14 Oct Serve First. Lead Second
I have read and written a great deal about a leadership philosophy called “Servant-Leadership” over the past year. Since the 1970s, thousands of leaders–serving both churches and non-profits–have chosen to adopt the servant-leader model. Joy FM is one of those organizations. While there is much to be said about the merits of Servant Leadership, we must first understand what it truly is so we can better understand what it is intended to look like. Therefore, instead of running the risk of muddying the waters with my own interpretation, I thought it better to provide you with an excerpt from the original source–an essay by Robert K. Greenleaf, titled, The Servant as Leader. These are his words…
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”