How can I add value to others? ~ John Maxwell
One theme dominated Global Leadership Summit. More than worthy goals, efficient processes, streamlined organizations, and effective feedback/accountability systems, true leadership values people.
Effective leaders are servants.
Authentic servant leaders come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They operate in lots of different ways, and I’m not sure the specifics matter. While they surely share traits like character, integrity, and humility, these folks all exhibit a less-obvious characteristic.
Servant leaders think long term.
They look at the horizon. They constantly build capacity by investing in future leaders. They understand that growing people is the only way to grow a quality organization and do work that matters.
Servant leaders inspire more and manipulate less. They’re more interested in connecting people than in correcting them (via T.D. Jakes).
Servant leaders refuse to engage in short-term drama. They won’t allow an artificially-generated crisis to shift focus from the mission, so they simply don’t let their energy fuel a destructive fire.
Servant leaders always seek, in John Maxwell’s words, to add value to others. In small or large ways they’re looking for something they can do for a stranger, a family member, a friend, or a colleague. They do this because they believe, at their core, that it’s the right thing, that the world benefits long-term.
It’s difficult to do long-term stuff. Much easier to get caught up in the short-term, the stuff that yields immediate, easy-to-see results. Long-term service means potentially never seeing the results of your efforts but continuing to push the rock up the hill anyway.
None of this surprises followers of Jesus. Everything He did was about servant leadership, and He took the “servant” part seriously. Reminds me of another quote.
You can tell how a person feels about being a servant when he gets treated like one. ~ Dary Northrop