The first annual and much-awaited Nuru Kenya Servant Leadership Summit finally kicked off on Sunday, the 22nd of November. Being a non-working day, it was a great sacrifice and a show of eagerness by the Nuru Kenya leaders to learn more about servant leadership. The summit participants included all of Nuru Kenya’s program managers and their deputies.
The five day summit focused on the five tenets of servant leadership: People, Character, Truth, Vision and Mission. The participants discussed how these tenets are vital to ending extreme poverty.
The participants also discussed examples of great servant leaders in diverse settings. A famous fable, Brother Leo’s Story, was given as an example to show the desire of servant leaders to serve first rather than to lead. Interestingly, Nuru Kenya managers identified the late Tata Philip Mohochi as an inspiring servant leader.
The participants engaged in various games and fun activities that showed the importance of putting the needs of others first, emphasized the need to take care of organizational resources and demonstrated a humble attitude by accepting other people’s points of view.
In one particularly entertaining activity, managers were asked to carry their team as a fun way to show the importance of leading by example.
Another activity asked the team to solve a complex and challenging puzzle using collaboration and teamwork. This activity emphasized the need for servant leaders to believe in the vision of having a better world and seeing everything as possible.
At the conclusion of the summit, all managers expressed the importance of having honesty, integrity, truthfulness and humility. The participants even had fun group work where they created a poem, a speech, a song and a news presentation on what they learned about servant leadership.
Apart from such games and fun activities, there were classical stories such as the Emperor’s New Clothes which was used to show the need of being truthful and authentic and speaking when something is wrong as servant leaders. The participants were also inspired to explore their personal vision through examples of people like Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers (who accomplished their vision after several years of difficult trials). This showed that as servant leaders, we have to learn from our past and study new ways of reaching the vision of the organization. The participants had an opportunity to assess their practical application of vision and mindset through a self-evaluation of grit. Moreover, they were also inspirited by great quotes that showed the need of servant leaders to believe on the possibility of a better world and ending extreme poverty and have a better community.
Overall, the summit was a huge success:
All managers agreed that practicing these servant leadership principles will help Nuru Kenya work more closely with farmers in our community.
All managers agreed to have conversations about the importance of servant leadership with their teams.
Nuru Kenya leaders also committed to uphold the servant leadership culture as well as strengthen the implementation of the policies.
Nuru Kenya managers are excited to implement what they’ve learned.