An Introduction to the Virtues of Ethical Leadership Part 4 – The Virtue of Service

The Virtue of Service
by Chad Weinstein

This is part 4 in a series on The Virtues of Ethical Leadership.  Find links to earlier parts here.  https://ethinact.com/blog-post-series/

Service leads us to pursue a purpose or objectives beyond our own self-interest, and to engage others in the pursuit of meaningful goals. Without an appropriate commitment and capacity for Service in our character, we would not reliably act from honorable motives.  We would not be trustworthy in our commitment to help others.  Cultivating the Virtue of Service means acting in ways that are other-directed. It results in stronger connections with those whom we serve, and with our follow leaders.

Our heroes of Service are many, from famous heroes such as Mother Theresa and Florence Nightingale to the many quiet, stalwart performers in our organizations and our hometowns.  I was recently visiting a relative who discovered, somewhat suddenly, that he needed open heart surgery.  The family was understandably concerned, and very well-supported.  The patient and his wife are part of a large and loving extended family, and are long-standing, involved members of their church and their community.   It was natural, then, for the family to create a CaringBridge Website to share information with many interested people.   Less than an hour after the site was posted, there was a knock on the family’s door: their pastor had seen the posting and headed right over to show support.  He visited again the next day, and then traveled for two hours to visit the hospital the day after that.  “There’s no substitute for showing up,” he simply said.  This much was evident: the pastor was both vocationally and dispositionally inclined to express the virtue of Service in a way that was profoundly helpful to the family he served.

This pastor’s actions reveal a critical feature of Service: very often, it begins with showing up.  Service can be the driver to volunteer when we would rather pursue a hobby, or to visit the sick when we would rather be watching the big game.  It feeds on itself, as well: by serving others, we build stronger relationships, may result in further opportunities to be of service.  As we work together with others, we build friendships that even make our service time fun and recreational.  Our willingness to be served – to allow others to help us – also strengthens this virtue in ourselves and others, while it serves to extend and strengthen the ties that bind us together as individuals and communities.

As we have noted, virtues are best expressed in moderation – as a mean between extremes.  The virtue of Service might be situated between the misguided extremes of selfishness (an insufficient expression of Service) and self-abnegation (denying or neglecting one’s self, which can lead to an excessive expression of Service).

The Moderate Expression of Service

Selfishness is a common term, and the problems of selfishness in a leader are all too obvious.  We see good leaders in nearly every context demonstrate that they are not selfish by serving others first – figuratively or literally.  I was leading a multi-day training class for law enforcement personnel, and I noticed at lunch, the same few people always waited for others to line up ahead of them.  As the instructor, I always tried to be at the end of the line out of a basic sense of courtesy.  I must have looked curious, as one of these classmates offered, “we’re both Marine veterans, and Marines eat last.”  (I have since learned that in the U.S. Army, eating last is also considered a mark of leadership.)  In another quite different setting, a corporation to whom I consulted, it was a tradition that, when travelling aboard their corporate jet, the highest-ranking passenger served the others throughout the flight.  These are symbolic expressions of the value of unselfishness.  Obvious selfishness, by contrast, tends to be something we attempt to hide or justify, rather than signal and celebrate.  (In fact, these examples bring to mind one common justification for selfishness, the belief that, “rank has its privileges.”)  It is easy to see how selfishness equates to an insufficient expression of Service.

The excessive expression of Service is more complicated, and much harder to describe, but it can still cause problems.  Most of the words that come to mind when we try to describe an excess of Service actually have positive, even noble connotations: selflessness, self-denial, etc.  We associate extreme acts of Service with generosity, and often that is accurate.  The appropriate expression of Service can be quite broad.  However, there is a point when the inner drive to serve may be out of proportion with one’s circumstances. We have chosen an uncommon term, ”self-abnegation,” to describe that condition.  The very thing that makes an expression of Service excessive – the factors that drive it beyond the point of generosity – include a separation from self.  Self-abnegation leads us to neglect our own needs (more than briefly) and can even alienate us from our own best judgement.  A distorted desire to serve may cause us to lose focus on other important commitments, literally driving us to distraction.  An instinct that is excellent when it is in proportion can be a destructive force when it becomes excessive.

Expression of other Virtues keeps Service in proportion.  Clarity and Competence assure that our efforts are well-aimed and well-executed, and Courage can steel us to do what is right when it is also hard, frightening, or costly.  Service combines well with other virtues when it motivates us to apply our gifts in service to others, and when other virtues expand our capacity to be of service.

 The Features of Service: Altruism, Empathy, and Justice

As we have noted, features are qualities within a virtue that make that virtue more observable, more specific.  Because they are narrower in focus than the virtues themselves, the features may be easier to “work on” than a whole virtue might be.

Since Service is largely about being other-directed, the features reflect different aspects of that orientation:

• Altruism concerns the value that we place on serving others – on doing good for others of our own volition, especially when it costs us.
• Empathy describes our capacity and practice of understanding and caring about others – comprehending or connecting with thoughts, emotions, words, or actions.
• Justice is our commitment to uphold the rights and rules that govern us, and to respect the essential dignity of other human beings.

Each of these is described below.

Altruism

We demonstrate altruism when we act for the benefit of others, or when we advance a cause beyond our own self-interest.  This is especially true when our actions reflect a genuine sacrifice, or when we willingly incur real costs for others’ benefit.

For many, altruism becomes a value in their lives: a desire to contribute to others, or to leave the world better than we found it.  When we value altruism, acting generously can feel good.  Sometimes people struggle with the confusing idea that, if it feels good to be generous, then the generosity is less pure or sincere.  According to this line of thinking, if the motive for doing good includes the feeling of satisfaction, then the action is not altruistic.  That may be an interesting theoretical argument, but it is dangerously misleading.   In fact, as leaders we want our emotions to align with our values, and therefore we want to feel good when we are doing right.  In this case, the altruistic person feels satisfaction precisely because she is acting in accordance with her values.  That does not diminish the value of her actions, but rather enhances it, by creating a (literal) virtuous cycle of good acts reinforced by positive emotions.

Certainly, there are times when doing the right thing feels difficult, and not necessarily satisfying.  Sometimes the sacrifice that me make – the altruism – in an act of Service is costly, and we feel the pain.  We should not be hard on ourselves in those instances, either.  Rather, there may be some secondary satisfaction in knowing that we did what we believed was right, even though it hurt a bit.  This situation may touch on Clarity and certainly Courage – the discernment or vision to understand what’s right, and the tenacity to do it even though it is hard.  Our willingness to tolerate cost of pain is an example of the feature of altruism.

Empathy

Effective leaders connect with people – at different levels and in different ways.  Perhaps the most common usage of the term “Empathy” refers to an emotional connection: the ability to understand and relate to another person’s feelings.  That is an important aspect of this feature of Service.  It can motivate us to help others, and it can provide us with insights – the essential Clarity – to understand what would truly be helpful.  This emotional connection can provide a powerful basis to truly help someone.  In fact, sometimes just expressing that form of emotional empathy is helpful in and of itself.  Sometimes what someone needs most is to be understood, to be cared about, or to feel less alone.

Emotional empathy is only one aspect of this feature, however.  We can also empathize intellectually, by being curious and concerned about another person’s situation, and by taking another’s concerns into account in our actions.  Indeed, there are times when an emotional empathy is inappropriate.  Even in these cases, leaders can be empathetic by demonstrating that they understand and care about another person’s situation and thoughts, as well as their feelings.  They need not – or ought not – become emotionally invested themselves.  Intellectual empathy is also a key feature of Service.

Each of these aspects of empathy plays an important role in our leadership, in different contexts.  Individual leaders may find that either emotional or intellectual empathy comes more naturally to them, in general or in particular situations.   Empathy can also influence the way we express the final feature of Service, Justice.

Justice

Justice encompasses our commitments to act in accordance with applicable laws and rules, to seek equity, and especially to respect the dignity of other human beings.  As much as anything, we exhibit the feature of Justice when we seek to do “the right thing,” by upholding our obligations or duties to others, and when we act in ways that honor and respect other human beings.

Some aspects of Justice simply make us aware of our “negative obligations,” or duties not to do some things.  Do not steal someone else’s stuff, and do not violate someone else’s rights.  Do not treat people disrespectfully.  These are, in some ways, the easiest parts of this feature of character.  As we develop this capacity, other moral features of our world emerge: we recognize that there are injustices in society that we should act to mitigate.  We see opportunities to enhance the dignity of others – sometimes simply by paying attention to them, by listening.  Our recognition of some affirmative duties, responsibilities to make things better, and to attend to the needs of others around us, mark the fuller expressions of Service, especially Justice.

Develop Altruism:

• Make commitments to assure that some of your life is devoted to serving others.
• Align your service work with your gifts and your interests. Do what you are best at – and what you enjoy – in service to others.
• Make a habit of cultivating gratitude; our own gratitude makes it easier to be generous towards others.

Develop Empathy:

• Be connected. Invest in organizations, associations, or friend groups that connect you to people with common interests.
• Broaden your world. Get closer to people with experiences different from your own and learn about what makes them tick.  Be willing to be uncomfortable.
• Share stories in all forms. Reflect on the human connections we all share, along with the differing perspectives and experiences we bring to our lives.

Develop Justice:

• Reflect on when we tend to see others as less then ourselves. Be curious and challenge that very human tendency.
• Be willing to move beyond thinking about your own rights, to honor the rights and uphold the dignity of others.
• Act directly – and connect with others – to address injustices that exist in our society, and especially in our teams and workplaces. Start locally.

These techniques, and many others, are discussed in the next section of this Guide, Using the Virtues to Grow as a Leader.

Summary of Service

The Virtue of Service is the internal force that directs us to act for others.  We human beings have a strong, internal urge to act in our own self-interest.  That urge is necessary for our survival, and it is imperative for our well-being.  But, unchecked and unbalanced by this other-directed force, our self-interest can keep us from being the leaders we otherwise could be.  As a starting point, Service can counterbalance what might otherwise be an excessive focus on our own individual needs and desires.

Service is much more than a check on selfishness. As we develop this Virtue, Empathy and Justice make us aware of the opportunities to be of service to others.  We develop both greater capacity, and greater desire, to direct our energies in ways that make our world a better place.  One indication of a highly developed sense of service is a natural alignment of our perceived self-interest with the interests and needs of others. Service can be a gateway to awareness of our interdependence with others.   In this way, it can lead us to enrich our own lives, by creating mutually beneficial outcomes, and by enhancing our own senses of meaning and connectedness in our lives.

As the features suggest, The Virtue of Service is complex.  Altruism inspires us toward acts of generosity.  Empathy leads us to acts of compassion.  Justice pushes us to acts of fairness, equity, and respect.   Taken as a whole, Service leads us to be our best – to direct our energies toward the empowerment of others, and to engage them, in turn, in improving our lot in life and the world around us.

If you are not already subscribed to our blog you can do so at https://ethinact.com/blog/e-mail-subscribe/.

If you would like to take the Virtues of Ethical Leadership Self Inventory (VELSI) you may do so at https://ethinact.com/velsi/. There is no charge.