Servant Leadership

Hey everyone, sorry I did not blog for a while.  I got real busy with work, and I will continue to be so for a while, so please be patient with me.  But I finally found some time to do one. 

First, I would just like to wish my girlfriend Maria a very Happy Birthday today.  I hope you enjoy it princess and I hope your day will be relaxing and blessed as you and all those who love you celebrate the joy of your being brought into this world.

Now, I would like to talk about something concerning my work.  I said in a previous post that I work at Quick Chek.  Well, recently I applied for a store leader position and last week I got the position.  Starting the day after this is written I will be in charge of a store. 

As anyone can guess, this carries with it a lot of responsibility.  Various tasks need to be done, rules need to be followed, etc.  But what is most important, for any store leader, or any leader for that matter, is to watch over their team members and those that are working for the leader.  It makes sense.  Even from a purely business perspective, I as a store leader will not be interacting with customers nearly as much as my employees are.  But I do interact often with my employees.  Not only that, but it is the team that really keeps the business/project/task running, not the store leader.  If it was just me in the store I would fail at running it because I cannot possibly do everything necessary to keep the store running by myself.  I need my team to be able to accomplish my goals.

I would also add, though, that it is by nature of being a leader that a leader should care for their employees and those that he/she is leading.  And this goes into any form of leadership whether it is in business or the community or one's family matters not in the sense that all leaders of all stripes need to care for those they are leading because of the very fact that they are/should be leaving them.  And again, this speaks true whether you are talking about a store leader, a political leader, a religious leader, a mom, a dad, etc. 

So how does one actually lead?  How does one successfully care for one's employees/loved ones and guide them to be the best that they can be in any and all ways that one as a leader has influence over?  Ultimately, it comes down to something that sounds paradoxical but in fact is not: you must serve in order to lead.

This is taken from the Gospel of Luke in the Bible.  After Jesus told the disciples at the Last Supper that one of the disciples will betray him, they started arguing with each other as to who was the best.  Jesus told them in response, "Let the greatest among you be as the youngest, and the leader as the servant.  For who is greater: the one seated at the table or the one who serves?  Is it not the one seated at table?  I am among you as the one who serves" (Luke 22: 26-27).  Jesus is the Son of God, and thus is clearly leading his disciples, yet he does so by serving them.  He lets his disciples, and ultimately all leaders know, that if you want to lead a group of people, you need to serve them, sacrifice yourself for them and for their sake.

This, however, is not based solely on a scripture verse.  This is a type of leadership philosophy known as Servant-Leadership.  You can get a good idea behind the philosophy here.  But basically, rather than the typical idea of leadership which is attaining power and control, Servant-Leadership is about giving the power you have, in a sense, to your team, developing them and helping them to grow.

It is this type of philosophy that I try, and will continue to try, to live out every day at work and in my life.  I fail a lot, but I succeed at times as well.  I need to keep getting better, and I know I will.

To serve my team is not to relinquish any power that I have as a leader, just like Jesus did not relinquish his Godly power by serving his disciples and the rest of the human race.  On the contrary, by serving your team and those you are leading you are helping them to become better employees and better people.  And this is done through numerous ways.  By teaching them at every opportunity you can, delegating in order to give them responsibilities they wouldn't normally have and thus empowering them, rewarding for success, correcting for mistakes/failures, encouraging them to step out of their comfort zone, and most of all support your team members both as a team and as individuals in every aspect of their job by actually making yourself available to them; it is by these methods and others that one can serve their team, for to serve is to sacrifice.

James Hunter, author of the book The Servant, a fictional story about a man going to a leadership retreat to learn about Servant-Leadership, writes in his Forward for the book that most people would agree in theory that Servant-Leadership is pretty great and should be followed.  Yet he makes the observation as well that it is so rarely practiced.  Hunter suspects that the reason for this is because it takes time to fully apply and acclimate to a Servant-Leadership style, and many leaders simply do not want to put in the time.  It is much simpler and easier in the short run to micromanage. 

Yet if you truly want to be a great leader then micromanaging is not the way to go.  If you truly want your business, your organization, your anything to succeed and to thrive then you need the people you are leading to succeed in every facet of their professional, and even personal, lives.  And let me make clear, succeeding does not mean never making mistakes; nobody is capable of that kind of standard.  But to succeed is to do your best, get results, and when you don't or when you make mistakes to learn what you can do to be better AND THEN DO IT.

Servant-Leadership is by its very nature time-consuming; it does not happen over night.  And this is often perceived as a weakness within the philosophy.  But anybody who has experienced positive and lasting change in their lives knows that such rarely happens quickly.  It takes time to get into a certain habit, or to break out of one, or to become better in a particular field of work or study or lifestyle.  Yet we all recognize that such time spent will be worth it.

So I hope and I pray that I and other leaders will learn to be patient of themselves and others as we all strive to be better leaders in our jobs, in our homes, and in our lives.  Look to the Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate leader as well as the ultimate servant, who sacrificed everything for the sake of humanity, as an example of true leadership.  And his motivation for doing so?  Love. 

May all leaders love those that they are leading and care for their growth and their very selves. 

The Nature of Debates

I love debates, any kind of debates to be honest.  I have a special place in my heart, though, for religious debates.  And a part of this love is certainly, and oftentimes sadly, for entertainment purposes; that is what several years of mixed martial arts and a competitive spirit will get you: a love for contest.

However, love of competition and contest for the sake of competition and contest, particularly in relation to debates, can be unhealthy and dangerous.  Debates, after all, are usually focused on a point of disagreement in relation to a spiritual, social, political, or otherwise important topic of discussion that affects the beliefs and lives of many people.  Thus, watching and listening to debates should, to me, be about more then just enjoying friendly differences of opinion.

I have, however, also heard it said that debates are useful for educational purposes; if you hold a particular view on a certain issue than you can learn a lot about the opposing viewpoint by listening to someone who holds that opposing viewpoint.  And if you learn about an opponent's reasons for holding the view they hold, then you can learn and research how to respond to their arguments, thus strengthening your belief in your position while learning more about the issue itself.  And what better place to educate yourself and learn how to defend your beliefs then by seeing a debate on this very issue?

I must caution, however, that while it is certainly true that debates are a terrific educational tool for the above-mentioned reason and it is a truly acceptable and good reason for watching debates, the reason for learning about an opposing viewpoint of your own should never be solely or primarily to learn how to combat said opposition; while it can play a part in your motivation, it should not be the dominant excuse you use.  I offer a better reason for you to listen to debates, or anybody with an opposing viewpoint for that matter, and that is in order to follow and live by what is true, regardless of where it leads.  This is another way of saying: be open to the possibility that you are wrong and be willing to change your views if you discover yourself to be on the wrong side of the controversy.  And this is ultimately due to the very nature of debates themselves being a pursuit of the truth.  These positions affect the way we live our lives in most circumstances.  Thus, it would seem to be of utmost importance for us to make sure that we are on the right side of things; and should we find ourselves to be on the wrong side of an issue (which we all are concerning one topic or another) then it is our duty, as a result of our pursuit of truth, to reflect on it and change what we believe and why we believe it.

This may seem completely logical to some, even elementary.  But I would just mention that a) it is not so easy for everyone to grasp, and b) even if you believe what I say, that does not make it easy to live out.  God knows I struggle with living out an open mind and heart every single day in one way or another, despite knowing that I should.

We must, therefore, strive to recognize that we may very well be wrong about what we believe, and change our beliefs and actions accordingly.

As an example: lately I have been very interested in the difference between Catholics and Protestants on the issue of authority: in other words, what in the Christian faith is supposed to lead us in our beliefs and teachings?  In particular I have been watching debates and reading up on Sola Scriptura, the Protestant belief that The Scriptures are the only infallible rule of faith for the Christian; all other authorities, while important, are completely and utterly subject to the Scriptures.  Catholics, such as myself, disagree, believing that it is the Scriptures, Tradition, and the Magisterium that are the infallible pillars of faith for the Christian. 

Now if I, as a Catholic, am wrong about my belief and the Protestant belief of Sola Scriptura is correct, then I would be doing myself a big disservice, at the very least, by not at least being open to changing my mind and heart about the issue, for I will not really come to the truth without doing so.  Thus I should be willing to abandon my Catholic faith and embrace the Protestant belief of Sola Scriptura should there be truly sufficient and convincing reasons to do so.

The same, however, can and should be said of the Protestant, as well as everybody who holds a position on a particular controversy.  Any debate, whether it be a formal debate or a disagreement with a friend, is not just a chance for us to learn, but a chance for us to come to and follow what is true and to leave behind what is false. 

I once heard a pro-life speaker say that each and every one of us believes false things, we just may not realize at this very moment that they are false.  Regardless of what differences we have amongst each other, we in one way or another agree on the necessity to believe the truth.  That is what all of our heartfelt beliefs are derived from.

And yet each and every one of us still experiences moments when we are unwilling to change our beliefs, even when the belief is shown to be untenable. 

As a result, it is a continuous work-in-progress for us to remain in this mindset of openness to the truth, which is ironic because we all inherently desire the truth; it is just always simpler to remain where we are then to change.  But change we must if we are to discard all falsehood and come to know all truth.  And we all have the responsibility to do just that, each and every one of us.

And so as a start to that, here is one of the Sola Scriptura debates that I watched recently.  Enjoy, learn, and be open-minded.