Leadership isn't always about having the right answers or about telling others what to do. As a matter of fact, leadership is not about either one of those things. There are plenty of smart, aggressive people who are very poor leaders. Instead, leadership is all about serving other people. It is about helping them become better at whatever we are leading them in and helping them ultimately fulfill their potential in whatever setting they find themselves in, whether that be in the workplace, on a sports team, or putting together a 250,000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
Mentor style leadership calls you and I to focus on a point outside of ourselves. Mainly because such leadership must be completely "others first" driven and inspired. It is not always easy to lead this way and it most certainly isn't the tendency. True mentor style leadership runs very contrary to the prevailing wisdom of the world, which tells us to focus on our own personal success, our own advancement in a given field, and ultimately our own achievement.
I have seen organizational flow charts with the primary leader at the top and everyone else in the department or company flowing down from the top. Ture mentor leadership inverts that standard. The leader appears at the bottom of the chart, serving and lifting up those above, modeling servanthood to the ones above. The emphasis is not on the leader but is focused on those the mentor leads. Our world that we live and work in insists on looking out for ourselves. Mentor leaders don't follow that objective at all. They look out for the others that work for them and with them. The protect and guide them through an example of servanthood.
I would like to say that I exemplify this all the time but the truth is that I fail daily to show the kind of leadership that I should be. I work very hard to let my people know how much I appreciate them and how much they mean to me and our company. I try to never ask of anyone something that I am unwilling to do myself. I believe that it is important for a servant leader to cast a vision of where we are headed and show them the plans on how we will achieve our goals as a team.
If I come away from my time here with nothing else, I hope that it is the knowledge that the people that work for me know that I did everything I could to serve them and build them up. And I hope that I never lose the drive to ask myself this question everyday, "How can I serve others better?"
"But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be a servant, but whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:26-28
Mentor style leadership calls you and I to focus on a point outside of ourselves. Mainly because such leadership must be completely "others first" driven and inspired. It is not always easy to lead this way and it most certainly isn't the tendency. True mentor style leadership runs very contrary to the prevailing wisdom of the world, which tells us to focus on our own personal success, our own advancement in a given field, and ultimately our own achievement.
I have seen organizational flow charts with the primary leader at the top and everyone else in the department or company flowing down from the top. Ture mentor leadership inverts that standard. The leader appears at the bottom of the chart, serving and lifting up those above, modeling servanthood to the ones above. The emphasis is not on the leader but is focused on those the mentor leads. Our world that we live and work in insists on looking out for ourselves. Mentor leaders don't follow that objective at all. They look out for the others that work for them and with them. The protect and guide them through an example of servanthood.
I would like to say that I exemplify this all the time but the truth is that I fail daily to show the kind of leadership that I should be. I work very hard to let my people know how much I appreciate them and how much they mean to me and our company. I try to never ask of anyone something that I am unwilling to do myself. I believe that it is important for a servant leader to cast a vision of where we are headed and show them the plans on how we will achieve our goals as a team.
If I come away from my time here with nothing else, I hope that it is the knowledge that the people that work for me know that I did everything I could to serve them and build them up. And I hope that I never lose the drive to ask myself this question everyday, "How can I serve others better?"
"But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be a servant, but whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:26-28
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