Leadership is a Contradiction
Mick Daly (Elder, Purpose Leader: Leader Development)
January 2007

What's the secret to obtaining things we need and want the most? The answer is a paradox: our greatest needs are met by building into other people's lives. This apparent contradiction is the essence of great leadership. There are other kinds of leadership, but this is the only kind I want to talk about and encourage – Servant Leadership..

In a survey this year Success magazine asked business executives what constitutes success in business. 60% said “adding value to the lives of others”, while only 19% defined their success by “making lots of money”.

What is Servant Leadership? It is influence in a passionate and deliberate pursuit of people that we love, motivating them to make positive changes in their lives. True leaders are a blessing, focusing on what they want for their people, rather than what they want from them.

Leadership is an act of faith: it is the choice to put other people first, regarding their needs as more important than our own… and then finding, by surprise, that our most important wants and needs are wonderfully met.

Yes, leadership's a mystery. I don't know why it works or how it works, only that it does. By focusing on others I connect with my life's purpose (which is “to encourage others to their full potential in Christ Jesus”). It will do the same for you. This will get us out of bed in the morning!

When we practice it, leadership becomes a passion. Sometimes that passion burns bright and strong, but other times it is a fragile flame. My objective here at C@C is for us to mutually ignite, re-ignite, and feed this flame. The fire of leadership must be fed and fanned by each other. We lead others best by putting others first; and the only way to survive and thrive as leaders is when others do the same for us. Leadership will sometimes feel lonely, but it can never be achieved alone.

Leadership is encouragement on a 2-way street. “Encouragement is oxygen to the soul” (George M. Adams) both for the giver and the receiver.

And it’s a command, even a mandate: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up …”                   (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Most people don’t believe in themselves. In life, it’s not what you are that holds you back; it’s what you think you’re not. When nobody is there to cheer you on every day, you are likely to feel isolated and discouraged.

Most leaders spend time trying to get others to think highly of them, when instead they should try to get their people to think more highly of themselves. It’s wonderful when the people believe in their leader; it’s more wonderful when the leader believes in their people!

If others look up to you, then reach down and lift them up; it will change their lives.

“Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you” (William A. Ward).

A LEADER’S PRAYER Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger people!   Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.   Then the doing off your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle.   Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God. — Phillips Brooks

“We can lift people up or take people down in our relationships” (John Maxwell). There are people who:

  +    add something to life (thank them)

  -    subtract something from life (encourage them)

  ÷    divide something in life (pray for them)

  x    multiply something in life (follow them)

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions [dividers]. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great” (Mark Twain).

Let’s be “multipliers”, true servant leaders, like Barnabas “Son of Encouragement” (Acts 4-14). I’ll talk more about Barnabas next month, meanwhile:

"Do what you love in the service of people who love what you do."

More next month ...                                          ~ Leadership ~