“People Building vs. People Using” I took this quote from the video by LeAnne Doose, Chapter 13, Servant Leadership. I am currently at a Senior Leadership Course for the military in Little Rock, Arkansas and I cannot wait to take that quote to my class tomorrow. We have been very focused on how to build up our subordinates because they, hopefully, replace us as leaders one day. People Building vs People Using was a unique way to help me think about servant leadership. It is so simply put. Build people up rather than use people to build yourself up. Another thing I took from that same video was that we must make a conscious choice, as leaders, to choose servant leadership. A great example of servant leadership comes from the greatest servant of all time, Jesus of Nazareth. Despite your religious beliefs, Jesus was the prime example of servant leadership. He ate with, drank with, and served sinners. He is the King of kings, yet had no qualms about washing his disciples’ feet. When I start to catch myself falling away from servant leadership, Jesus is who I look to in that time.
I had two of my leaders fill out the assessment for me. The results were very close, which to me is good because there is not a huge discrepancy in them. The only area that I fell into a moderate was Emotional healing, I tend to exhibit this leadership behavior in an average way. The remaining categories had me at high range, strongly exhibiting this leadership behavior. I was not surprised by the results because I feel that I strive to be a servant leader. I choose a word to focus on every year and this year it is “serve”. I was happy to see that two of the leaders that I respect see me as a servant leader.
Leadership Communication 