Leaders Are Teachers

The leader who leads others is also a teacher, whether they realize it or not.  The teacher-leader must provide an example of “service to others” for others to follow. The teacher-leader must also provide a motivation for others to follow.  That is where the “influence” behavior comes in to leadership.  We have all heard the expression that particular leaders have staff that would do anything for the leader.  The military expression is that the troops will go blindly up a hill to follow a leader they respect.

In business and other organizations the expression speaks about going through walls for someone they respect.  These leaders have provided motivation to do something that the staff may not necessarily fully understand.  It is because they have such respect for the leader; they trust that the action the leader has asked is in fact necessary to accomplish some greater good.  The staff is saying they do not necessarily need to know what that end result is but they will press on to accomplish the task anyway. This trust is never because of “positional power”; this trust is earned by the relationship building behaviors of this leader who keeps watch over the people s/he is leading.

Those who may be familiar with teaching techniques for adults (as well as for children) understand that not all people learn by the same method.  Some learn by reading, others by observing and still others by doing.  In his book Teaching to Change Lives, Howard Hendricks says that psychologists believe that we can potentially remember up to 10% of what we read, remember up to 50% of what we see and remember up to 90% of what we do.  Leaders allow other to learn.  They ensure that others will be put in situations where they can use their talents, skills and gifts in order to try new methods.  These situations are such that the company is not going to blow up or go bankrupt if big mistakes are made.  People learn from their successes; they learn more from their failures and mistakes.

Effective teacher-leaders take the time to know how to teach others in the way that the other person will learn.  This means that leaders must alter their teaching style for the benefit of the learner. If a leader expects each person to learn in the same manner, he is sadly mistaken and will no doubt be surprised when some get it and others don’t.  the ineffective teacher-leader will naturally blame the students, whereas the effective teacher-leader will look at himself to understand where he went wrong in the teaching.

Setting the example that we want others to emulate in us is another way to demonstrate this teaching-leader approach.  Actions do really speak louder than words. A message on a local church building says, “Your walk talks louder than your talk talks.” This statement is so true! If we say something, yet do something else or neglect to follow through as we have promised, what do most people believe: our words or our actions?  The teacher-leader fully understands this concept and puts it into practice all the time.  They have earned the right to be called leaders not because someone has appointed or elected them but because they have gained people’s trust and respect by their previous actions. Effective leaders take this to heart and actively teach others to do the same.

Who are some of the great teacher-leaders you know?  Please share with us.

Servant Leaders Are Long Term Thinkers

Servant leaders stick to their vision by making tough decisions that do not compromise the long-term objectives in order to achieve short-term gains.  They sometimes make decisions that actually sacrifice short-term gains for the sake of the long-term objectives. Unfortunately, many publicly held companies are led based on the anticipation of how the Wall Street financial analysts will react to short term financial results or other such indicators. Therefore, publicly held companies who need to raise capital make decisions based in large part on the impression these short term results will make on Wall Street analysts.

Furthermore, many of the leader’s compensation packages are based in part on short term stock price performance, even if the organization is loosing money or market share.  We know from God’s Word that what is important to you (your treasure) is where your heart will be (see Matt 6:21). Focusing on the short term and earthly treasure is clearly not God’s way of leading or His design for us in leading an organization.

Servant leadership is serving your employees so they can serve the customer.  All leaders realize that without customers, there is no business. Servant leaders ensure that all the employees have the strategies, goals and objectives, clear communications, tools, equipment, resources and policies all available to them and in place so that the customer can be appropriately served.  Patrick Lencioni has said, “When I think of leadership, I think of being a servant, for sure, but being a servant leader means taking a position out in front of people, without making yourself out to be more important than the people you are serving as a leader.”

Servant leaders provide an environment and culture that allows employees to be the best they can be.  Servant leadership is not about focusing on profits first nor is it about ignoring profits; rather it is about identifying the needs of others and being of service to others to meet those needs.  A by-product of serving others may just be profits. Serving your employees also includes providing for them in terms of paying an adequate compensation for their services to you.

Servant leadership is establishing an organizational culture of openness.  Servant leaders are sincere when they ask how they can be of service to the employee or the customer or the financial owner or the supplier.  When they ask for feedback or suggestions, they do so with the sole intent of meeting their needs (not wants), making things better for the people they are serving and not themselves. Servant leaders are open to hearing what the employees, customers, vendors and others are thinking and feeling about the organization.  Servant leaders truly want to know how the organization can be improved so that the customer has a better experience.

Leadership is a spiritual gift.  If you have been given the gift of leadership it means that God has placed you in the role of a leader to have an impact on the organization that employs your services.  You don’t have to be “in the ministry” to exercise your leadership gift; rather, your ministry is where you are now – in your business, your company, your organization – wherever God has placed you.

If you like, use the above items as a checklist to assess the kind of servant leader you are.

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Servant Leader or Self-Serving Leader

The world is full of examples of leaders behaving in ways that disappoint many of the people they are impacting – whether it be their employees, shareholders, families, customers or suppliers. Open a newspaper, magazine or internet news source, and you will find no shortage of stories of leaders once trusted to influence and act on behalf of others who have seemingly gone off the deep end. Why is that? The answer might lie in understanding the focus of their motivation. Their motivation seems to be focused on self and not on others. Arguably, many of today’s high profile leaders in both secular and Christian organizations have reached their position because they focused on self from either a perspective of pride or a perspective of fear. The root motivation of many of their leadership actions is based on protecting themselves rather than those they are leading.      

We can find many examples of leaders who are using the status of their position to exploit employees, shareowners, customers or suppliers. Some make great attempts to insulate themselves from having to follow the rules. Unfortunately, there are almost countless public leaders who have been caught in lies, deceit and other behavior simply because they did not want to take full ownership or accountability of a situation or did not want to tarnish their reputation by admitting to a mistake. They did not want to face the scrutiny of the media for a mistake or misjudgment so they lied about facts, omitted important information or claimed it was someone else’s responsibility.    

The well-known author, John Maxwell, says, “everything rises and falls on leadership.” He has also said, “leadership is about influence, nothing more and nothing less.” Leaders earn the right to influence when they can be trusted to act for the best interests of the other person or organization. Therefore, effective leadership is “other” focused and not “self” focused. Unfortunately today, there are too many leaders who have gone to the “dark side” and are focused on self and not on others.    

We can divide leadership styles into two camps – a “self-serving” leader vs. a “serving others” leader or a “power” leader vs. a “servant” leader. Serving or servant leaders care about others as much as, if not more than, themselves and show this by taking the time and effort to build real, transparent and trusting relationships with those they lead. Servant leaders also demonstrate genuine care for those who hold them accountable to lead – stakeholders, employees, customers and suppliers. 

Power leaders on the other hand have more interest in their own needs and desires. At their worst, they see those they lead as there to serve them in their quest to gain as much power, control, prestige and recognition as possible.

Are you a power leader or a servant leader?