{"id":1006,"date":"2012-06-27T14:58:28","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T14:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.net\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2012-06-27T14:58:28","modified_gmt":"2012-06-27T14:58:28","slug":"the-secret-to-great-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/?p=1006","title":{"rendered":"The Secret to Great Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What do the greatest leaders, husbands, wives, parents, friends, bosses, politicians or pastors have in common?\u00a0 I believe they get the idea of serving people.\u00a0 Servant leadership has been around for a very long time, it was the way Jesus led and many of our best leaders throughout history got it as well.\u00a0 Robert Greenleaf said it well: “The true test of a servant leader is this: Do those around the servant leader become wiser, freer, more autonomous, healthier, and better able themselves to become servant leaders?<\/strong><\/em>”\u00a0 Would the people you lead say that about you?\u00a0 Would your spouse say that about you?<\/p>\n

The main thing that keeps us from serving the people around us is our ego.\u00a0\u00a0 Selfishness is the destroyer of relationships and leaders.\u00a0 One of the keys to becoming a better leader, husband, wife etc is to be humble.\u00a0 Here are two great definitions for humility: Ken Blanchard – “People with humility don’t think less of themselves; they just think about themselves less.<\/strong><\/em>”\u00a0 Fred Smith – “People with humility don’t deny their power; they just recognize that it passes through them, not from them.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The other thing that keeps us from serving others is fear.\u00a0 We fear losing control, being taken advantage of, not being heard, being rejected, failing, looking stupid and on and on.\u00a0 To battle against these fears we need to practice unconditional love.\u00a0 Think about the way you love your child.\u00a0 You don’t only love them when they perform well, you love them no matter what.\u00a0 That is called unconditional love, and that is what makes a leader great. In a business setting this means telling people the truth, being direct and yet gentle.\u00a0 It means having the courage to challenge someone and do it it a gentle way.\u00a0 It means you actually care about the people you lead and know them as a person.\u00a0 It means you listen well and admit when you are wrong.<\/p>\n

I came across this great acronym SERVE from the well known Chick-fil-A organization.\u00a0 This is the guide they use in all their management and leadership training.\u00a0 I think it is a great tool to use for our personal mission statements and for any business.\u00a0 Here it is:<\/p>\n