Leadership at a Higher Level

The concept of servant leadership is written in scripture. In Mark 10:42-45, Jesus said:

"You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Servant leadership is persuasive for many reasons, but foremost (in my mind) because it shows (1) the leader has a personal stake and belief in the mission and (2) the mission itself is worth the sacrifice. It shows that the leader aspires to his role not simply to aggrandize his power, fame, wealth or fortune, but because the substantive work of the mission is worth it in the first place!

"Gates of Fire" is a book about servant leadership, in some ways. The book tracks the Battle of Thermopalye from the perspective of a lowly squire. He was drawn to follow his leaders, even though he was from a different background, because of the merits of Spartan leadership. In one part of the book, the squire says:

I will tell his Majesty what a king is. A king does not abide within his tent while his men bleed and die upon the field. A king does not dine while his men go hungry, nor sleep when they stand at watch upon the wall. A king does not command his men's loyalty through fear nor purchase it with gold; he earns their love by the sweat of his own back and the pains he endures for their sake. That which comprises the harshest burden, a king lifts first and sets down last. A king does not require service of those he leads but provides it to them. He serves them, not they him. . .

That is a king, Your Majesty. A king does not expend his substance to enslave men, but by his conduct and example makes them free. His Majesty may ask, as Rooster did, and the lady Arete, why one such as I whose station could most grandly be called service and most meanly slavery, why one of such condition would die for those not of his kin and country. The answer is, they were my kin and country. I set down my life with gladness, and would do it again a hundred times, for Leonidas, for Dienekes and Alexandros and Polynikes, for Rooster and Suicide, for Arete and Diomache, Bruxieus and my own mother and father, my wife and children. I and every man there were never more free than when we gave freely obedience to those harsh laws which take life and give it back again.

Persuasive stuff. Any ethical leader will see himself or herself as a servant.

Servant leadership is leadership at a much higher level.