The Talent of Servant Leadership: Giving Service Above Self

In the process of learning about servant leadership and the dimensions that it consists of, it has opened my eyes to many different areas of my own leadership style. When I was writing about service above self essay I've reviewed the results from the survey and I was surprised to find that the two dimensions I thought would be most applicable to my leadership style, proved to be the least applicable. Leading authentically and relationship focus were two areas that, by definition, appear to be strengths of mine. However, in dissecting what elements those areas are actually made up of, I found there were some real points of weakness. In Manasseh H. Panpe’s article on pitfalls in church leadership, he addresses selfish desire as one of these pitfalls addressing that this desire can be a “desire to be rich, for power and success and not necessary for the benefit of others but self.” This provides a great understanding for what servant leadership is not. The nature of servant leadership is relationship focused and always puts others interests above your own. In saying this, I truly believe that the perfect model for servant leadership is found in the example set by Jesus. Jesus is the embodiment of selflessness and provides the perfect holistic example of what servant leadership looks like. Because of this, I would definitely like to implement a servant leadership model into my church and leadership team.

Service orientation appears to encompass a lot of the foundations of servant leadership. This dimension is where I did the most evaluating of my own leadership style. This dimension is all about leaders who have the capacity to serve those they lead without regard for their own ambitions. The power of service orientation lies in the leader’s ability to use the authority and position they have been given to the benefit of others. In this area, I scored quite highly which was definitely an encouragement to me.

A strength that was revealed through the survey is that I am always more conscious of my responsibilities than my rights. This means that I will continue to serve the needs of others and the church before my own personal needs. While I do still believe that this is a genuine strength, it can also be a weakness. Often time with my family will be put to the side in order to fulfil the roles and responsibilities I have towards others and the church. This was important for me to recognise as I now know that while putting others above myself is a strength in the dimension of service orientation, I do need to make sure my family comes first and that time is not neglected.

One of the weakness I have in this area is that while I put others and the needs of the church above my own practical needs, sometimes I will miss an opportunity to serve someone else if there is a task to be done. This means that instead of being service orientated, sometimes I can be task orientated. In David Young’s book on servant leadership in relation to the renewal of the church, he addresses the aspect of service unto others by saying that “service requires servants to take initiative, run risks, and sacrifice themselves. Servant leadership is not a weak and passive stance.” Young then goes on to apply this to the wider body of the church saying that the church is called to serve, not to be served. This is a reminder to me that while I do need to put others above myself, servant leadership is still an active leadership style whether I am serving others, completing the task at hand or carrying out elements of my own personal life.

Moral Courage

Moral courage was another dimension that revealed some real strengths in my leadership, which was encouraging to see. The ability to help others apply their faith to difficult life decisions, has always been a strength and a passion of mine. There is also the element of standing up for what is true and what is godly, which is also another area I am very passionate in. There are two sides to moral courage. The first is the ability to discern right and wrong and the second is putting those decisions into action and being an example to others. Someone who has moral courage is not afraid to make decisions based on their faith. My strength in this area would be the ability to stand up for what is right no matter who is there or what the situation is. I am not easily intimidated by anyone who questions my beliefs or moral decisions and I will always attempt to explain my own moral reasoning to those who may not share similar views.

In the dimension of moral reasoning it is also important to recognise that “becoming a role model is not what one does in isolation of relationship. The level of trust built determines the level of influence that is made in the life of those a leader leads.” In order to help someone make moral decisions, they need to trust and see that their leaders are putting faith into action to make difficult decisions. A weakness for me would be not always making morally correct decisions when completing tasks in high pressure situations. This could involve negative language or actions. This is where I can evaluate the moral action side of moral courage and see areas that I could improve on in terms of this.

Leading Authentically

Leading authentically is the dimension that revealed the most weakness and was the one that proved to be the least applicable to my leadership style. The premise of leading authentically is being secure enough in yourself to allow for others to have a space to openly and respectfully question your decisions. The main strength I have in this area is practicing what I preach. This was also evident from the survey. This is definitely a strong characteristic of servant leadership as “servant leaders encourage followers to demonstrate consistency between what they say and do.” I believe there is a strong consistency between what I say to those I lead, and what I do. To be authentic means avoiding hypocrisy and putting actions to the things you say which are both strengths in my leadership style.

An element of leading authentically that I believe can be both a strength and a weakness is when my decisions are questioned. While I am more than happy for those I lead to approach me and ask me why I have made certain decisions, it is rare that I will set times aside for this. This encouraged me to evaluate the professional relationships I have with those I lead and consider making more time for those I lead to express how they feel about decisions I have made. Another area of weakness revealed by the survey is that sometimes I will focus on the messenger and not the message if I am angry or upset with the individual delivering the message. At times, if someone I lead has upset or frustrated me, I will disregard the critique of that person even if it is correct or beneficial to my situation.

Spiritual Motivation

Spiritual motivation according to the survey, proved to be my strongest and most applicable dimension in servant leadership. Helping those I lead find clarity and purpose is something I am very passionate about. This is where I see the dimensions of spiritual motivation and moral courage sharing some ground. Both dimensions provide an opportunity to direct someone into the decisions that bring out their full potential. One dimension does so through moral, faith-driven decision making, and the other is providing spiritual direction.

My strength is quite simple in this area. I am one hundred percent sold out to the calling that God has for me-this is what drives me. Because I am driven by this, I have a strong desire to share this with others and encourage them to do the same by finding purpose and direction in whatever area of life they are in or any area they are serving in. This means being focused on the Kingdom of God and helping those I lead discover their purpose within God’s Kingdom. In wanting those I lead to reach their full potential it is important to understand that “spirituality is the motivational basis for servant leaders to engage others in authentic and profound ways that transform them to be what they are capable of becoming.

A weakness for me is that when those I am leading reject their purpose and calling or do not receive my advice in regard to this, I will often get upset. This has made me evaluate my approach to those who do not necessarily see their own potential. While there are scenarios where being stern is applicable in helping servant followers generate a sense of meaning while they are serving, often encouragement to come back to what they were doing can be more effective.

Transforming Influence

When it comes to transforming influence, I believe it puts practical, everyday action to the conversations had between servant leaders and servant followers in relation to spiritual motivation. While spiritual motivation encourages followers to find purpose in their servanthood, transforming influence is about influencing others to spend time in word and prayer so their purpose can be fulfilled by staying connected to their faith.

My strengths are leading by example, providing those I lead with a shared vision that they can believe in and always looking for ways to grow those I lead. This growth can be personal or professional. It was also important for me to understand that “in servant leadership the development and well-being of followers comes first.” By influencing, growing and investing in those I lead first, the long-term vision that God has over the church will be fulfilled after and partly through this.

A weakness of mine when it comes to this dimension is that while I do take the time to invest in those I lead personally, I do not always take that same amount of time to invest in them professionally. This means that I should allocate some extra time to investing in those I lead in a church setting and exploring more of their gift and talents within the church more so than their personal lives. Another area that I need working on when it comes to transforming influence is that I may not always give enough room for those I lead to be creative and experiment in certain situations. If there is a period where it is really busy or stressful, sometimes I will be less likely to allocate the time and space for those who serve to express their creativity and experiment in the areas they serve. This can be a hindrance to the transforming influence I have on them and is therefore an area of my leadership that needs evaluating and improvement.

Relationship Focus

When it comes to relationship focus, I believe it is integral for any organization to have covenantal relationships between leaders and followers. The relationships within the church determine a good majority of its culture, atmosphere and function.

A strength for me within my relationships with those I lead is that I will always go above and beyond to serve and help anyone in any area of their lives. This goes for study, family, relationships and any other area that they need help in. In this, I am also willing to spend whatever time is necessary to invest in those I lead. When explaining the concept of LMX (leader-member exchange theory), the research suggests that “there is a reciprocal process in the dyadic exchanges between leader and follower, wherein each party brings to the relationship different kinds of resources for exchange.” There appears to be constant exchange going on between leaders and followers and in that, there is a need for both parties to provide resources that will be exchanged for the benefit of the other person. When it comes to servant leadership, it is important that the leader provides every resource possible for those they lead. This is a part of the leader being accountable for taking care of those they lead.

A weakness for me would be that if I know someone has fallen short in a certain area before, I will be less likely to give them similar tasks or sometimes tasks in general in future situations. While there are times where people’s roles do need to change and discernment needs to take place, there is also a time to give grace and let people have another go.

Most Important Dimension

For myself I believe that the most important dimension out of the six is transforming influence. This dimension seems to be the one that is most relevant and effective in the context of the church I serve at, and the role that I am currently in. One of the main reasons I believe this is the most important dimension is because it is the only dimension that requires a response from the follower to say whether or not they have been changed or influenced. This dimension will require tangible evidence to see whether or not it has been effective. When servant followers have a transforming influence in their leaders, I believe a lot of the other dimensions of servant leadership will flow out of this. Transforming influence is all about serving as its main goal is to empower, nurture and grow followers to reach their full potential by putting the needs of the follower at the forefront.

This is extremely relevant to the context of the church I serve in as we find that when we have direct influence on those we lead and are working on growing them in their faith, this is when they are mostly likely to go on a journey of becoming independent in their faith and becoming leaders in their own right. Our church is in a very important season of building and preparing new foundations for the future. I feel transforming influence is extremely important as my role is to help people catch the vision and calling God has placed on our church. This is not to conform people to the “church’s vision” but to help people grow in their relationship with the Lord so they ultimately see the vision for themselves. At the root of transforming influence and servant leadership is love. Helping those you lead is all “about doing good with a clear concern for the followers, acts of kindness that are intended for the followers benefit not for the leader’s benefit.”

Obtaining and Maintaining Transforming Influence

In order to maintain this dimension of servant leadership, the focus always needs to be brought back to the person, to the individual that is serving. Transforming influence is maintained when people are the focus as the whole purpose of this dimension is helping servant followers grow in their personal and professional worlds. Transforming influence is also maintained when Jesus is the model and example for what we do. I also think it is important to understand the difference between transforming influence and transformational leadership. A transformational leader will excite and inspire followers to perform beyond expectations, but these behaviors are typically motivated by a preoccupation with the organizational goals rather than followers' development. While this is the nature of transformational leadership, transforming influence seeks to inspire and teach servant followers with the intention of seeing them grow personally and spiritually. Having this understanding of transforming influence will help us to obtain it in the church. Making sure Jesus is transforming me regularly is also essential to obtain transforming influence. As leaders, we need to be regularly changing and transformed by Jesus so we can be that influence on those we lead.

Avoiding Leadership Pitfalls

One of the main ways I feel leaders can fall is if they are not accountable to anyone. Accountability is very important not just in ministry, but in any organization. Myself and my husband have designated a couple, outside of the ministry we do, to be our oversights. We have found this to be extremely helpful as we have people outside of our day to day lives, with no preconceived ideas about any of our situations, that we can share our circumstances with. Because they are outside of the ministry we do, this also gives them permission to speak into our relationship and our personal lives. Being accountable has prevented me from being stuck in pitfalls in my leadership.

Another method for avoiding pitfalls in leadership is by being self-aware. Making sure you are assessing the way you are feeling and the way you are feeling about yourself is integral as it will affect how you respond to those you lead. There is power in having a godly confidence and high self-esteem not because of a role or position, but because of who you are. Robert C. Liden suggests that one of the key characteristics of servant leadership is one who has self-evaluation at their core. He suggests that “leaders with high self-esteem are less likely to seek approval though leadership roles. This means that their belief in their self-worth has the potential to protect them from the risks associated with failure in servant leadership.”

Conclusion

Analysing the six dimensions of servant leadership has given me some direct insight into my own leadership style and has given me a clearer understanding of how servant leadership operates within a church setting. Transforming influence is a dimension of servant leadership that I have connected quite well with as I believe it is very important in growing the relationship between servant leaders and servant followers. I believe this dimension will increase commitment which “reflects a person’s emotional attachment to the organization which is based on a sincere desire to remain there in the future.” One of the main conclusions I have come to when it comes to servant leadership is that there might be a small assumption that as a servant leader you must serve everyone whenever they need it no matter what. I do not believe this to be true. Just as Jesus had to move onto the next place the Father had called Him to, I believe above all we are called to serve the Fathers Will which will not always be the will of those we lead. That being said, servant leadership still undeniably provides a great model for being a Christ-like leader.