Servant Leadership and A Tale of Three Kings
Posted on October 10, 2013 by Shawn Sommerkamp, One of Thousands of Christian Coaches on Noomii.
It's a rare treat to witness a servant leader and impossible to forget one when you have. Christ's teachings are at work when executives serve.
Jim Heskett, faculty and contributing writer at Harvard Business School, wrote an article earlier this year (2013) about Servant Leadership and whether or not it was an oxymoron. He aptly states that servant leadership is just not that prevalent in corporate circles today. I completely agree.
It is such a rare treat to experience a servant leader that it’s nearly impossible to forget one when you have. You witness Christ’s teachings when you see an executive serve employees.
Career advancement would seem to oppose such a sacrificial style. After all, don’t executives get ahead by driving their workforce, commanding the full attentive dedication of an energized professional team?
Reading about Steve Jobs and Apple Computer you might think so. We get to see a little more of his leadership style by reading his biography; there’s also a movie coming out later this month.
In his unparalleled corporate success, the ideals of servant leadership are as strange and unwelcoming as was Jobs of anyone who opposed him.
And yet there exists, as stated by Heskett in his article on servant leadership, organizational psychologists that assert the greater benefits of servant-hood over other leadership styles.
I found the truths of servant leadership in the simple, yet powerful, book by Gene Edwards, “A Tale of Three Kings.” Although Edwards posits his book as a story in brokenness, I was more inspired by its lessons of great leadership, hearing again and again the resounding clap of a leader that would first be a servant.
His story opens with a young boy speaking to an old warrior, a soldier who served under three of the most famous kings in history: the Jewish monarchs – Saul, David and Absalom. As the story unfolds across this short work, the warrior conveys differences among each of the three kings, focusing on their styles of leadership.
Without giving away the subtleties of Edward’s prime lesson, I will expound on the chapter that touched me most, where the warrior spends time recounting the greatest king. He asks, then answers, his own question. I have listed below the highlights of such a leader:
What was the greatness of David?
• A great king never threatens
• He lives a life of submission without reign of laws, rules or fears
• He shows submission, not authority
• He teaches the art of patience
• He teaches giving, not taking
• He does not care if he is dethroned
• The leader, not the follower, is inconvenienced
• Legalism is nothing but a leader’s way of avoiding suffering
• Men who make speeches about submission are uncertain they are true leaders at all and live in mortal fear of a rebellion
• Authority yields to rebellion, especially when that rebellion is nothing more than immaturity or stupidity
• Authority from God is not afraid of challengers, makes no defense and cares not one whit if it must be dethroned
The great warrior concludes with a summary of David’s belief as a servant leader: “It is better I be defeated, even killed, than learn the ways of Saul.”
Most of us do not face life and death situations in our careers today, yet we can show the same humility, the same surrender to God’s will in our leadership roles, as David was described in this book: “I did not lift a finger to be made king nor to preserve a kingdom, even the kingdom of God. God put me here. It is not my responsibility to take or keep authority.”
We have the perfect example of servant leadership in the life of Christ. There is no one in history who had a greater impact on the world, no one more often quoted, written about, admired, followed or worshiped. He could live in no other way over his loyal subjects, but as a servant who would give his life for them.
Servant leadership is a principle foreign to most boardrooms and corporate hallways. And yet, for each Christian employee, we have the privilege of being the salt of the earth, the light on a stand, the city on a hill. And what better way than to walk as Jesus did with a humble heart and a passion for serving others.
