THE SERVANT

A Simple Story about the True Essence of Leadership

James Hunter Prima Publishing, 1998, 187 pp.   ISBN 0-7615-1369-8
www.primapublishing.com or www.primalifestyle.com

James Hunter is principal consultant of J. D. Hunter Associates, a labor
relations and training consulting firm located near Detroit.  This is a
story
in the Ken Blanchard style.  A beleaguered leader is persuaded to take a
weeklong retreat at a monastery.  There he comes under the tutelage of a
former renowned leader-turned-monk who introduces him to the understanding
that the qualities of a leader are the qualities of love as described in I
Corinthians chapter 13.

"Building influence with others, true leadership, is available to everyone
but
requires a tremendous extension of oneself.  Sadly, most of those in
leadership positions shy away from the great effort required." (28)

"You manage things, you lead people." (28)

"Leadership: The skill of influencing people to work enthusiastically toward
goals identified as being for the common good." (28)

"Power: The ability to force or coerce someone to do your will, even if they
would choose not to, because of your position or your might."  (30)
"Authority: The skill of getting people to willingly do your will because of
your personal influence." (30)

"Power erodes relationships." (32)

"When working with and getting things done through people, there will always
be two dynamics involved-the task and the relationship.  It is easy for
leaders to lose their balance by focusing on only one of these dynamics at
the
expense of the other." (40)

"All of life is relational-with God, self, and others."  "The truly great
leaders are skilled at building healthy relationships." (41)  The most
important ingredient in a successful relationship is trust. (44-5)

"It is impossible to improve unless we change." (54)

"The people in many organizations today are looking up the food chain, so to
speak, and worrying about keeping the boss happy.  And while everyone is
focusing on keeping the boss happy, who's focusing on keeping the customer
happy?" (60-1)

"Too many managers spend their careers getting in the way instead of getting
the obstacles out of the way."  "A seagull manager is one who periodically
flies into the area, makes a lot of noise, dumps on people, maybe eats their
lunch, and flies away." (63)

"A leader is someone who identifies and meets the legitimate needs of their
people, removes all the barriers, so they can serve the customer.  Again, to
lead you must serve." This does not mean meeting the 'wants' of their
people,
but their 'needs.' (64-5) Leadership is built on service. (79)

"Leadership begins with the will, which is our unique ability as human
beings
to align our intentions with our actions and choose our behavior. With the
proper will, we can chose to love, the verb, which is about identifying and
meeting the legitimate needs, not wants, of those we lead. When we meet the
needs of others we will, by definition, be called upon to serve and even
sacrifice.  When we serve and sacrifice for others, we build authority or
influence....  And when we build authority with people, then we have earned
the right to be called leader." (90) This can be diagramed as an inverted
pyramid from bottom to top as Will, Love, Service and Sacrifice, Authority
and
Leadership.

Everyone has a religion.  "We all have some sort of beliefs about the cause,
nature, and purpose of the universe.  Our religion is simply our map, our
paradigm, our beliefs that answer the difficult existential questions." (93)

"All of life is relational, both vertically to God, and horizontally to our
neighbor.  Each of us has to make choices about those relationships." (93)

When Jesus speaks of love in the New Testament, he is speaking of a love of
behavior and choice, not a love of feeling.  "I cannot always control how I
feel about other people but I certainly am in control of how I behave toward
other people."  I can behave lovingly, be patient, honest and respectful,
even
if he chooses to behave poorly.  (97-8)

According to I Corinthians chapter 13, love is patience, kindness, humility,
respectfulness, selflessness, forgiveness, honesty, and commitment.  "This
beautiful definition of agape love, ...is also a beautiful definition for
leadership today." (99-100)

The greatest opportunity we have to pay attention to people is by actively
listening to them. (104)

"Active listening requires a disciplined effort to silence all that internal
conversation while we're attempting to listen to another human being.  It
requires a sacrifice, an extension of ourselves, to block out the noise and
truly enter another person's world-even for a few minutes." (105)

"At the core of the human personality is the need to be appreciated." (108)

"Honesty is the quality most people put at the top of their list of what
they
want most from their leader.  Trust, which is built by honesty, is the glue
that holds relationships together.  But honesty with people is also the
tough
side of love and brings balance to love.  Honesty is about clarifying
expectations for people, holding people accountable, being willing to give
the
bad news as well as the good news, giving people feedback, being consistent,
predictable, and fair.  In short, our behavior must be free from deception
and
dedicated to the truth at all costs." (119)

"Manipulation, by definition, is influencing people for personal benefit."
(122)

"When Jesus says to love others as we love ourselves, He is rightly assuming
that we already love ourselves.  He is asking us to love others in the same
way as we love ourselves."  Although we may not always feel good about
ourselves, we tend to do what is in our own best interest.  That is how we
are
to love others.  (128-29)

Motivation - any communication that influences choices. (144)

"If I make a commitment to love and extend myself for those I serve, and
align
my actions and behaviors to that commitment, positive regard for those
people
will follow over time." (150)

"We can discipline ourselves to do what is unnatural until it becomes
natural
and a habit.  And we all know we are creatures of habit." (163)

"Leadership is not about personality, possessions, or charisma, but all
about
who you are as a person.  I used to believe that leadership was about style
but now I know that leadership is about substance, namely character." (166)

"The labors of leadership and love are character issues.  Patience,
kindness,
humility, selflessness, respectfulness, forgiveness, honesty, commitment.  
These character building blocks, or habits, must be developed and matured if
we are to become successful leaders who will stand the test of time." (167)

"Thoughts become actions, actions become habits, habits become our
character,
and our character becomes our destiny." (167)

"Happiness is based upon happenings.  If good things happen then I'm happy."
"Joy is a much deeper phenomenon....  Joy is about inner satisfaction and
the
conviction of knowing that you are truly aligned with the deep and
unchanging
principles of life.  Serving others breaks you free from the shackles of
self
and self-absorption that choke out the joy of living." (178-79)  "There is
great joy in leading others by meeting their legitimate needs." (182)

________________________ David Mays ACMC http://www.davidmays.org