Servant and Leader

I found an interesting article by Jim Bolt at FastCompany.com. Bolt's firm, Executive Development Associates, Inc., asked heads of executive/leadership development to identify leaders who had a reputation for being great at developing leadership talent. They interviewed 20 "role model" leaders from 16 companies.

The study reveals how top executives spot and develop leadership talent. But the part of the study that I found the most interesting is what causes rising stars to suddenly derail and crash.
The study asked the role-model leaders what derailment factors they look for in both High Potential Executives and Emerging Leaders. These were the most frequent responses:

• Ego - 53%
• Developed too quickly - 36%
• Self serving - 30%
• Repeated failure - 29%
• "One trick pony" - 23%

Two of the interviewee comments were especially interesting. Remember now, these comments were made by some of the top "role model" leaders who are adept at developing effective leaders.

"If they have strong results, but they sacrifice team members or the bigger picture, or are too self-serving, they would no longer be considered high potential."

"They might have expectations of the rate that they are going to move up. They think that they should be moving up very quickly and when they don't, they lose patience. They can become disillusioned."

Maybe Jesus knew something about leadership development after all. And maybe the business community is learning that an effective leader needs to know how to deal with their ego. And maybe the Scriptures have something to say about effective leadership. And maybe the words servant and leader belong in the same sentence after all.

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:42-45