On his retirement from work, circa 1970, Robert Greenleaf set about developing a new model for leadership in business management. The model that he pioneered, known as ‘servant leadership, is now used by a number of global brands. The servant leadership model is explained below.
"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."
"The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priorities 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 servant? And what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or at least not be further deprived.1
Interesting idea isn’t it? You won’t be surprised to know that Greenleaf was writing from a faith background; in fact he was a Quaker. I really like his thinking and wonder how much more people might enjoy work if more business leaders operated on that basis. However, I have one major problem with his idea. As a Christian my role is not to seek to serve the highest priority of those around me. No, ultimately I am the servant of Christ and my servant hood of others is done because Jesus has told me to. Jesus sets the agenda from which I serve. Because of this I need to ensure that I am not brow beaten into acts of service that are not in line with the purposes of the gospel.
For prayer today..
Ask God to make Jesus and his kingdom the highest priority in your life. Ask him that you serve others out of Jesus’ love for them and not out of their desires.
Some music while you pray?
Martin Layzell 'Walk as Jesus Walked'
1 Robert Greenleaf: The Servant as Leader 1970. From http://www.greenleaf.org.uk/about.php
John Martin-Jones
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