The ultimate goal of servant leadership is to help their followers develop into leaders in their own right. Being a mother completely aligns with this philosophy. Motherhood is all about serving your family and helping your children achieve their goals. The ten characteristics outlined in our course commentary are those of which you would find from a mother or father figure. Recently in the news, I have seen horrific stories of young mothers killing their children and exhibiting violent or inappropriate behavior toward them. The narrative in the news is often blaming post part depression. I firmly believe that some women do not have the correct qualities to be a good mother just because you give birth to a baby that does not make you a mom. It’s the nurturing, the love, acting selflessly, putting the child needs above yours. Every decision you make should benefit your child. This is servant leadership. Like with any type of leader you can try to teach these traits, but that does not ensure effectiveness.
An example of this would be the movie “Losing Isiah.” It stars Halle Barry as a crackhead who leaves her baby in a trash can to get high. The baby is adopted by a white family and is raised until the age of 4 to 5. Halle Barry has since been getting her life together and lives with a friend. The friend has children and is a terrible mother. This teaches Halle how to take on motherhood. She starts adapting and learning from her friend’s adverse actions and in turn becomes a servant leader. She avoids temptation and makes difficult decisions all to try and get her son back. As a result, she can teach her son things that the other family wasn’t. The end goal was achieved, to raise a child who would go on and lead independently.