Servant Leadership

For the last three weeks I have attended seminar classes focusing on servant leadership at UNI through the Education Leadership program I am in.  The following is a slightly modified version of my paper summarizing what servant leadership is to me.  Enjoy!

            Leadership is intentional influence.  A leader of service influences the people that they are surrounded by in unique ways.  Servant leaders value people, develop people, and actively engage in the improvement of the organization that they are part of.                                                                       

            "Leadership is not dog training.  It is the creation of the kinds of conditions in which people can bring their brains, hearts, talents, and energy to the realization of a vision." - Henry Cloud.  Leaders value people by treating them appropriately.  This means leaders know and understand what people need and can put them in situations and positions where they feel comfortable and valued.  Often times, this comes down to creating an environment that promotes vulnerability and accountability.  When a school environment promotes the value of individuals, ideas and solutions will flourish. 

            Servant leaders develop people.  Bob Goff stated, “If you want to be a great leader see people for who they are becoming.”  When a servant leader comes into an organization they immediately begin seeing how they can help develop the people around them.  In schools this means that principals/leaders are coming along side teachers, paras, and support staff to help them improve and take their practice to the next level.  Bill Hybels summarizes this idea well, “The central work of diligent leadership is to move people from ‘here’ to ‘there.’”

            Finally, servant leaders engage in improving the school, team, or organization.  Leaders who serve have skin in the game and passionately want to improve the environment they serve.  Servant leaders strive to develop this same excitement of improvement into all staff members and stakeholders.  Patrick Lencioni author of The Advantage states, “Collective responsibility implies, more than anything else, selflessness and shared sacrifices from all team members.”  When leaders serve others and engage in organizations people begin to feel a part of something bigger than themselves.  This drastically increases passion, drive, and productivity. 

            Servant leadership requires leaders to value, develop, and engage with people on a deeper level.  This will require leaders to sacrifice additional time, energy, and resources.  It is this sacrifice that makes servant leadership a personal and unique style of leadership.  The true servant leader will simply strive to follow the command that Jesus Christ gave in Matthew 7:12, "Do to others what you would have them do for you."

The Ultimate Leader

Two weeks ago I was asked, “What is the best book on leadership you have ever read?”  This got me thinking not of a book, but of a who.  I began asking myself who is the best leader to have ever lived.  To answer this I simply looked for who has the most followers.  Below are some stats on the person I feel is the greatest leader to have ever exited:

·         2.18 billion people claim His name as a follower.

·         More books, songs, and poems have been written about Him than any other person in history.

·         2000 years after His death He is still having a dramatic impact on the lives of His followers.

Jesus of Nazareth is the ultimate leader.  He accomplished so much even though he was raised in a rural town, never traveled more than 100 miles from home, never wrote a book, never went to college, and never led a major corporation.  On top of this He was born to teenage parents who were not yet married; a clear set back 2000 years ago.  Even during His life people questioned who Jesus was.  John 6:42 states, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?”  Basically saying, we know this guy how can He make the claims he does.  So how did this peasant from Nazareth make such an impact?  Jesus claimed to be divine, and this is claim that I agree with.  Obviously, being devine He will be able to lead in ways that we never could, but there are six things that Jesus did and we can emulate that made him a great leader.

Jesus Prepared: It is widely believed that Jesus began His public ministry around the age of 30.  In fact, there is limited knowledge of what exactly Jesus did for the first 30 years of His life.  One could infer that He worked a construction job with His father.  During this time the Bible also tells us that, “He grew in wisdom and stature among men.”  Simply put, Jesus was preparing Himself for the public ministry to come.  As leaders we need to be willing to put in the time to prepare for the leadership opportunities we will have. 

Jesus Built Leaders: Although Jesus taught to the masses He spent most of His time with 12 people.  Jesus invested all of himself in the team around him.  After His crucifixion Jesus gives the great commission in Matthew 28:19 saying, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” From this point on these 12 men (Judas being replaced) went out and spread the news about Jesus and built more leaders to do the same.  As leaders we need to invest in the people around us.  Like Jesus we need to be building people up so that they can carry forward the vision and mission of our schools, companies, or churches.

Jesus Was Mission Focused: “When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, he set His face to go to Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51.  From this point forward in the book of Luke Jesus is focused on going to Jerusalem where He would be crucified.  Every action and interaction Jesus had fit into His mission.  As leaders we too must be focused on our missions.  Everything we do must tie back to the vision, mission, and goals that we are trying to achieve.

Jesus Served: Servant leadership is talked about a lot in leadership today.  Jesus stated in Mark 10:45, “Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  In this verse we see that Jesus served and gave.  It is so powerful when leaders are willing to serve and give to those they lead.  Like Jesus we shouldn’t approach leadership as a way to get things but instead as a way to serve and give back.

Jesus Was Connected: There are several times in the Gospels that Jesus escapes the crowds and finds time alone to meditate and connect with God.  As leaders it is important for us to find ways to step away from the noise of the world and reflect.  Before Jesus made big choices like selecting His 12 disciples He made sure to find quite time with God.  Like Jesus, it is crucial that we take time to connect with God prior to making big decisions.

Jesus Made the Tough Calls: On the night prior to His crucifixion Jesus cries out to God, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39.  As we know the story, the cup is not allowed to pass from Jesus and He willingly goes to the cross to die for the sins of mankind.  That is intense!  Jesus did what needed to be done, he made the tough call.  As leaders we too must make the tough calls.  We cannot live in a world of grey.  If a decision needs to be made we need to be willing to step up, make it, and take ownership of it.

Jesus prepared, built leaders, was focused, served others, was connected, and made the tough calls.  We have all heard the saying, “What would Jesus do?”  Looking at the life of Jesus the leader we can begin to ask, how would Jesus lead?

Schools = Hope

Families today are not the same as they were in the past.  Today many families are living in poverty often with parents working multiple jobs.  After a recent conversation with a parent in this situation it was evident that she was placing her hope in the school to provide her son with the knowledge, resources, and skills to be successful.  Families have changed, but I still believe that parents want what is best for their children and often hope that their children will have a better life than the one they have.  Many parents drop their kids off at school each day with the hope that they will be taught the skills that will lead to a better life in the future.  In a sense, the local school is the hope of the community.  For kids in this situation education is the number one factor (apart for a relationship with God) that could impact their future.  As an educator this is heavy!  There are a few things that teachers can do to insure that the school is that hope for kids:

BRING IT – Teachers must do their best; not most of the time but all of the time.  Our lessons have to be relevant and meaningful.  Kids have to see the meaning and the point to what they are being taught.  49ers coach Jim Harbough in a locker room speech once said, “We must attack the day with an intensity unknown to mankind.”  In the same way we must be willing to attack our lesson planning and teaching with an intensity unknown to the school setting.  Continuous improvement needs to be the way of doing business in the classroom.  Our teaching tomorrow has to be better than it is today.  The lives of children are depending on it.

UNLEASH THE LIMITS – To often limits are placed on students.  I say it is time to get rid of them.  If a bar is set high or low the students will most likely hit it.  So, why not set high expectations for students?  The worse that could happen is they fall short.  Developing a growth mindset with students will show them that learning is a process and that even if they miss the bar they still made growth and improvement.  When working with high expectations the key word is going to be “yet.”  If when students fail to meet a bar and react by saying, “I haven’t met the goal yet” they are on the path to success.

INVEST IN INDIVIDUALS – Each child needs someone in their corner routing for them.  As a teacher I push myself to not only know the kids as students but also as people.  I strive to know enough about the kids that I could have a deep and rich conversation with them about something other than school.    People desire to feel known and understood and kids are no different. 

GRIT – Kids are going to mess up and do things that frustrate us.  It is important that we not give up on them.  I am always having to forgive my students for: lack of effort, misbehaving, being immature, etc.  It wouldn’t be fair to hold grudges against the kids.  I am not saying that there shouldn’t be consequences for behavior but instead that we shouldn’t condemn them for their current actions (Wow, if teachers would have held a grudge against me for the things I did in school it wouldn’t have been pretty).  Students are going to test and push our limits.  It is at these times that we have to dig deep and find the grit to keep moving forward.

Teaching is a high calling.  Parents are often trusting us to provide students with the skills and abilities to have a successful future.  Often times these parents are unable to provide these skills to their own children.  Instead, they place their children in the care of teachers at school.  So, why do teachers need to BRING IT, UNLEASH THE LIMITS, INVEST IN INDIVIDUALS, and have GRIT?  Because to many children and families we are the hope of future!

Who is Waking Up Thinking About It?

About a year and a half ago I was the spear head of a new ministry launch at my church.  Energy started off very high and people were excited with what we were about to partake in.  In fact, at one point I had more people willing to help and support than we had a need for.  Clearly the initial launch was an out of the ballpark success.  I was feeling great about the direction of this new initiative.  I remember heading home and thinking to myself in the car, “People are bought into the mission!”

Several months later I was in a completely different spot.  I was feeling stressed out, tired, and over stretched.  I had made a big leadership mistake.  There were so many people willing to help, however, I wasn’t willing to delegate responsibilities of this new ministry to them.  In a short time I was overwhelmed with other aspects of my position and was unable to focus on the new ministry.  People were truly bought into what we were doing, but as a leader I hadn’t encouraged or given opportunities for people to use their talents, resources, and time to advance this area of ministry.  Something had to change…

I remember sitting down one night to write down all the things that I had to take care of in a day.  The sad results of this showed that at the time this new ministry wasn’t on the list.  I realized that NO ONE WAS WAKING UP THINKING ABOUT IT.  Quickly I pulled together different members of the team and asked what areas they were willing to work with and even take over.  To my surprise people were ready and willing to take over different aspects of the ministry.  At this point things turned around, at this point there were people waking up thinking about the ministry. 

Realizing this concept has changed the way I lead.  Recently I was working with a group of teachers on a school wide behavior program.  We had a full afternoon to brainstorm and create new ways to improve school wide behavior.  The afternoon was filled with fantastic new ideas and modifications that we could implement at our school.  However, there was one problem.  We had all these ideas written down and that was it.  If we would have left it at that I guarantee that we all would have woke up the next morning and went on with our normal way of doing business, but we didn’t end it at that.  With about 20 minutes left in the meeting we went through the “Who is going to wake up thinking about this” exercise.  Using our notes we read off ideas and people volunteered to take ownership of it and see it through to completion.  In the end there were several good ideas that we simply didn’t have the time or energy to tackle at this point, and this was okay because we knew that the things taken ownership of will be achieved.

Using the “Who is going to wake up thinking about this” exercise has been a game changer in my leadership experience.  It takes us from a place of cool ideas and thoughts to a place of reality and results.  So I encourage you in all aspects of life (your work, church, or family) to ask yourself, who is waking up thinking about this? 

Principals vs. Methods

Last week I was talking with a friend who mentioned some discontent for how some of his co-workers were responding to directives from their leader.  Basically, people were simply ignoring or down right refusing to do what was asked of them.  Upon him finishing his story I jumped in with my view of principals and methods

Principals are those things that we hold fixed.  These are closed hand policies that are non-negotiable.  As a teacher some of these would include: every child can learn, we need to meet kids where they are, we must continue to improve, etc.  As a children's leader at my church some of these principals would include: we teach the Bible, kids will feel known, we will pray with the kids, etc.  Principals are what form our core values.  When asked to go against a principal it feels as though we are committing a moral wrong.  In fact, it is when our principals are threatened that we tend to plant a flag and declare that we will defend the principal, and we should!

Methods are simply the means to fulfilling a principal.  These are open hand policies and will often change over the course of time.  For example, in the Sunday School program I lead it is a principal of the team to teach from the Bible.  The methods of doing that between Sunday School teachers is extremely different.  Some will stand and read directly from the Bible and some will project the reading on to a screen.  Although these methods are different they are not at odds with each other as they are focused on the same principal.  Methods come and go and should not be the grounds to start an all out war because someone is suggesting, telling, or doing something different.

So, how does this fit into a work place environment where a leaders is asking someone to do something?  In my experience it is very simple.  If a boss or leader asks me to do something that is in direct contrast with a principal I must hold my ground, state my case, and stick to my core values.  This doesn't happen often as I have never been asked to go against a principal that I have.  If a boss or leader asks me to change the method of which I am doing something I should, state my case, and depending on what the leader says follow their direction. 

Today I feel that to many people are unwilling to change their methods of doing things.  I see it to often where relationships are destroyed over a difference in methods.  Simply put, if we are working toward the same principal certainly our methods can vary!  By holding your principals tight and being willing to negotiate the methods we will be much more efficient team members in all aspects of life.