JANUARY 31 • TRUE LEADERSHIP
People Matter — Servant Leadership
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 1 Corinthians 8:11 & Romans 14:15
The brother for whom Christ died. It’s almost a sarcastic seriousness, as if Paul is saying, “oh, nice job buddy — way to hurt your brother — you know, the one whom Christ died for? Remember Christ? God? Remember Him?? He died for someone other than you, ya know!”
People matter to God and so people should matter to us. God says that we are his friends. Think about that for a moment — we are a friend of God! (John 15:14-15, James 2:23). All the attributes we have looked at over the past two weeks are attributes of God, and attributes that He wants us to have with one another. It doesn’t matter who the one another is, we are called to love them in these ways.
If you want to be a leader, you must sacrifice — you must serve — … But whoever would be great among you must be your servant (Matthew 20:26). Therefore, you must be a servant leader. Leadership isn’t top down, it’s bottom up. In the book Dare to Lead, Brené Brown tells a story from Colonel DeDe Halfhill, USAF (Retired 2021?), on leadership principles. In the Air Force’s most current leadership manual, Leadership and Force Development, written in 2011, the document explains that our Air Force’s current core values are an evolution of seven leadership traits identified in the Air Force’s very first manual on leadership, AF Manual 35-15, written in 1948. One of the seven traits was humanness. Col. Halfhill writes that she was struck with a lot of emotion from the words in the manual; words and phrases like, to belong, a sense of belonging, feelings, fear, compassion, competence, kindness, friendliness, and mercy. Here’s this military document talking about leadership with mercy and kindnesses and belonging and love — the word love was actually in the military leadership manual. She did a word search in the manual on feelings — how men would feel was referenced 147 times; the importance of creating a sense of belonging was mentioned 21 times; the fear of combat, the fear of exclusion; the fear of what a life in the profession of arms will bring was mentioned 35 times; love — what it means as a leader to love your men, was brought up 13 times.
In general, the document used a language that spoke to the human experience when it was instructing leaders on how to lead people. The current Air Force manual on leadership (2011) uses none of these words. Each search turned up zero finds. These words that addressed the real emotions of people, have been completely removed from our language on leadership. Those words have been replaced with terms like tactical leadership, operational leadership, strategic leadership — important but sterile terms.
In the last 77 years (and probably most significantly the last 20 years), it appears that all sectors of life have adopted this same negative change in leadership principles. Want to lead well? Serve well. Love well. Care well.
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Some important final thoughts on character and how we should treat people. How we treat people is paramount in life and leadership and is typically where we fall down the most, whether that’s at home, in the workplace, or anywhere in-between. I am not saying that we should not be candid and honest with people — far from that. Get that out of your head right now. I don’t want you applying that thought as you read the rest of these principles because it might cause you to not hear what I am saying. I am saying the WHAT is important and needs to be addressed (candid and honest). And I am also saying that the HOW we do it is paramount. In general, there is no room in life for not dealing with issues and there is no room in life for not being kind — even to our enemies. Be strong, courageous, and resolved… and be gentle, kind, and humble. Life is a both and, not an either or. To lead well is to do the right thing the right way.
Pray: Lord, show me what true servant leadership looks like and help me optimize that in my life — and other’s lives.
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