The Antithesis of Servant Leadership

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.

Sleep Through The Storms

S-T-C Tuesday: Sleep Through The Storms

March 21, 2023

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.” (Matthew 6:34)

A company was in the beginning phase of building a large structure on the coast of the ocean they would call their home office. The high profile company began accepting applications for a design contractor. They needed an excellent architect, and fielded applications from some of the best and brightest architects in the world. 

As application materials and portfolios came flooding in, often many pages long showcasing extensive work, they noticed one application had just a single page cover-letter from one of the world’s most renowned architects.

A single page. All it said was…

“I sleep through the storms.”

They reached out to the elite architect assuming the rest of his application went missing in the mail or he forgot to send it.

“No, that’s all I wanted to send.”

The company was taken aback, a combination of intrigued and a little offended.

“I sleep through the storms. When I design a building and oversee its completion, I sleep well when the storms come in. While other architects & designers may sweat it out, pacing all night, wondering if their building will withstand the storms, I know that my buildings are designed to the fullest and I have no worries about their structural integrity. If you hire me, you’ll know that I put everything into thinking through the process, planning, and execution. You’ll rest easy knowing I’ve given my entire attention to it.

I sleep through the storms.”

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How often are you giving attention to multiple things at once? On-purpose living isn’t just a fairy tale ideal. It’s what happens when we begin to structure and orient ourselves around our major and minor purposes.

Major purpose: Lifetime of transformation (becoming who you were made to be)

Minor purpose: What you’re involved in right now (Jobs, responsibilities, season of career changing, transition, adversity, setbacks, delays, disappointment.)

What are you involved in right now? The season of life you’re in is begging you to live intentionally.

How you design your life around living intentionally in your minor purposes will have a significant impact on whether or not you live intentionally around your major purpose.

Design in a way that will increase intentional focus and decrease your chances of drifting.

Give your entire attention to living and leading on purpose.