What does Jesus Christ’s gospel tell us about servitude and leadership in terms of servant leadership?
What is Servant Leadership?
Servant leadership is an approach focusing on leadership from leaders’ points of view and their behaviors. Most importantly, servant leadership emphasizes that leaders be attentive to the concerns of their followers, with an emphasis on helping them and nurturing them by first empowering them and helping them develop their full personal potential (Northouse, 2022, p.253). Concerning the servant leadership approach, Jesus Christ embodies the pattern of an ideal servant leader. Primarily by being an example to his followers in his time and the multitudes that followed after his death. Jesus explained to his followers that his and their follower’s leadership practice was distinctly different from those leaders practicing self-serving and dominating leadership styles. “Whoever would be first among you must be a servant of all.” (Holy Bible, 2011, Mk. 10:42-44; Mt. 20: 25-28).
Servant Leadership Approach in Practice
Servant leaders begin with the natural feeling that one wants to aid, to serve first. This conscious intention of wanting to assist others to realize their goals and objectives creates an individual into the ideal candidate to be a servant leader. In practice, servant leaders put followers first, entrust them, and help them grow their full personal capabilities (Northouse, 2022). In terms of Jesus Christ, his followers witnessed Jesus Christ assisting the poor, sick, and afflicted to find comfort and hope in his gospel. After more than 2,000 years, Jesus Christ’s message remains the best example of servitude to others for the greater good of everyone; “For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served by everyone, but to serve everyone, and to give his life as the ransom price in exchange for the salvation of many.” (Holy Bible, 2011, Mk. 10:45).
Characteristics of a Servant Leader
Specific characteristics distinguish servant leadership from other leadership theories and approaches. The characteristics of listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building a community (Northouse, 2022, p.255-256) were crucial characteristics that Greenleaf, like Spears (2002) recognized as critical for any servant leader to possess them. Like Jesus Christ, the fact that his disciples described Jesus to be a man of empathy for the pain of others, who listened attentively to the weeping of his followers. More so, he was recognized to heal the leper and sick. Distiguisbly, Jesus Christ was a master of persuasion who attentively made an effort to persuade his followers into conceptualizing the vision of a better world outside the constraints that society has imposed on the less privileged.
Jesus as an effective servant leader he was, was capable of foresight of the destructive consequences of humanity’s immoral actions towards themselves, the environment, and their neighbors. In addition, Jesus Christ proclaimed all responsibility for his action and the gospel he was preaching to the masses. Mainly because Jesus Christ was committed to the growth of people, in helping people treat each other with respect and dignity, and most important, he was committed to building a community, a belief system, a way of life for many. This objective of Jesus Christ of building a community has grown dramatically in the last 2,000 plus years, with most of the population in actuality believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ as a role model for humanity (Vaughan, n.d).
Servant Leader Behaviors
Servant leader behaviors are at the core of the servant leadership process because servant leaders’ behaviors are the blueprint that their followers emulate in the absence of their leader (Northouse, 2022). Behaviors such as conceptualization, emotional healing, putting followers first, helping others grow and succeed in their endeavors, behaving ethically, empowering others, and creating value for the community (Northouse, 2022, p.261-263) characterize servant leaders as no other leadership approaches. Each behavior contributes to the overall servant leadership approach with the overall goal to serve others rather than just leading them. These behaviors that characterized a servant leader were documented in the four gospels of the Bible, which describe Jesus Christ as an examplar to follow because he was a master at conceptualizing his goal. Christ’s behaviors made him a role model to follow in helping people heal themselves from emotional trauma and putting others’ needs before their own, behaving ethically, morally, and legally. Most importantly, empowering followers to seek freedom to be independent and make the decision on their own with the end goal of creating value for others and the community that the individual belongs to.
Servant Leadership Outcomes
The outcomes focus on the servant leadership approach are essential to examine by the followers. The main goal of servant leadership is to create unification by strengthening the individual who later solidifies the group. For the most part, the outcomes that followers can expect in following a servant leader are performance and growth, organizational performance, and societal impact (Northouse, 2022, p.264-265). Jesus Christ’s Gospel was able to conceive all three outcomes for his followers. First, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has grown tremendously, becoming the most popular religion on earth (Vaughan, n.d). Second, Jesus Christ has become the most significant figure in any Christian denomination, teaching, and philosophy globally. Third, the societal impact has been positive since more people have access to other resources such as healthcare, food, and education thru the Christian doctrine (Schweiger, 2019). Therefore, the outcomes as a consequence of Jesus Christ’s Gospel have positively impacted our world in ways still imaginable to many of us.
Conclusion
The servant leadership approach of Jesus Christ has impacted our civilization in imaginable ways. Some of these outcomes have been positive in providing Jesus Christ’s followers a blueprint for becoming better members of society. In contrast, some followers have utilized the bases of the Christian gospel to manipulate, kill, and commit many atrocities against their fellow members. However, it’s important to emphasize that Jesus Christ’s servant leadership approach is necessary to leadership primarily because it enables the leader to act as an agent of service to his followers rather than condition them into a cause or goal. In many instances, Jesus Christ taught us this primarily because he gave the follower the option to follow him voluntarily rather than forcing a belief onto them. These characteristics of Jesus Christ’s approach to leadership is what makes Jesus Christ a powerful model to follow in term of servant leadership.
References:
Northouse, P.G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 9th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. ISBN 978-1-5443
Holy Bible, New International Version. (2011). NIV. (Original work published 1973). Retrieved from: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2020%3A25-28%2CMark%2010%3A42-45&version=NIV
Holy Bible, New International Version. (2011). NIV. (Original work published 1973). Retrieved from: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2010:45&version=NIV
Spears, L.C. (2002). Tracing the past, present, and future of servant leadership. In L.C. Spears & M.Lawrence (Eds.), Focus on Leadership: Servant Leadership for the 21st century (pp.1-16), New York, NY. Wiley.
Vaughan, D. (n.d). What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World?. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/story/what-is-the-most-widely-practiced-religion-in-the-world
Schweiger, G. (2019). Religion and poverty. Palgrave Communications, 5(1)https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0272-3
Hello Oscar and thank you for sharing such an intriguing and thoughtful post on servant leadership. I would be remiss to not highlight the fact that you couldn’t have chosen a more apt example than Jesus Christ to explicate servant leadership. There is no greater demonstration of putting your followers needs before your own than giving your life for their sins. As noted by Northouse (2022), putting others first “means using actions and words that clearly demonstrate to followers that their concerns are a priority, including placing followers’ interests and success ahead of those of the leader,” (p. 262). He died an agonizing death to relieve the suffering of his followers and ensure their ascension into Heaven. Further, His story underscores an expected outcome of servant leadership – that the followers of servant leaders are expected to themselves, become servant leaders (Northouse, 2022). To this day, around the world, millions follow in the path of Jesus Christ. Your application of scripture to the examples you provided further enhances the readers understanding of the motivation behind servant leadership.
As you noted, Christ’s use conceptualization and foresight are critical to His story. Where foresight is one’s ability to see the future and predict what will happen based on present and past occurrences, conceptualization is one’s ability to think through complex problems, recognize when something is going wrong and to find creative means to address problems in ways that align with an organization’s goals (Northouse, 2022). Christ understood the consequences of human immorality and preached tirelessly to his followers, influencing them to achieve a greater purpose. He led his life humbly, an example of the ideal human being, using servant leadership to help the less fortunate, treat the afflicted, and provide relief and support for those in need.
With respect to emotional healing, Christ not only healed those suffering, but taught them how to heal themselves through service. As Northouse (2022) notes, a servant leaders’ behaviors toward emotional healing include “recognizing others’ problems and being willing to take the time to address them,” (p. 261). Jesus Christ was known to never turn away someone in need, and this is the epitome of servant leadership. He would listen to those who cried, those who suffered and those who sinned. He empowered his followers by showing them the Glory of God, and by forgiving their sins. Further, Christ desired for his followers to achieve a greater self-actualization. Northouse (2022) explains, “followers will realize their full capabilities when leaders nurture them, help them with their personal goals, and give them control,” (p. 264). Again, Christ provided them the path to greater self-actualization and the Glory of God.
One negative attribute of servant leadership is that not all followers are receptive to this style of leadership (Northouse, 2022). Christ certainly encountered his share of non-believers, followers who were not receptive to his message that a life free from sin was the only path to Heaven. Northouse (2022) presents research which shows a negative impact on performance and organizational citizenship behavior when there was no match between servant leadership and the desire of followers for this type of leadership (p. 261). In contrast, Northouse (2022) notes that “When servant leaders were matched with followers who were open to this type of leadership, the results were positive,” (p. 264). Additionally, Northouse (2022) notes an experiment which found that “servant leadership benefits followers who have higher levels of self-interest,” as they were more inclined to improve their helping behaviors after exposure to servant leadership (p. 261). Perhaps this type of follower, those with a higher level of self-interest, are those who most benefited from the teachings of Jesus Christ and who became his most loyal of followers.
Reference
Northouse, P.G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 9th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. ISBN 978-1-5443-9756-6.