Jesus Is My Business Partner
Last summer, I was promoted to Project Director of a complete behavioral health clinic. This position has been my dream since I was 19 years old. My formal job title came with an unmentioned title- leader. And truly, no official title was more important to me than that one, as being a leader holds more power than almost any other title in the world. There are various levels of leaders of course, but this was by far the biggest leadership role I'd ever had. The moment I was promoted, I started thinking about exactly what kind of leader I wanted to be. I thought about all the leaders I had throughout my life and other leaders in the world both past and present to see which leaders were worth aspiring to. One leader instantly rose to the top for me, Jesus Christ and His servant leadership.
Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy that focuses on the enrichment of the lives of individuals, not the leader, and works to create better organizations and ultimately develop a more caring world.
The term “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970 in an essay he wrote called The Servant as Leader. In this essay he says, “the servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived? “
The servant leader's main focus is on the personal growth and overall well-being of people and the communities they serve. Traditional leadership focuses on power alone while the servant leader shares power, puts others first, and works to help others grow and perform as highly as possible. Although this leadership philosophy is said to be coined by Greenleaf, I must beg to differ. This style of leadership was coined by Jesus Christ, who is my number one role model and example of good leadership.
Jesus' life has been my leadership crash course as His life is full of examples of incredible leadership qualities and skills. In Matthew 20:26-28 Jesus embodies servant leadership when He says "whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and give His life as a ransom for many." Jesus was the ultimate servant leader. He is the Messiah, yet He came and served the people who would bring about His death. He washed the feet of those He loved. He came for those imperfect human beings to bring them truth. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, raised the dead...the list goes on and on.
Jesus loved. To be a servant leader like Jesus, we must learn to love like Jesus did. Jesus did not serve people for power; He did not reconcile humanity for a book to be written about Him. He did it for love and the will of His Father. So many leaders and leadership philosophies focus on the style, strategies, and techniques of leading to obtain the end result of promotions, power, respect, and monetary gain, not love, for their followers. Without love for those who follow, serving as a leader can be tainted with resentment and even result in leading with tyranny. And in the end, we will not be servant leaders and will gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:3). Jesus reminds me of His love daily, and I always strive to be a small example of that love for others. In loving those I serve and lead, I am constantly m seeking their highest good. Jesus set the example for me to lead without being preoccupied with personal recognition. Instead, my goal is to daily consider how I can serve others for their highest good, which Jesus lived out in His ministry every day.
Jesus has also taught me humility. I think humility is incredibly important in leadership of any kind, and those being served can quickly tell the difference between a leader with humility and leader without. The higher the leadership position, a greater number of people that leader must serve. I have always been weary of becoming a leader who no longer participates in the company and daily work. I have always tried to be vigilant about becoming self-serving and "holier than thou." Jesus' humility enabled him to love and serve others. He was humble because He recognized and understood who He was and why He was there. “Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him” (John 13:3–5).
For me, the humility to be a servant leader comes from acknowledging my identity as a daughter under the sovereignty of God gifted by Him for the task of leading. I am not better than anyone I lead, on the contrary, I see them as being equally valuable to myself and to the company. I learn so much from those I serve and feel blessed to work with them every day.
My goal with this platform is the same as it is in the office. To serve others. I may not post about Jesus in every single post, but you better believe His heart is behind every single one. I want people to know Jesus, and what better way to introduce them than to be an example of who He is. I want you to look at my page and say, wow, Jesus is loved, and He loves me, and this is a place where I can grow. Maybe you grow here through reading my blog posts, maybe it's the inspirational quotes in my stories, maybe it's something I've read that you pick up and helps develop you, but my end goal here is for you take away a little piece of love and growth.
Will I always get it right? Absolutely not. Are there days when I'm not a servant leader at all, but instead, a tired human who just wants to sit down and take a nap? Of course. I will never get it completely right. Because I am a human and sin is real. There will be days when I am selfish instead of a servant. There will be days that I say things that could've been more kind. There are times I won't want to put in the work. That's reality. But I won't give up. I will keep striving to live out the example that my Savior set before me and I will forever be grateful to Him for not only being the center of my entire existence, but for also being such a real and tangible example of how to live my life as the best version of myself.