Confession time... I have very little patience for braggarts and blowhards. It takes me about 30 seconds before I'm looking for a way out of the meeting or the conversation. Yeah, I know that people need to be heard, that some feel the need to cover for their inadequacies with their verbiage and that I could be a better listener and cut through the words to the real story being told. But I'm lousy at that.
There's a principle of service found in the Bible, John 13:1-17 to be exact. It states that to be great, be a servant. To be like Christ, embrace being degraded (in human estimation) for the benefit of others. For this reason I admire those who are generous without being noticed, who serve without being asked. I love it when I realize well after the fact that someone served and no one knew about it.
It should be happening in the everyday stuff as well. Thinking over the first paragraph of this little essay, how is this principle applied in just the way we speak with people? The opposite of the principle of service is self-seeking, the desire to be served. That means I put myself in a position so that you will see me as better than you, higher than you, more worthy of adulation and service than you. The sneakiest part of this, in my view at least, is when I speak to you as one deserving of your admiration. When I get full of myself and my vision and my position and my importance and... you get the picture.
I tire of leaders who won't let someone else get a word in edgewise, as if they have to hear themselves talk to convince themselves they are visionary or right (they say they're trying to convince you, but I think they're really trying to convince themselves). Bombastic talk is cheap. I think to be a servant, to have a servant's heart and be a servant leader, means that I am humble enough to listen first. I should allow for the opinions of others (and harbor a healthy amount of self-distrust). I will take the towel to serve, not only physically but intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. I think the whole person is a servant if the whole person is not to be servant-compromised.
So, in short, to be a servant-leader, maybe a good place to start is to be silent. Listen, and subdue the urge to correct or add to someone's thoughts your own visionary brilliance. Chances are, you're not that brilliant anyway (no offense--neither am I). Frankly, I'd rather be known as a person who validates another because I could keep my mouth shut and listen than to be the on who keeps trying to build myself up on my own words. I would also solicit prayers for this... as one who struggles to listen well at times, I don't want to air my thoughts on servant-listening unless I improve on it myself!
