Serving Up

The Overlooked Half of Servant Leadership
Wesley K. Willmer, Ph.D

"Servant leadership" is a buzzword both in Christian and secular circles. Almost all position descriptions—from hourly employees to the CEO—cite servant leadership as a valued characteristic and an important qualification for the job. It's a concept we readily accept, but is it possible we should give more thought to what it means and how it should influence our lives?

One aspect of servant leadership is commonly applied to every employee—that is, each person ought to be viewed as a leader within his or her realm of influence. Another prevalent principle is: Do whatever is necessary to empower and support those who report to you.

To be effective, then, managers are urged to perform duties that depict a servant-like attitude. This "serving down" notion suggests assisting subordinates by crawling under a desk to plug in a computer, staying to clean up after a major event, arriving early for a meeting to make coffee and tidy up the room, or coming in on the weekend to help process a mailing list.

Is it possible that by viewing servant leadership as serving down, we're overlooking and missing out on potentially the most important half of servant leadership—serving up?

The servant leadership concept can be traced back to 1970, when Robert Greenleaf published an article titled "The Servant as Leader." Greenleaf suggests that the sign of a true servant leader is the growth of the people being served. He went on to produce a book in 1983, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. Writings on servant leadership now abound, from both Christian and secular perspectives, but that literature focuses exclusively on the leader's role in serving those who are under him or her.

In my years in leadership positions, I've observed a common tendency in the workplace to avoid or ignore the potential to serve our colleagues across or up. Rather, the tendency is to criticize people on our same level or above us. Symptomatic of this attitude are questions like: "Why can't they see what they're doing?" or statements like: "Doing it another way would make a world of difference and take almost no effort."

Attempts to change, criticize, or ostracize coworkers are unhealthy for them and us, and rarely result in improvements for the organization. Motives for criticism vary, but usually center around a desire to make ourselves look better by making others appear worse. Because such attitudes are not limited to management, serving up needs to be applied and is applicable to all employees in the workplace.

So, what would serving up look like in your work world?

In general, a 360-degree view of servant leadership would start by examining yourself—your attitudes, strengths, shortcomings, etc. You can't serve others effectively up or down until you know yourself. Next, look around for voids or vacuums in the job performance of those to whom you report, those who are colleagues and on the same reporting level, and those who report to you. Servant leadership requires knowing the people around you.

What are their weaknesses and blind spots? Probably the most obvious is what frustrates you about them, or the areas you're prone to criticize about them. Are they too analytical and not empathetic enough? Do they not develop plans, and so surprise you with urgent deadlines? Are they too quick to make decisions?

Observe and make some assessments. For example, a president serves at the pleasure of the board, but dissatisfactions with this body are common among presidents. A serving up attitude would require the president's assessing the weaknesses of the board, coming up with solutions to the issues, and implementing them. Potential weaknesses might include quality of membership, the decision-making process, or unwillingness to contribute. Whatever the concern, the CEO should feel free to work to fill the voids within the board structure by serving up with suggestions and solutions.

Similarly, vice presidents should serve the president/CEO to whom they report. A healthy organization has vice presidents who know the president well, and that includes knowing her or his strengths and shortcomings. The serving up vice president finds ways to complement the president. This may take the form of providing advice and insight in areas where the CEO is often nearsighted or blind, or finding avenues to address issues within the organization other than through the president.

If the CEO isn't inclined to think strategically or isn't a vision caster, possibly a planning group can be organized to fill this void. Or, on the other hand, if the CEO is a visionary but not an administrator, serving up will mean seeking ways to fill the implementation voids.

This serving up principle applies among colleagues who work at the same level within the organization. Perhaps a colleague is great at adapting but sometimes loses sight of the principles worth fighting for, or is a doer and not a strategic thinker. Rather than criticizing, think about how you can serve up by working alongside that person and finding solutions that augment the strengths you both have. Often, effective serving up is implemented without the person you serve being aware of how you're filling the voids.

The administrative assistant with a serving up attitude compensates for the boss's forgetfulness, lack of attention to detail, and disorganization—all to complement the supervisor and make him or her look good. Likewise, the hourly worker finds ways to complement the supervisor by actively looking for ways to improve the organization and suggesting changes that would improve productivity, rather than complaining about "the management."

Once we understand what serving up means, the question becomes, how do we change to implement a full-orbed view of servant leadership? How do we expand our servant leadership to encompass all 360 degrees and learn how to serve up as much as we do down? Here are six suggested steps.

1. Stop focusing on building your reputation

The Scripture that best captures the leadership ideal each of us should seek is Paul's portrayal of Jesus' incarnation in Philippians 2:7: "He made himself a man of no reputation, taking on the very nature of a servant." This ideal suggests that we stop trying to make ourselves look good—especially not by making others look bad. Our passion instead should be to become a person of "no reputation," knowing and doing God's will so he receives the glory, not us.

Christian Stewardship Association President Scott Rodin emphasized this when he wrote, "Godly leadership is a call to an ever-decreasing quest for authority, power and influence, where the quest for reputation is replaced by the power of God's anointing" (Intrust, Winter 2004). Only when we get our eyes off building our own reputations can we have the 360-degree view of servant leadership that involves serving up.

An important part of our role as subordinates is to ensure the success of those to whom we report and with whom we work. This is challenging because of the oft-misplaced assumption that the more attention given to another, the less recognition is available for ourselves. By resisting this mindset, we become less self-aware and more like Christ, as 360-degree servant leaders of no reputation.

2. Avoid top-down corporate thinking

Past business models assumed that the successful organization was a top-down pyramid of control and command. In today's world this is much less the truth, so the quicker we stop thinking and acting from this paradigm, the better. In The Starfish and the Spider, Ori Bafman and Rod Beckstrom argue that in successful organizations change happens organically and can erupt from any part of the organization. It can no longer be controlled, and good managers will harness rather than impede such innovation. Adapting to this new reality requires inverting our traditional concepts of corporate thinking.

Robert Quinn suggests, in Building the Bridge as You Walk on It, that "when we are in the fundamental state of leadership … there is less of the either/or thinking that characterizes the normal state and more of both/and thinking in which apparent opposites are reconciled in a more comprehensive view of reality." The mature leader with a well-developed character is able to seek and implement the "both/and thinking" of servant leadership to incorporate 360 degrees—serving down, across, and up.

3. Transform yourself

Quinn and others hammer home the point that you transform others by transforming yourself and that "individual transformation is the key to deep organization change." In other words, as you stop focusing on building your own reputation and resist top-down thinking, you transform your own self and your attitude toward situations. It may have been easier to criticize than to create. But look at what you can do to fill voids rather than focusing on the faults of others. Matthew 7 offers a similar exhortation: "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"

4. Focus on what's in the best interest of your organization

Once you quit trying to build your reputation and stop looking for all the answers from those above and around you, you become free to focus on what's in the best interest of your organization. As a result, you can start to look for ways you can serve those above you. The name T. W. Wilson may not be readily recognizable to many, but Billy Graham's ministry would not be what it is today without him. A longtime friend of Billy, Wilson abandoned his own successful ministry and joined the Graham team as a subordinate to serve Billy's needs.

Christianity Today describes his service: "Behind the scenes, he worked as a diplomat, using his tremendous warmth and enormous fund of one-liners to turn opposition into cooperation. He served as an ambassador, maintaining contact with the thousands of people who felt they had a personal connection to Billy Graham. And in the inner circle, he was the trusted soulmate, on occasion saying no to Billy Graham, and telling him that one of his ideas wouldn't work or shouldn't be tried." Wilson sacrificed building his own organization and personal gain for what he saw as in the best interest of God's kingdom, by serving up.

5. Focus on the strengths of others

In his management classic, The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker posits: "the organization is the specific instrument to make human strengths bound to perform while human weakness is neutralized and largely rendered harmless." He is urging us to look beyond the organizational chart and realize not only that the organization is made up of human beings (dynamic and changing rather than static), but also that each of those members possesses specific, unique strengths that can be built into benefits for the entire organization.

The apostle Paul anticipates this perspective in his repeated use of a human body as an image of the organization that is the church. This picture illustrates how the strengths of various members act to complement one another in the larger goal of ushering in Christ's kingdom to earth (Romans 12:4, 1 Corinthians 12: 12-27, Ephesians 3:4, Colossians 2:19).

If Paul had chosen the analogy of a building, like he does in Ephesians 2, the image would have been one of a fixed, rather than dynamic, structure. But through the comparison of the church to the human body, he emphasizes the growth and interconnectedness of each member. By looking at the organization as a whole dynamic organism, employees are able to take on the responsibility for changing and strengthening it.

In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton observe, "Each person's greatest room for growth is in the area of his or her greatest strength." This observation runs counter to the commonly accepted premise that placed a high value on being "well-rounded persons." An area of weakness, by definition, is one in which we're bound to be only average. This is just as true of our superiors as it is of those who work for us. Knowing your colleagues' and supervisors' strengths will not only prove much more productive, but also can highlight areas where your own strengths might be able to complement theirs.

6. Think like a copilot

Serving up requires the mindset of a copilot. In World War II, the U.S. military was ridiculed by other air forces for requiring that every fighter plane have both a pilot and a copilot. It appeared to be a complete waste of human resources because the copilot didn't seem to do much of importance. He sat quietly behind the pilot, eyes scanning the horizon, willing to do whatever needed to be done, despite possessing training that equaled that of the individual in control.

Time proved the wisdom of the military's strategy. Over and over, a copilot was able to save the plane—and occasionally the entire squadron—by spotting something the leader missed. He'd act to correct it by serving up. The 360-degree servant leader is willing to act as a copilot, focusing on the organization's vision with its best interests at heart, and willing to take up the slack, even without recognition.

Serving up is about loving and honoring our coworkers in a Christlike manner, doing for them what we would like done for us. By restoring this overlooked half of servant leadership, we can work effectively and efficiently as the body of Christ to further kingdom work. You'll also find that having this attitude, and living it, will bring you great joy.

Wesley K. Willmer, Ph.D. is the Senior Vice President for the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. He previously served as vice president of university advancement and a professor at Biola University in La Mirada, California. He has been the author, coauthor, editor or editor-in-chief of more than 20 books, including God & Your Stuff and The Prospering Parachurch.