agree with you point that you cannot do everything for everyone all the time. I also like your spin on Anne Isabella Ritchie’s quote: “It’s OK to give a man a fish when he’s really in need, but if you continue to give that man a fish every time he asks for one, he will become dependent on you and will never even consider learning how to fish on his own”. If you do this, you’re right; they will rely on you all the time. However, Servant Leadership is not about constantly bailing someone out or allowing someone to become dependent on you. Servant Leadership is all about empowering individuals and helping them develop their full potential (Northouse, 2013, p.219). If someone is constantly bailing someone out, or is a pushover, they’re not a leader.
In fact, three of the ten characteristics of a Servant Leader are awareness, persuasion, and foresight. These characteristics, by their very definition, would not allow a servant leader to become a pushover. They are very aware of their situation and environment, they are able to convince others to change, and they have acumen to “know the future” (Northouse, 213, p.222). This would suggest that they are strong, rather than weak; and they use that strength to empower others. They would teach the person to fish.
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (Sixth Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA, United States: Sage Publications, Inc.
Bo Steven Swartz says
I like your use of the “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” quote in regards to servant leadership. I think you raise some really valid points, especially when you say that this form of leadership can be detrimental to both parties, the follower especially, when it’s a reoccurring thing. Constantly bailing someone out of their problems obviously isn’t helping or aiding them in the long term whatsoever.
However, I think you’re really attached to this view that servant leadership equals “always coming to the rescue” or “constantly bailing someone out”. I did not make those connections when reading the lesson at all. To me, servant leadership doesn’t apply to all that many situations. It definitely applies to parenthood and other close relationships more than anything else I can think of. I don’t think that it means that you are a helicopter parent who is there to fix every single problem for your child and completely dictate their lives in any way shape or form. I think it simply means to be an attentive and loving parent who has goals set for their child. Instead of constantly fixing problems for their child, a good servant leader parent would instead help their child to understand what the problem is and how they can go about fixing it.
I think there’s a really big difference here and a lot of it could be attributed to interpretation. I can definitely see where you are coming from with your points, even though I don’t necessarily agree with the conclusions you’ve come to. Using your fishing analogy, I think a good servant leader will provide a fish in the appropriate circumstances, but understands that teaching the follower to fish is much more useful in the long run.