What is Steward Eldership?
I've had a few leaders reach out and ask - what exactly defines Steward Eldership (also known as Servant Eldership)?
Quite simply the path of a Steward Elder goes beyond the typical role of a leader, it's not necessarily a specific age or time in a leader's career, though it certainly is grown through experience. It is characterised by:
🤗 Not serving by compulsion but voluntarily. A leader should desire the office of leader, and serve from that desire, not merely out of rank, role or duty but because they WANT to serve.
🤑 Not after personal gain but eagerly. Steward Elders are so eager to add value that they don't look to the financial reward, power or title as the reason for their service, but simply as the means of making more service available to more people.
😍 Not as CEOs, celebrities or chiefs but as examples. Steward Elders are not top down masters who order their employees around. They are coaches and custodians who nurture and guide, who cheer and grow potential, not control and command their people.
No amount of power, money, status, travel, cars, titles, awards, degrees, or fame will make you a Steward Elder. It requires doing the work within rather than outside of ourselves - the daily, the unseen, the quiet, the meditative. Those who know, know what I mean. You feel a calling, a need, a yearning for more than the superficial.
It is a selfless giving of yourself to an ideal, to your team, your organisation, your family or community. Not because it gets you noticed, rather because it’s your highest aspiration, and calling, because you cannot not follow it.
I coined the term "Steward Eldership" as a combination of the two most transformative aspects of my leadership learning.
1 - Robert Greenleaf's servant leadership. I have been following this path since I began studying it for my MBA in early the 2000’s and it resonated so deeply that I immediately began applying it in my own work life. Servant leadership puts serving others above all other priorities. Rather than managing for results, a servant leader focuses on creating an environment in which their team can thrive and get their highest-impact work done.
2 - The gravity and importance given to the role of Elders in indigenous communities. I have only just begun scratching the surface of understanding the role and path of an elder through my initiations and study of lore with indigenous elders from many nations for the past 6 years. What I am learning is that elders are significant knowledge keepers, they ensure cultural continuity is maintained, they also serve as teachers, healers, counsellors and confidants. They are guardians of the planet, mother earth as well as their totems and all living beings. They are the keepers of the old ways, tradition, myth, stories and legend.
The biggest difference between traditional leaders and Steward Elders is where their motivation lies. While traditional leaders care mostly about material advancement, Steward Elders want to see not just their team or company grow and succeed, but all of humanity and the planet thrive and advance.
Steward Eldership is a path for the future. It’s a path of walking together, all people’s, the planet with purpose for a future. I want to be part of the shift, I know some of you will too.