Healthy Leaders | Issue 32
What is at the center of servant leadership?
Welcome to Issue 32 of Healthy Leaders. In this issue, we get to the heart of true servant leadership.
Hello friends,
Welcome back to our ongoing conversation1 on healthy Christian leadership and leader development.
Previously, we’ve discussed four types of power that leaders typically use: coercive, reward, positional, and expert. Of course, we’ve settled on the type of power that Jesus used: servant power, when people follow you not because you demand respect, but because you have earned it.
But now it’s time to go deeper with servant leadership.
The first four kinds of power, you may have noticed, involve some sort of exchange.
Coercion: if you follow me, I won’t punish you.
Reward: if you follow me, I will reward you.
Positional: if you follow me, you will be and feel legitimate.
Expert: if you follow me, you’ll end up in the right place.
But servant power doesn’t involve any sort of exchange. It is not transactional, but rather, transformational.
At its heart, transactional leadership represents the following exchange: “You give me something and I’ll give you something.”
Here’s more on this idea, from Malcolm’s book Leadership:
“Transactional leaders excel at keeping things running smoothly and efficiently. They design an exchange system that brings stability to an organization as it continues along its course.
Transformational leaders, on the other hand, initiate the actions that change the course of the organization. These leaders also understand and attempt to meet the tangible needs of their followers, but they go beyond the mere exchange process by empowering and inspiring their followers to fulfill their highest potentials in the calling and purposes of God. Thus, while it is more complex than transactional leadership, transformational leadership is also considerably more potent.
Transformational leaders motivate followers to do more than they originally expected to do (or believed they were able to do) as they strive for higher goals.
Transformational leaders focus on intangible qualities such as the will of God, vision, shared values and ideas as they build relationships and enlist followers in the cause. They engage the full person of the follower. Whereas exchange leadership is characterized by coercion, reward, position or expertise, transformational leadership is characterized by integrity, creativity, communication, vision, passion and empowerment.
Servant leaders are transformational leaders. Their goal is truly to serve those they lead. Such a leader is not merely trying to fulfill his or her own purposes by using (or manipulating) other people, but he is genuinely serving the people. The servant leader’s goal is that the highest potential of the people be fulfilled. His purpose is not merely the fulfillment of his own vision.”
I hope it’s clear by now that we think servant leadership is the way forward in Christian leader development for good reason. Not only is servant leadership how Jesus did it, but it actually works. It actually brings about the results we want to see: transformed lives in Christ!
What about you?
What are your experiences with leaders who operated in transactional vs. transformational ways? What were the differences between them? What were the results?
Until next time, we’re with you!
— Chris
Recommended Resources
Book: Abusive Leadership
Video: How to Build Servant Leaders
A Learning Design for Avoiding Using Others for Your Own Ambition
Audio Teaching: Sitting or Serving
For more resources, visit our website.
Thanks to our friends at Fifty-Four Collective for putting together a comprehensive set of video courses for growing healthy organizations, starting with this series of courses on leadership by Malcolm. We’ll be using some of their videos and some of our own. Be sure to check out what they’re doing!