Our pastor has given 2 messages in a row on “Leadership.” He points out that the greatest leader who ever walked this earth was Jesus Christ. So he looked at Christ as his example for his discussion on what great leadership is all about. What he has focused on is: “Where on the scale/continuum are you?!” At one end of the scale is the Self-Serving Leader. On the other end of the scale is the Servant Leader.
Ken Blanchard defines leadership this way, “Any time you seek to influence the thinking, behavior or development of people toward accomplishing a goal, you are taking a leadership role.” Pastor Chuck Swindoll says leadership is “inspiring influence.”
Our pastor, Jim Wall, states that, “Servant Leaders are more focused on the transformation of the people they are leading than they are the task they are trying to accomplish.” He also says, “People go into eternity, tasks don’t!”
So…. to assess your Servant Leader quotient, measure yourself on these 4 qualities: 1- Servant Leaders personally challenge others. 2- Servant Leaders build confidence in others. 3- Servant Leaders give credit to others. 4- Servant Leaders provide honest counsel to others.
Pastor Jim paraphrased the old saying like this: “God can do great things through a person who doesn’t care who gets the credit.” Teams can accomplish great things when the players (and coaches!) don’t care who gets the credit.
If you have read any of my posts over the years, you know that I am a strong advocate for teaching character to my players. It wasn’t until I heard the message last week that it dawned on me that what my ultimate goal in coaching has been over these 40 years is to have our players leave our program better men than when they arrived. It has produced a lot of success on and off the field. I talk to a lot of my former players on facebook now and it’s a joy to hear how well they’re doing in their adult life. I like to think that I helped lay the foundation of success that they are experiencing.
I want to close with a definition from the coach that I admire more than any single coach, John Wooden. He won the “right way.” Yes, he had some tremendous athletes play for him over the years. But, the one thing Coach Wooden did was… he always maximized that talent! This is from his Pyramid of Success. It is his definition of success. It reads:
“Success is peace of mind… which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing that you DID your best to BECOME the best you are capable of being.”
That definition comes from the heart of a Servant Leader!
