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| Stu Moring and his wife, Gay |
“I only met him one time, when I was in Washington for legislator
visits with ASCE. I was so honored to meet him, but he treated me like he was
the one being honored. He was a true Servant Leader!”
I asked Stu what he meant by Servant Leader and this is his
answer:
My use of the term servant leader comes
from the book by the same name by Ken Blanchard ("The One Minute
Manager") and Phil Hodge.
The idea is to "lead like Jesus." From Matthew
20:25-28, "Jesus called them together and said, ' You know that the rulers
of the Gentiles lorded over them, and their high officials exercise authority
over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be great
among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be
your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and
to give His life as a ransom for many."
They compare self-serving leaders with servant leaders as follows:
"Self-serving leaders spend most of their time protecting their
status. If you give them feedback, how do they usually respond? Negatively. They
think your feedback means that you don't want their "leadership" any
more. Servant leaders, however, look at leadership as an act of
service. They embrace and welcome feedback as a source of useful
information on how they can provide better service."
Jesus, of course, was the perfect model, and I believe this is an
effective approach for anyone in leadership, but particularly for politicians
who are intended to be serving their constituents. Not exactly what we
have in Washington right now. In short, I believe a servant leader sees
his job as providing the necessary tools and resources to his
"subordinates" so they can excel at the service they ultimately
provide.
With that approach, I was able to surround myself with some truly
exceptional people, and they were able to accomplish extraordinary results.
Think about it--I didn't have the strength or stamina to dump garbage cans all
day long, or the skill to repair broken water lines and meters, but guys I worked
with excelled at those tasks. And that's what servant leadership is all
about.
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