Essential JesusNäide

Humility - The Real "Servant Leadership"

Robert K. Greenleaf is credited with developing the workplace approach of servant leadership. An American business consultant, Greenleaf wrote an essay in the 1970s, called The Servant as Leader, which described some of the characteristics and activities of servant-leaders. Basically, a servant leader would prioritize service over leadership, in contrast with other "alpha boss" approaches. Greenleaf said he was inspired by author Hermann Hesse’s 1932 novel The Journey to the East. But he also thanked Judeo-Christian ethic for informing his philosophy, as he should because Jesus lived and proclaimed "servant leadership" centuries before business consultants were a thing.

Greenleaf and pretty much everybody else knows that Jesus called us to the level of humility epitomized by servant leadership instructing us to not go for first place but rather to aim for last and be "servant of all" (Mark 9:35 NIV). Our jaws should drop, especially with The Greatest Leader Of All predicting He would be killed by those He came to serve ("... the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve..." Mark 10:45a NIV).

Written by BEN MCEACHEN