PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON THE MISSION OF LEADERSHIP IN PARTICIPATORY CHURCH

Sr. Ester

Leadership is about behavior.  It is an attempt to influence others to formulate their common goals and to seek means to accomplish it. There are styles of leadership, and each type is dependent on the readiness of the people involved.

            Leadership in the church is a call to participate in the Missio Dei. Leadership in the

Fr. Madya Utama, SJ - the speaker on Mission of Leadership

church is greatly modeled after that of Christ. Reading through the Gospel, we can detect the manner of leadership Jesus has had when He dealt with the apostles and especially with the poor, the lonely, and the marginalized.

            Leadership starts with knowing one’s strong and weak points. It also involves skills in conflict management. The whole point is to lead people to be active participants in the building of the Kingdom of God here and now.

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Sr. Lucy

            The module on “Mission of Leadership in Participatory Church” encouraged me to be a good leader. I learned about many kinds of Leadership Styles. In my experience as a leader, I tried to apply the servant leadership.

I was assigned in the hospital as a Human Resources Department manager for 12 years. We had more or less 300 employees. I tried to build good relationship with all of them and be close to them and their families. To those who were married, I always ask them about their husband or their wife and their children. We were just like a family.

Their children liked me very much and I was close to them. I love children.  Sometimes the other staff director or my sisters in my community teased me because I was close to all of the families of our employees. Sometimes I visited their houses. But some of them were afraid of me because of my position as a HRD manager; I could give them punishment or administrative sanctions.

As a leader, I didn’t build walls or barriers to the employees, but I tried being their friend. I knew when I had to be in an assertive attitude and when I should not be. 

         It is not so easy to apply the servant leadership in my ministry, because I should be humble, and empty myself to be on the same level with the employees. I tried not to create distance because I perceived that my position as a HRD manager was not a status but a service. As Jesus has said: “I came not to be served, but to serve”. This was my motto during my ministry.

             In the exercise about Leadership Style I discovered that I have been implementing the Selling and Participating Style. I thank God because I was able to define my leadership style and improve it. Through this module I came to understand more about many kinds of leadership styles. My challenge is to improve my leadership. I know I need to develop others styles like the Shepherd Leadership as Jesus himself gave example to us. I know I should also learn more about Steward Leadership.

            To apply this theory I should know more how about the readiness of the people whom I lead. Readiness means the ability and the willingness the people have. I must know them as a shepherd knows his sheep. I should really love those whom I lead; I should know them personally, deeply and closely.  I should be ready to really sacrifice my life (my knowledge, my talent, my ability, etc) for them. In this way, the people whom I lead will grow becoming fully human beings and full members of the society where they live.

            This module made me realize that as a leader I must make decisions in problem solving. The best way in making decisions is to use discernment. Discernment is not a magical way of discovering God’s will, but it is the way of avoiding simply doing or imposing my own will. 

            As a leader I should have vision – mission to embody in my life and to share it to others. I should have both institutional vision – mission and a personal vision – mission.  I really need to be aware of my own personal vision – mission.

My challenge is how to keep my personal vision – mission growing and flowering. I should always be in contact with my deepest desires. My vision is “I am the lowly servant of the Lord”.

That’s why if and when I should be put again in a position of leadership, I would prefer to use the servant leadership style. However, I am aware that I should also learn other styles of leadership especially the Shepherd Leadership on the example given me by Jesus.          

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Sr. Prema

In this module, “Mission of Leadership in Participatory Church, I was very happy because I have learned about different styles of leadership and was able to assess myself as to which type of leadership I should employ or might use in the course of time.

            A leader should be very conscious about his/her followers. This means that he/she must be fair when giving directions or when exercising his/her role as a leader.

            His/her important task is to facilitate for the followers to have the chance to be responsible persons and to be focused in order to achieve the goal.

            There are negative aspects of being a leader too. We were able to identify them through various exercises we have done in class. These exercises were good because they helped us to be aware of our conduct as leaders.

            We hope to model our lives on the person of Jesus as a leader who laid down his life for the good of his followers.