What is Service?
One of the keys of being successful in the practice of servant leadership is to have a firm grasp on what constitutes service. There is much written about servant leadership where service is handled in a simplified manner. I came across a blog today where this view of service jumped out at me.
The author of the blog writes, “It's the servant leader who puts the team above the self. That's half of the equation. The other half is the servant employee. Most people think they are hired to perform a job. Actually, they are hired to follow instructions. So, if your boss tells you to come in at 8:00 AM, then your job is to come in at 8:00 AM. And if your boss tells you to finish a report by Friday, then your job is to finish the report by Friday. Some employees miss this important point. They think that they can ignore directions, reject rules, and omit procedures. When people do this, it always costs the business money and time.” If the goal of work is to make money and save time, perhaps the author’s concepts of service are meaningful.
However, if work goes deeper then time and money, then we need to focus on a deeper level of service. According to Robert Greenleaf (from Seeker and Servant page 121-122), the goal of service is “to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. Do those served grow as person; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more likely themselves to become servants? And what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will he or she benefit, or at least not be further deprived. (…) this is a very difficult test to administer. But one who aspires to be a servant may come closer to achieving this result by keeping this consequential definition foremost in all thinking.”
Simply putting the team above the self, can often times be an excuse for not doing the right thing, and for not taking care of one’s self. Simply following the boss’s instructions, more often then not results in ignoring what we are really called to do by a higher order then the boss. Real work is not about making money, saving time, or doing the job. Work is about acting according to what we are called to be. It is to that deeper calling that the practice of servant leadership, as taught by Greenleaf, takes us.
The author of the blog writes, “It's the servant leader who puts the team above the self. That's half of the equation. The other half is the servant employee. Most people think they are hired to perform a job. Actually, they are hired to follow instructions. So, if your boss tells you to come in at 8:00 AM, then your job is to come in at 8:00 AM. And if your boss tells you to finish a report by Friday, then your job is to finish the report by Friday. Some employees miss this important point. They think that they can ignore directions, reject rules, and omit procedures. When people do this, it always costs the business money and time.” If the goal of work is to make money and save time, perhaps the author’s concepts of service are meaningful.
However, if work goes deeper then time and money, then we need to focus on a deeper level of service. According to Robert Greenleaf (from Seeker and Servant page 121-122), the goal of service is “to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. Do those served grow as person; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more likely themselves to become servants? And what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will he or she benefit, or at least not be further deprived. (…) this is a very difficult test to administer. But one who aspires to be a servant may come closer to achieving this result by keeping this consequential definition foremost in all thinking.”
Simply putting the team above the self, can often times be an excuse for not doing the right thing, and for not taking care of one’s self. Simply following the boss’s instructions, more often then not results in ignoring what we are really called to do by a higher order then the boss. Real work is not about making money, saving time, or doing the job. Work is about acting according to what we are called to be. It is to that deeper calling that the practice of servant leadership, as taught by Greenleaf, takes us.
posted by Tom Jablonski at 4:36 PM
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