Service: How to Be A Leader Worth Dying For (2)
And they spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” – 1 Kings 12:7
In continuation of our meditation on what it takes to be a servant leader who is worth dying for as seen from the counsel delivered by the elders to king Rehoboam, the first lesson we will meditate on today is the first piece of the advice, service.
It is easy to confuse leadership as a one-way strait that involves a group of people kowtowing to the whims, caprices, wishes and pleasures of one individual or a select few in the position of power. That is the model of leadership the world seems to have fixated on, and it is the reason some people in such positions abuse their role because of the warped impression they have about their status vis-à-vis the responsibilities of their people.
Leadership is service. The primary responsibility a leader has is to serve his followers, not the other way round. A leader provides service in several ways, by sleeping less, planning more, engaging most, undertaking much more and doing everything within her capacity to ensure that her charges are led in the right direction and are provided the right resources that would help them develop to the fullest and fulfill their potential.
A leader who has this service mindset will approach his duties in a different way than is common among other people who hold leadership positions. A servant leader thinks more about the people under his charge than he thinks about himself and would go to a great length to see to their welfare and provide for their needs. Those who amass the commonwealth of the state for their own personal use are not leaders, but wolves. A servant leader will practically serve her people, and this will be evident in the way she talks to them, about them, relates with them, engages them and manage own and common resources to serve them and not herself.
A servant leader always prioritizes the people’s needs above his own and would do anything to ensure that no harm comes to those under his charges. There are very few people like this around. A servant leader is a dying breed, and they are worth dying for.
To be continued…
You Will Succeed in Jesus Name!
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