leadership: servant-leader

“Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. “  Mark 10:43

To many of us, we define a leader as one who possesses power, wealth, position and prestige. We, somehow, think that being in a high position would have the right and authority to demand from others to serve us. If this manner of belief would then persist then it’s extremely dangerous as it may lead into a dictatorial form of leadership.

And the danger there is the total control of the subordinates and may lead into abuse of power if the leader has an ulterior motive over his subjects.

Many of us take power very lightly. We always prefer to be a general than a private, a boss than a regular worker, a king than a citizen. Never has it crossed our minds that the concept of being a servant-leader is subjecting oneself at first to be a servant to others. In a biblical point of view, God characterizes a leader in terms of the willingness to serve without even a shade of thought of greatness or popularity.

Servant-leaders prioritize their time to dedicate themselves to their people. They always ask of themselves, how they can be of service to the people. How they can help achieve their constituents’ needs? A good leader looks after the welfare of his followers as his first priority before himself. He inspires, teaches, and reaches people’s hearts to motivate, encourage and fulfill to their set of expectations. For me, it takes one’s initiative and decision to become a leader, a decision to sacrifice to be available to serve not only to a leader’s convenient space but even when it’s not.

In every leadership, there will always be problems and unexpected circumstances that will be encountered. This is the time for a leader to test himself how he will be able to solve such problems and how he can still hold on to stand up for his people. There is no question that a leader can also commit mistakes, fail in his duty or responsibility. Sometimes people regard leaders as perfect people, the highly chosen, but fail to realize that they are still people, people like us who can commit mistakes. But it is a characteristic of a great leader to take this mistake as a challenge to make it a realization of his limitation, and learn from it and seeing it as a humbling reminder that there is greatness in humility. This is absolute servant-hood.

We can all be leaders in our own way. We have the power to choose whichever path we choose to lead, which road to develop, and which lifetime can we give our service at its best. Sometimes, we just don’t know that we are considered as an inspiration from dreamers, an influence for the undetermined, and a goal for the risk-takers. And circumstances like these may lead us to become a leader, always inspiring, always at its service and always reaching out to people.