10 things servant leadership is not

Photo credit: Gerald Mwangi

Let’s clear a few misconceptions. Servant leadership is not:

1. A new thing. Although the term ‘servant leadership’ and interest in the concept in management circles is quite new (second half of the twentieth century) the idea is a thoroughly biblical one coming out of ancient texts like Deut. 17:18-20; Matt. 20:20-28, Phil. 2-3, 2 Cor.; 1 Thess. 2-3 and many others.
2. An optional style of leadership. When talking about expository preaching one of the misconceptions is that it is just one style of preaching among many valid approaches – whereas if expository preaching means faithful Bible preaching (correctly handling the Word of God) it is the only valid approach. In the same way, if servant leadership is biblically commanded it is not simply one among many styles of leadership (charismatic leadership, strategic leadership, decisive leadership etc.) it is the only way. Rather than ‘servant’ qualifying ‘leader’ it could be argued that it is better to think of ‘leader’ qualifying ‘servant’. All Christians are called to be servants – that is a fundamental identity and activity – and some will serve the body as leaders.
3. A personality thing. Servant leadership is not just something for the ESFJ personality. It is not a natural consequence of being a touchy-feely type which won’t fit the bulldozer or Spock type. If it is the one commanded biblical form of leadership then it is for all leaders regardless of natural temperament. In fact servant leadership will not come naturally to any of us because we naturally serve ourselves and seek our own praise.
4. A cultural thing. You sometimes hear the claim that Africa and Asia need strong dictatorial leaders while servant leadership suits the lack of power distance in Western countries. But if it is a biblical thing then it is for all cultures. It was certainly extremely counter-cultural for first century Jewish and Roman culture when Jesus and the apostles spoke about it.
5. Gutted leadership. Sometimes people think that servant leadership is either a contradiction in terms or at least a compromise between two opposite things. In this understanding the servant side of things takes the strength out of the leadership side – ameliorating the driving, dynamic, decisive, disciplinary force of leadership – so servant leadership will be weak, ineffective, toothless. There is a sense in which servant leadership, like the Cross, will look weak and foolish to the world but in that weakness is divine power (2 Cor. 12:10). Also, a look at Paul’s letters shows that servant leadership is perfectly compatible with discipline and sharp rebukes – that is a part of loving and serving.
6. Just for the church. I used to think that servant leadership was only for the church and that in the world outside the free market and survival of the fittest worked fine but it was an old man in Kenya who pointed out to me that when you don’t have servant leadership in local government, construction, transport, education, health and police then everything falls apart – roads have huge potholes because the funding has been ‘eaten’, doctors and nurses won’t go to the hardship areas, teachers skip classes, the university system is corrupted and ineffective. At the same time many non-Christian leadership gurus are recognising servant leadership as a very effective way of building and motivating teams and achieving long term goals. This shouldn’t be surprising. Because of the way God’s wisdom is woven into the fabric of our material and social world, it does indeed work best for everyone when we cut with the grain of God’s order and leaders serve others rather than themselves.
7. A pragmatic management strategy. Having said all that about the effectiveness of servant leadership it’s important to clarify that biblical servant leadership (Harrison Mungai puts that helpful initial qualifier) is not simply a pragmatic technique. It is not a psycho-social Machiavellian trick to manipulate people. It is not a means to an end. It is essential and valuable in and of itself regardless of the outcomes.  
8. Pandering to demands. In another place I’ve written about the danger and ugliness of the combination of Servant Leader plus Rebellious Employees. In the modern world, in countries with a small power difference, it is possible for something similar to servant leadership to arise from the cajoling demands of an entitled workforce who feel it is their right to be listened to, pampered with benefits and treated with kid gloves while giving very little loyalty or sacrifice in return. In contrast biblical servant leadership a) comes pro-actively from the leader themselves (not wrung out of him by those being led); b) will not pander to every desire and whim of those being led because the leader has a higher loyalty (to the Lord) and a greater love and aim for those entrusted to them (their real good not their perceived good).
9. Simply menial manual tasks. The classic images of servant leadership are washing dishes, cleaning toilets, washing feet. Certainly John 13 is a very important servant leadership text. But surely Jesus was not speaking purely literally of washing feet. He was pointing first to his sacrifice on the Cross, then to regular repentance, costly service of others. That service might well involve some hard dirty sweaty physical labour but it will also involve costly speaking and praying and reading and writing. The servant leader must always be willing to clean the toilet (nothing is beneath him) but to delegate some table service to focus on the ministry of prayer and Word is still servant leadership.
10. Everything there is to say about leadership. The biblical concept of servant leadership is, I would argue, the most important, core, foundational thing to know about leadership but it is not all there is to say about leadership. There are many useful things that can be said about leadership (meetings, recruitment, communication, strategy, delegation, culture etc.) which may be consistent with biblical servant leadership and in line with the gospel but are not explicit in the biblical text or necessary logical outworkings of the gospel. Peter Drucker for example has plenty of helpful things to say on management and leadership but we are free to take or leave them. Craig Hamilton does a good job I think in Wisdom in Leadership of first laying out the non-negotiable biblical foundations in section 1 – servant leadership – then moving on in the rest of the book to less authoritative but very helpful wisdom for servant leaders in all sorts of practical areas.

Next time – 10 things that servant leadership is…