Servant-Leadership: Forgiving Others in the Restoration of Community

Servant-Leadership, Feminism, and Gender Well-Being (Song et al., 2022) serves as a source of inspiration and hope when engaging with the complexities of the modern world, one marked by a growing division between people and an increased entrenchment of ideals. In looking to servant-leadership as a guide for navigating the emotional and deeply personal rhetoric pervading public forums, learnings can be found beyond the established dominant-group ideologies and mainstream reasonings. The purpose of this article is to explore how servant-leadership, an emerging leadership theory that acknowledges one’s natural feeling to serve others’ highest priority needs (Greenleaf 1977/2002), can provide a roadmap for the restoration of healthy communities through the acceptance and demonstration of love. In commenting on the themes of freedom, responsibility, and healing, this article ultimately argues that in opening one’s heart to forgiveness, one can rise above the individualistic need to be right and instead begin to mend societies’ wounds.