As I continue to cover topics about leadership, I can’t help but ignore one of the most popular subjects in Christian leadership circles, the idea of Servant Leadership. I suppose before any analysis, we should define that which we are referring to. Servant Leadership made popular in the 1970’s by the writings of Robert Greenleaf, is the concept of developing productive followers by the leader focusing on the success and growth of those under his or her leadership. The idea is that the organization is served best when leaders are developing people and helping people grow in their productivity, so that the mission of the organization is best served.
The problem in today’s selfish, me’ism, society, is that people have twisted the idea of Servant Leadership to somehow mean that the employee or person being led is somehow the end-consumer of the leader’s service. The idea of Servant Leadership can often be misunderstood as a modern, softer, approach that wallows in indecisive feel-good philanthropy, rather than actually advances an organization. Such an approach fails to understand the true benefit of servant leadership to an organization and disrupts the whole idea of good leadership. See, a servant leader challenges, demands, prods, encourages, pushes, rewards, punishes, and forces the person to grow…even if it means the leader isn’t liked, thanked, or directly benefited. But, see, that’s not the popular understanding. Servant leadership is not about the employee’s happiness or making them feel-good, it is to make them better for their own sake and for the sake of the organization. Sometimes that even means moving people along to find a position or organization that is more suited for them.
To take the example of Christ…so often we associated when Christ washed the disciple’s feet and we say “see, see, He was serving them.” Ah, but then we forget the times when He rebuked them, challenged them, pushed them, even harshly chastised them. Well, that’s the uncomfortable stuff, but if we are going to look to Jesus Christ as the ultimate leadership example, then we better take ALL of His leadership into account, not just the feely-good stuff.
Leadership is hard. A leader has to make difficult decisions, sometimes ones that no one likes. Leaders face criticism and often feel very lonely. Hmmm, reminds me of the gospel narratives of Jesus’ life. Leadership, good leadership, is not for wimps. Rather, it is something that is earned through the hard knocks of first being a servant, a hard-working person, who is more concerned with the cause, than individual gain. Those people advance to becoming true servant leaders who help advance both the organization and those serving the cause alongside the organization.
So, how about you? What can you do for those whom you lead? Whether it’s a huge company, or just your family, are you willing to take on the whole concept of being a servant leader?
