Today is Good Friday, the day Christians commemorate Jesus’ death as a sacrifice for mankind. There is no greater example of a servant-leader’s sacrifice for his people anywhere or at any other time in history. We can all learn a ton about leadership from His example.
Robert K. Greenleaf is the author most associated with the introduction of the concept of “servant-leadership” into leadership and organizational behavioral theory. He stated, “The servant-leader is a servant first, and makes a conscious choice to lead, making sure that other people’s highest-priority needs are being served.” Larry Spears, past executive director of the Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership, identified in the book On Becoming a Servant Leader (Frick & Spears, 1996) “ten critical characteristics of the servant-leader: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community.” These characteristics each deserve their own focus, and over time I expect we will have those discussions, however, today I want to take servant-leadership one step further, examining the concept of sacrifice and introducing a leadership approach about which I have been thinking for a while.
Jesus was indeed a servant-leader. He displayed the ten characteristics listed above and fully met every aspect of Greenleaf’s definition. He did all this plus much more, but for this discussion let’s concentrate on the trait of sacrifice, which, in Jesus’ case, cost him His life. We all know the accounts of modern-day heroes who have put their lives on the line for the good of others, and they are the highest form of servant-leaders who sacrificed themselves. Fortunately, for most of us, sacrifice won’t be in the ultimate form. For us it manifests itself in how we treat and take care of the people entrusted to us. The sacrifice of most servant-leaders is shown in how they use their time and resources in the fulfillment of their mission, the advancement of a cause, their work ethic, or how they work to elevate others over themselves. They sacrifice their own gain, popularity, advancement, and more for the good of their organization, team, co-workers, or even individuals from whom they have nothing to gain.
I call this Selfless Leadership. Selfless leaders are people who make sacrifice an everyday part of how they lead others. Sometimes it may involve significant efforts, such as backing up someone who has an unpopular opinion about an organizational issue, or raising a question as to the ethical behavior of co-workers, or even superiors, which might endanger one’s personal or professional standing. However, most often, selfless leadership, like servant-leadership, is a matter of putting the good of others before one’s own, plus a few additional qualities. Here, in my early development of this leadership concept, is what I see as distinctions between the two:
- Selfless leaders make sacrificing for the benefit of others a part of their standard practice; to be sacrificial is part of their DNA.
- Although a selfless leader may be highly gifted and attract attention, they don’t overtly seek the spotlight and are always on the lookout for opportunities to elevate others.
- They always encourage their team members, whether in private, publicly, face-to-face, electronically, or through social media. Selfless leaders always build others up, never putting down or calling out members of their team in order to enforce their positional power or to cover for their own feelings of inadequacy or being threatened.
Selfless leaders make personal and professional sacrifices for the good of their mission, their organization, their team, and the people they serve. I want to strive to be a selfless leader and I encourage you to do the same. We’ll talk more about this in the weeks to come.
Lead well.
Selfless Leadership © 2014. John Plastow. All rights reserved.