The paradox of servant leadership

[kenny udokporo]

Often times when people first hear the idea of servant leadership, they look at you with a dumbfounded and confused gaze in their eye. Why? Because most people have been conditioned to believe that leaders are the ones who bark out orders, boss people around, command all the power and authority, and manage with the carrot or the stick. The good news is leadership doesn’t have to be this way. The solution to this problem is servant leadership. The beauty of the paradox of servant leadership is that the servant is actually the leader, not the other way around. In other words, by putting your followers first, you are actually the leader rather than follower. With this perspective of leadership,how possibly could a leader who trains, recruits and launches staff into positions be a servant leader?

[Aim (Pathomphorn Chaosan)]

Kenny,

I totally agree with you that a leader should be a servant. It is also the teaching of Jesus. He set a lot of good examples of his servant leadership. A leader must also be humble and have a heart for the Lord and for others. God chose David to be the king of Israel not because of his appearance, but because of his heart. I agree that a good leader is a good follower. Leaders can lead people in negative or possitive directions, so recruiting leaders is very important too. Therefore, leaders must love God and others, serve others, have a heart for ministries, be humble, and listen to others. These are only some qualities they should have to be a good leader.

In Christ,
Aim

[brian E Wakeman]

Kenny I liked your ideas about 'servant leadership'........reminded me of the words of a young Jewish rabbi!

Would you agree that ministry of any type has attending temptations, traps, and tensions of :
-position
-power dimensions over other people
-belief that we have to be the source of answers, of truth and wisdom
-claims to knowledge.......when we stand on the shoulders of giants?

Lead us not into temptations of leadership
But deliver us from evils of arrogance.
For Thine is the kingdom,
The power and
The glory..............

Blessings

Brian

[Paul Bramer]

The concept of Servant Leadership, popularized by Robert K. Greenleaf (1997) in the secular world, has obvious resonance for the Christian and is taken as axiomatic in most Christian leadership books. However, depending on the connotations put on "servant", this can be a dis-empowering idea for Christian leaders who need to 'step out boldly' or make 'hard decisions'. I have been playing with the idea of "serving by leading" as an alternative to "servant leadership" and find that it can be more freeing for the leader to do as the scripture exhorts, "those who lead should lead diligently" (Rom. 12:8), a phrase in a list of parallels "those who ____ should _____". This is not meant to give warrant to immature, power-obsessed Christian leaders who plow forward with their own agenda come what may or to suggest that humility is not an essential virtue for every Christian and endeavor; rather, it is a recognition that leadership properly understood is and always should be a way of serving the group to whose members and mission you are committed. Therefore the way leadership is exercised should reflect that fundamental and implicit call in leadership. I wonder if this idea "servant leadership" gets understood differently depending on the cultural and theoretical framework one has. Those are my "thoughts-in-progress" at this time! :)