People Will Quit on you. You gotta get up and make sure you never quit on yourself.
Have you ever been here??
As I sat across the table from my dear friend, sharing my vision and calling for Servant-Minded leadership development, he looked at me with slightly misty eyes and said, “Jon, you are preaching to the choir, but I am a broken man.” He went on to share how much he believed (past tense) in the concept of Servant-Leadership, and how he had tried to implement it in some specific scenarios only to have it blow up in his face and find himself hurt and disillusioned.
Throughout the conversation, he vacillated between speaking of Servant-Minded Leadership with wistful romance and speaking of it as a discarded theory. But, by the end of the conversation, I could tell he still believed in the concept. It was just difficult for him to figure out what in the world went wrong!
Unfortunately, Servant-Minded Leaders are going to get hurt. This reality can’t be avoided. In fact (contrary to what one might think/hope), the BETTER one is at living out the ideas of servant-leadership, the MORE likely they are to be hurt in the process! But, why would such a powerfully positive leadership concept result in so much hurt?
The reason is simple: When one is a true servant-leader, they genuinely care about those they are leading and whole-heartedly invest in their success. Unfortunately, not everyone we pour ourselves into will achieve the destiny that we know they are capable of. Some will even chose the opposite direction of the counsel, coaching and resources we invest in them. This is not only painful in terms of the lost resources that were dedicated to their success but it is also severely disappointing to the leader who has poured themselves into a person who seems to have no interest in the value they have been given…And this does not even include those who stab their leader in the back, using the tools they have been given to sabotage the leader who provided them and those who will take as much as they can from the leader only to force them out, when they want more authority, prestige, etc. These are all the reality of the experience of the Servant-Minded Leader.
But, all of these things must not discourage us. We must not give up. We must press on and continue investing in the success of others. We can’t control what they do to us or how they use the tools we give them. But, we can continue to serve and add value to those who we lead. We must never allow the heartache (and there WILL be heartache!) to disable us from our calling.
Why? Because despite all of the pain, there is also fruit that is born of our passion. There are seeds that we are planting that will germinate, grow, and yield fruit of their own. and THAT is leaving a legacy. THAT is being a leader. THAT is how we CHANGE THE WORLD!