Leaders Should Be Servants

I had the privilege today to be part of a small, select group of individuals that participated in a workshop presented by a world-class speaker/trainer/named Ed (The Rainmaker) Robinson. In this workshop, he outlined the steps necessary to create a successful speaking business.  His presentation confirmed my belief that in order to be truly successful we must first seek to help and be a benefit to others. No more than 5 min. into the workshop Mr. Robinson had us perform an exercise that identified obstacles to our business growth. He then spent the remainder of his presentation ensuring that each and every one of our obstacles was addressed.

In my opinion, this makes The Rainmaker a true servant leader. A servant leader is one who accomplishes their goals or purpose by helping the members of his team to reach their full potential and therefore perform at their best. It doesn't matter who is on the team or where the game is played because in some way shape or form we’re all leaders. Our team can be located on the job, in the home, in our social organizations, in our places of worship, or anywhere we are asked to solve a problem or give an opinion. Robert K. Greenleaf developed the concept of servant leadership in his book titled “Servant Leadership”.

A servant leader is not a “me first” leader. He doesn't accomplish his purpose first and then see how he can help the other members of this team. A true servant leader will first determine the needs of his team and use his intellectual nature to figure out a way to assist them prior to accomplishing his purpose. Now I'm not saying that we will solve others problems or even our own on the 1st try.  Many problems are difficult and may have us pulling our hair out. My advice is not to quit but to hang in there because it’s part of our maturing process.

You see, my friend, problems are the stepping-stones on the road to success. And if you have read or seen my earlier posts, I never said success was easy. However, if we are passionate about what we’re doing then each problem we encounter will lead to an opportunity. These opportunities will then lead to breakthroughs. These breakthroughs will be a blessing in our lives and the lives of others. We can stay connected to our passion and our purpose by constantly revisiting our spiritual nature (Mentor) and allowing it to provide direction to our intellectual nature (Coach) during turbulent times.

Servant Leaders are made and not born. We need more of them in our businesses, organizations and homes. We can build/rebuild strong organizations, institutions, societies and countries by putting the needs of others before our own.  Just take a look at what a man named Jesus accomplished using this model of leadership.

I hope that you enjoyed this post and until next time here’s hoping that you live today and every day passionately and with purpose. Thank you and God Bless!