Servant leadership


A wise friend recently shared with me his thoughts on leadership.  Quoting from "Leadership: Magic, Myth or Method", he explained that a leader is

- a person
- involved in a process
- of influencing and developing
- a group of people
- in order to accomplish a purpose
- by means of supernatural power!

I love that.  Everyone, wherever we are, in whatever situation we are in, and whether we have the label of "Chief", "Head" or "Leader", can be a leader.  Because we can all get involved in the process of spurring each other on towards a purpose.

The last line also speaks to me - by means of supernatural power!  A leader who leads merely by force of personality or towering competence... will eventually falter.  Because there are human limits.  But with God, nothing is impossible.  Even better news is that God actually works best with flawed people.

As I've quoted on this blog before - if God can use Jacob who was a liar, Moses who stuttered, Job who went bankrupt, David who was an adulterer, Abraham who was too old, Timothy who was too young, Martha who worried about everything, Peter who denied Christ, Thomas who doubted, and Lazarus, who was actually dead...!  Then He can use you and me.

My friend went on to talk about the qualities of competent leaders.  I picked up two things in particular.

First - humility.  Romans 12:3 says "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought".  2 Corinthians 3:5 says "Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God."

The best leaders are often the humblest.  Moses (Numbers 12:3 "Now Moses was a very humble man - more humble than any person on earth"); Paul (Ephesians 3:8 "Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given to me"); and Jesus Himself (Mark 9:35 "Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all").

I don't doubt that competent people often end up being leaders.  That makes sense.  But I have often found that, with towering self-competence comes impatience and loss of teachability.  Clever or experienced people often get impatient with those who are not quite as quick or familiar.  That's understandable.  But where there is impatience, teachability disappears.  Clever people impatiently cut off friends or colleagues because they think they have nothing important to learn from them.  May we be blessed with clever leaders, but preserved from their impatience and hubris!  And Lord, continue to send friends to wake me up when I start thinking I'm too clever to hear others out!

By contrast, when we work knowing that our competence comes from Christ, then we stop "thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought".  Because I know that competence does not come from me but Christ, and if Christ can use even me, then he can certainly use my friends and colleagues and family to teach me a thing or two or three!  And that is powerful!

Quoting from my friend:

"For many years in a row, the winner of the Singapore CEO of the Year award faced major problems the next year.  Some of us in the market actually used it as a signal to sell their stock.  There is actually some logic behind this - the CEO starts to believe that they are special, listens to his or her team less, spends more time dressed in a tuxedo at awards ceremonies, and less time leading the business.  For US sports fans, this is the business equivalent of the Sports Illustrated cover jinx".

Spot on.

The second thing I picked up on is that leaders work for the team and for the future, and not for themselves.  I can't really say it better than my friend, so I will quote him again on an example:

"The best leaders hire to fill talent gaps - and also to replace themselves.  Again, it might seem paradoxical but if a leader is afraid to hire someone "better" than he or she is, then the firm will inevitably go downhill rather quickly.  A 9 hires an 8, who hires a 7, and all of a sudden the leadership is mediocre at best."

I look forward to making my children, and filling my cell group and my work team, to be people who will be better than me!  To stand on my shoulders and reach higher.  So that there will be people better than me to take the helm.  Do bigger and better things than me.  If I can build the underground foundation well, where no one sees it, then perhaps someone else can build the towers that all can see and admire.  As the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:10 "Because of God's grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder.  Now others are building on it."

This morning, we saw Joseph Schooling win Singapore's first Olympics gold medal.  Because of him, lots of people will be inspired to be better, and yes, better than him.  Just like meeting Michael Phelps first inspired Joseph Schooling.

Not everyone gets this sort of international reach.  But all of us can be leaders, and get involved in the process of spurring each other on towards a purpose.  In our homes and offices and churches.  Some work gets seen, some doesn't.  But we build firm foundations on the cornerstone who is Christ!

Finally, if you'd like to read more about my friend's work, you can go to his humbly anonymous blog at http://the-unknown-poet.blogspot.sg/ :)

Comments

Vo, Thanh Trung said…
Thanks for the reminder.
23 August 2016 at 14:15
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