Servant-leadership is an expression of humility.
A great paradox is that this kind of leader is one who exercises authority, motivating people to willingly do what has been asked because of personal influence. They don’t do this for personal praise. They do it because they understand and share the vision, know the mission and make sure the team knows their roles and are driven by values that include other-orientation.
Authority is different than power. Power can be bought or sold and given or taken. Not so with authority. It is earned because of a person's character as expressed in their behavior.
Character is often best expressed in the rough-and-tumble of the street where selling, customer service and problem-solving takes place. When humility rules, successful case histories and testimonials can become a major part of your marketing communications program.
Effective market leaders drive further market penetration by developing “happy-user-stories” that powerfully tell of the results of the value your offering delivers. That result can be traced to the truth of the verse below – it is a universal truth.
Proverbs 27:2 (NIV) Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.
Christ has left us with the example of the behaviors of humility and servant-leadership. The result of His humble authority is still being felt today.
Is your authority as a leader being positively experience in your organization today?
Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Showing posts with label humility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humility. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
LEADERSHIP Series: Good to Great May Involve Sacrifice
The mix of humility and relentlessness will may define a “Level 5” (Collins, Good to Great), but for the Christian at work, there may be more to consider.
Humility is more than some building block toward leadership: it must be an essence of leadership. It is the definition of a leader that is driven by a desire to serve others.
In Genesis, there is a story about land. It seems that the land could not support both Abram and Lot’s herdsmen who were quarrelling (two groups professing faith) in a land of unbelieving people. Abram’s plea for peace came with a powerful offer to Lot: take half. Lot did not deserve it: was not promised it. But “keeping away from strife” drove Abram’s decision. He trusted God to provide even though Lot chose the best land.
Sometimes, moving from “good to great” demands a sacrifice resulting in a “move” for which God alone receives glory.
Are you a “mover and shaker” for peace at work?
Proverbs 20:3 (AMP) Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel.
Copyright ©20009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Humility is more than some building block toward leadership: it must be an essence of leadership. It is the definition of a leader that is driven by a desire to serve others.
In Genesis, there is a story about land. It seems that the land could not support both Abram and Lot’s herdsmen who were quarrelling (two groups professing faith) in a land of unbelieving people. Abram’s plea for peace came with a powerful offer to Lot: take half. Lot did not deserve it: was not promised it. But “keeping away from strife” drove Abram’s decision. He trusted God to provide even though Lot chose the best land.
Sometimes, moving from “good to great” demands a sacrifice resulting in a “move” for which God alone receives glory.
Are you a “mover and shaker” for peace at work?
Proverbs 20:3 (AMP) Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel.
Copyright ©20009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Thursday, May 7, 2009
LEADERSHIP Series: The Value of Others
God’s laws, like principles of leadership, are fundamentally about two issues: personal integrity and the value of others. Robin S. Sharma in Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari put it this way: “The greatest privilege of leadership is the chance to elevate lives."
Robert E. Staub - (The Heart of Leadership: 12 Practices of a Courageous Leader) - reveals that those who purport to lead - but fail - do so because they don't understand who it is they're trying to lead. Sometimes, evaluations of the team are based upon the wrong criteria – they may well be the right “people on the bus” and leaders miss it because they are not holding the skills possessed as “precious.”
According to Jim Collins, “The good-to-great leaders understood …[a] simple truth…. if you begin with “who,” rather than “what,” you can more easily adapt to a changing world.” What I have learned is that working on developing the “who” is a rigorous process and takes competency, intimacy, integrity, and passion.
Leaders know what is precious: It not the stuff that must be done; rather, it’s the people who team with them to get it done.
Who is (or is it “what is”) most precious to you?
Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Robert E. Staub - (The Heart of Leadership: 12 Practices of a Courageous Leader) - reveals that those who purport to lead - but fail - do so because they don't understand who it is they're trying to lead. Sometimes, evaluations of the team are based upon the wrong criteria – they may well be the right “people on the bus” and leaders miss it because they are not holding the skills possessed as “precious.”
According to Jim Collins, “The good-to-great leaders understood …[a] simple truth…. if you begin with “who,” rather than “what,” you can more easily adapt to a changing world.” What I have learned is that working on developing the “who” is a rigorous process and takes competency, intimacy, integrity, and passion.
Leaders know what is precious: It not the stuff that must be done; rather, it’s the people who team with them to get it done.
Who is (or is it “what is”) most precious to you?
Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Friday, May 1, 2009
LEADERSHIP Series: In Tough Times Leaders Relax Then Lead
Thoughts about leadership come from many diverse sources. While thinking about sharing my thoughts on stillness and resting, relaxing and leading, I was in bed, also reading a Tanenbaum novel last night wherein this description awoke my thinking:
That author captured the both the wonder of stillness and result it produces. This result will impact all those around - all those watching you. You want to be a magnet of quiet meaning to those seeking rest and relaxation from the troubles of their life? Relax.
If lost in the woods, we are taught to be still. Stay in one place. Our nature is to move. Run. Flee. Frantically find the way out. Instead of frenetic activity, on writer advised, "I have stilled and quieted myself, just as a small child is quiet with its mother."1
This verse says there is a simple method that will provide what you need to learn to relax – and it’s free!
Go deep into life – be still. It takes patience and discipline to quiet self and listen to the still, small voice of our Creator. For hard chargers like me, it is difficult to quiet my mind, my soul and my body – and I want God to shout. Being still – relaxing – I have learned will help you discover your way.
Do life right: Shift your focus. Being self-absorbed brings anxiety: Becoming God-absorbed yields relaxation. The choice should be clear.
In the stillness, to whom are you paying attention?
Proverbs 1:33 (MSG) "First pay attention to me, and then relax. Now you can take it easy--you're in good hands.
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
1 David, in Psalm 131:2
“Lucy in the meantime was exercising her primary religious talent…simply keeping still and reflecting in peace and gratitude. This had a radiating effect on the other lunchers.”
That author captured the both the wonder of stillness and result it produces. This result will impact all those around - all those watching you. You want to be a magnet of quiet meaning to those seeking rest and relaxation from the troubles of their life? Relax.
If lost in the woods, we are taught to be still. Stay in one place. Our nature is to move. Run. Flee. Frantically find the way out. Instead of frenetic activity, on writer advised, "I have stilled and quieted myself, just as a small child is quiet with its mother."1
This verse says there is a simple method that will provide what you need to learn to relax – and it’s free!
Go deep into life – be still. It takes patience and discipline to quiet self and listen to the still, small voice of our Creator. For hard chargers like me, it is difficult to quiet my mind, my soul and my body – and I want God to shout. Being still – relaxing – I have learned will help you discover your way.
Do life right: Shift your focus. Being self-absorbed brings anxiety: Becoming God-absorbed yields relaxation. The choice should be clear.
In the stillness, to whom are you paying attention?
Proverbs 1:33 (MSG) "First pay attention to me, and then relax. Now you can take it easy--you're in good hands.
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
1 David, in Psalm 131:2
Thursday, April 30, 2009
LEADERSHIP SERIES: Craving or Contented?
It was the first century Roman philosopher, Seneca, who observed, “Poor is not the person who has too little, but the person who craves more.”
Our society has built commerce on carving more and more. The Community Resource Act (CRA), and the US Government drove the kind of behavior the allowed people who could not afford housing to fulfill cravings for housing. The result has been nothing short of catastrophic.
Today, woven throughout modern secular literature on leadership is the thread of the importance of character in leadership - especially the literature on servant-leadership. The nature of character of contentment – often couched in terms like “finding wholeness” yields behavior that reaches goals but not for purely self-serving motives.
The contented leader is a concept that addresses personal core values and has nothing to say about achieving profitable market share. The later drives a business: the former drives how the leader leads the people who “do the business.” Agur’s prayer – like the Lord’s Prayer – recognizes the truth that living is to be a daily experience.
There’s an old prayer, that I was taught as a child, that might illustrate: “God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for ______.”
How are you filling in the blank?
Proverbs 30:7-9 (NIV) "Two things I (Agur) ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Our society has built commerce on carving more and more. The Community Resource Act (CRA), and the US Government drove the kind of behavior the allowed people who could not afford housing to fulfill cravings for housing. The result has been nothing short of catastrophic.
Today, woven throughout modern secular literature on leadership is the thread of the importance of character in leadership - especially the literature on servant-leadership. The nature of character of contentment – often couched in terms like “finding wholeness” yields behavior that reaches goals but not for purely self-serving motives.
The contented leader is a concept that addresses personal core values and has nothing to say about achieving profitable market share. The later drives a business: the former drives how the leader leads the people who “do the business.” Agur’s prayer – like the Lord’s Prayer – recognizes the truth that living is to be a daily experience.
There’s an old prayer, that I was taught as a child, that might illustrate: “God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for ______.”
How are you filling in the blank?
Proverbs 30:7-9 (NIV) "Two things I (Agur) ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Monday, April 27, 2009
LEADERSHIP Series: Barrier-breaking Leadership
Once they knew that their Redeemer lived, the hearts of the earliest church leaders changed from fearful to focused, becoming bold breakers of cultural and religious barriers. They faced the world with new hearts and became models of leadership to follow.
Consider the place of women in this community. At the first recorded prayer-meeting, women were present; incredibly, praying with the men. Unheard of in the Jewish synagogues, this was a radical result of the leadership of the Great Servant-Leader. The gender-barrier broken, ethnic barriers fell, and these leaders ultimately changed the diet of the early church. These, and other barrier-breaking behaviors, were lived out in deeds - not just motivating words and were born of hearts broken of self and filled with the Lord of the Universe.
From their lives (especially seen in the book of Acts), we learn that a heart committed to life of significance is educated through a commitment to prayer, enlightened by reading and meditating on the Word, and ultimately empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The result? Even in the workplace, as you work to break down societal and cultural barriers, your heart, reflected in your countenance, will attract followers who want what you have – the beauty of becoming a magnet of meaning to those seeking meaning.
What do you see reflected when you gaze into the mirror? Do you have the heart to break barriers?
Proverbs 27:19 (NIV) As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Consider the place of women in this community. At the first recorded prayer-meeting, women were present; incredibly, praying with the men. Unheard of in the Jewish synagogues, this was a radical result of the leadership of the Great Servant-Leader. The gender-barrier broken, ethnic barriers fell, and these leaders ultimately changed the diet of the early church. These, and other barrier-breaking behaviors, were lived out in deeds - not just motivating words and were born of hearts broken of self and filled with the Lord of the Universe.
From their lives (especially seen in the book of Acts), we learn that a heart committed to life of significance is educated through a commitment to prayer, enlightened by reading and meditating on the Word, and ultimately empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The result? Even in the workplace, as you work to break down societal and cultural barriers, your heart, reflected in your countenance, will attract followers who want what you have – the beauty of becoming a magnet of meaning to those seeking meaning.
What do you see reflected when you gaze into the mirror? Do you have the heart to break barriers?
Proverbs 27:19 (NIV) As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
LEADERSHIP Series: GOT A LIGHT?
In John Kotter's 1990 article What Leaders Really Do he observed that: "Well-led businesses tend to recognize and reward people who successfully develop leaders."
I would posit that developing leaders is not the result of quiet (or loud) arrogance or an overweening view of self. Rather, developing and nurturing others to lead takes, at least, an attitude that “followers” have something to offer, too. The burning question is, "Why would anyone want to be led by you?"
In fact, I discovered that Goffee and Jones had asked this very question in a ten-year study and the results published in the Sept-Oct 2000 HBR, Why Should Anyone Be Lead by You? They discovered four "unexpected" traits of "inspirational" leaders and the first is that these kinds of leaders "reveal their weaknesses."
Proud people would shun away from that kind of leading. Their only "light" for their path is themselves. No one else can do it better, think in through better or explain it better. It is all about them. As Coffee and Jones point out, people who try to communicate that "there will be no need for anyone to help them with anything...signal that they can do it themselves." That is not leading: preening, maybe: Leading no!
Leading does require a vision – and then sharing that vision with staff. A sense of command is important to leadership. Passion and strategic thinking are vital. But as important as these traits are to leaders, they will fail to lead if they try to do it from a position of pride.
Moses led millions. He learned to better manage the process by his father-in-law who immediately saw a managerial flaw early in Moses' career as the leader. Moses listened, set up the system to manage the process. And Numbers 12:3 reminds us that "Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth." Leading, from a position of humility, works.
Christians should have a natural advantage as business leaders. After all, we have "put off the old" haven't we - and now we have "the mind of Christ" ruling our lives, right? But humility is hard work, and for the driven and successful, very hard work. We are so used to solving problems on the fly, driving action, dynamic presentations, and on top of things, that it is very easy to forget that we are stewards of those gifts of leadership. We are called to manage ALL that God has given us for His glory. Our flesh is not about humility, rather about what "lights us up!" And God calls this sin.
Lamps whose light source is self, is a dead light. It's a lamp that lights the path to destruction. On the other hand, we are told to "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16
It's all about His light. Not ours.
Are you shining? Is it your feeble light or His strong light?
Copyright (c) 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell. This content may be copied with a current recognition of source.
I would posit that developing leaders is not the result of quiet (or loud) arrogance or an overweening view of self. Rather, developing and nurturing others to lead takes, at least, an attitude that “followers” have something to offer, too. The burning question is, "Why would anyone want to be led by you?"
In fact, I discovered that Goffee and Jones had asked this very question in a ten-year study and the results published in the Sept-Oct 2000 HBR, Why Should Anyone Be Lead by You? They discovered four "unexpected" traits of "inspirational" leaders and the first is that these kinds of leaders "reveal their weaknesses."
Proud people would shun away from that kind of leading. Their only "light" for their path is themselves. No one else can do it better, think in through better or explain it better. It is all about them. As Coffee and Jones point out, people who try to communicate that "there will be no need for anyone to help them with anything...signal that they can do it themselves." That is not leading: preening, maybe: Leading no!
Leading does require a vision – and then sharing that vision with staff. A sense of command is important to leadership. Passion and strategic thinking are vital. But as important as these traits are to leaders, they will fail to lead if they try to do it from a position of pride.
Moses led millions. He learned to better manage the process by his father-in-law who immediately saw a managerial flaw early in Moses' career as the leader. Moses listened, set up the system to manage the process. And Numbers 12:3 reminds us that "Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth." Leading, from a position of humility, works.
Christians should have a natural advantage as business leaders. After all, we have "put off the old" haven't we - and now we have "the mind of Christ" ruling our lives, right? But humility is hard work, and for the driven and successful, very hard work. We are so used to solving problems on the fly, driving action, dynamic presentations, and on top of things, that it is very easy to forget that we are stewards of those gifts of leadership. We are called to manage ALL that God has given us for His glory. Our flesh is not about humility, rather about what "lights us up!" And God calls this sin.
Lamps whose light source is self, is a dead light. It's a lamp that lights the path to destruction. On the other hand, we are told to "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16
It's all about His light. Not ours.
Are you shining? Is it your feeble light or His strong light?
Copyright (c) 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell. This content may be copied with a current recognition of source.
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