The Antithesis of Servant Leadership

May 2, 2023

“His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21)

If we’re ever going to get serious about becoming a transformational leader - we’re going to have to develop the courage to get serious about making our lives about service.

Servant leadership is working for something that goes against your own self-interest. 

That’s what makes it so perpendicular with the traditional way of the world and the traditional model we often follow. It’s not just lending a helping hand here and there. It’s subverting your own interests in the service of others. 

It sounds good on paper, but we’re often met with the following question as we go about our lives.

“What’s in it for me?”

This view is the antithesis of servant leadership.

We’re wired to believe if we don’t look out for our own self interests no one else will.

To live and lead in a way that is consistently concerned with the well-being of others is becoming increasingly rare.

This way of life can’t be obtained with a certification or an advanced degree. We don’t just put on this type of view and consistently live it out. 

It really is only accessed over time as we transform.

Little by little. Faithful with little. Faithful in this current assignment - transforming.

Faithful with the next assignment - transforming.

The degree to which we are faithful in our current assignment reveals the capacity in us to subvert our own desires and instead pursue arranging a transformational experience for the people we lead. 

The present moment has a way of revealing the truth about what is going on in us. 

Our present assignment, even with all we feel is lacking or missing, is the most useful tool for transforming us and building into us the characteristics we’re going to need in the future as transformational leaders.

Servant leadership is a habit, only developed one courageous decision at a time.

Your current assignment (especially if you don’t like this assignment) is often the tool most used to breathe into you the traits and perspectives needed to be a transformational leader.