Yesterday at the office, I sat through quite a long ‘leadership meeting’ where several of our senior leaders talked about leadership, their styles and experiences. There’s a whole story for another day about why my name tag was different then some of my peers. But like I said that’s for another day. Sorry Rex!
Anyway, there was a question submitted from the crowd asking the panel who their iconic leader was, or put another way, which leader did they try to emulate. The answers ranged from very general to very specific, but this question made me think – who would I look at as my iconic leader. What was interestingly is that immediately I thought about the Christ Jesus. Which actually surprised myself a little bit, even though I try to profess that I follow him all the time. So I thought about two things, one why would I pick him. Which was the easier question to answer. I mean think about it, he had a vision, assembled a broad varied team, trained them, taught them by example, delegated task to them, and ultimately gave himself for them – a fantastic example of servant leadership!
The second question however, was more difficult. If I had been on that stage, would I have given that answer, or would I been too concerned about the business ‘backlash’. hm……
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, Philippians 3:7-10 ESV