Servant Leadership: A Bloggers Focus

Ok,I said that this blog was going to relaunch on February 1st and I am a man of my word. 

Over this past year I've been studying Servant Leadership. In others words; leading like Jesus. Why Servant Leadership? To put it bluntly, I've been blazing my own path for my entire career. I've been very successful and  can see the opportunities on the horizon and have been putting together my own plans to achieve them. I'll put this out there; I WANT TO BE IN MANAGEMENT! Fine, there, I said it.  Here's the interesting part, in my heart, I feel that this is the plan that God has for me also BUT..... on HIS terms, not mine. What brought me to this conclusion?  Let me tell you a quick story in my life.

Earlier in 2009 my existing manager resigned and moved on to another company. I wanted to have his job. I would have done anything to get his job. There was just one catch. I'd not fully competed the training my company requires to be promoted to that position. To put it mildly, I was depressed. I prayed/yelled at God asking why this door had been closed. I am well respected by my peers and feel that I would have done a good job. Then God spoke to me like only He can, through Sirius Satellite Radio. Ok, not an audible voice but through the words of Pat Kirwin. Pat Kirwin is a former GM in the NFL and he was talking about underclassmen forgoing their Junior and Senior years to enter the NFL draft. I will never forget his words, "There will be many people who will tell you to go pro and, yes, you will be drafted in the 1st or 2nd round. But, without READINESS you will be out of the game in a year or two." That word "readiness" hit me like a load of bricks. Were there people in my life telling me to go after this job, absolutely. If I were asked, would I have be able to effectively lead starting that day? The honest answer was no. The reason why my readiness was in question, not by others but by me, was because I had not yet merged my Christian beliefs and my leadership beliefs. I still looked at the position of management through the lens of power over folks instead of leading beside them and that bring us to the purpose of this blog, Servant Leadership.

Matthew 20:25-28 is very insightful and is the key passage that is guiding this blog. Pay special attention to the bolded portion.

 ²⁵But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.

 ²⁶"It is not this way among you, but whoever wishesto become great among you shall be your servant,

 ²⁷and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;

 ²⁸just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Christ has made it very clear to us that IF we are to achieve anything through Him, it will be through His model. That model encompasses Servant Leadership. In order to lead others, you have to be willing to serve them. It's driving results for the organization AND investing/developing your followers.Over the coming year, I'll be sharing some very specific ways to lead the way Christ modeled for us. Take a few minutes and conduct a self evaluation and see if you are leading like Christ.

Going back to my story, I've been blessed in two ways this past year. 1.) Having the opportunity to further develop my Servant Leadership. and 2.) Having a new manager that models these values as well. 

Comments

[perry]

good stuff dude.