Howard Butt on Servant Leadership

Howard Butt's take on Trinitarian and Servant leadership:

What is Trinitarian Servant Leadership? Picture an equilateral triangle. One side is the Son, or submission, or servant. There is the Son, Jesus, the Son of God, submission and servant, that’s the side representing the cross. Another side is the Father authority, leadership, resurrection. The final side is the Holy Spirit, unity, creativity, and flexibility. It is all about the flexibility we need to relate most creatively to each other, in unity. Now the whole of life is this flexibility of servant leadership appropriate in each situation. This is the life in every believer. This is the God life that is in every believer when we are allowing Christ’s life to live through us.

The concept of servant leadership, which is a biblical concept, has two perils. One is that the servanthood of the leader renders him passive and impotent. As organizations become more truly democratic, the danger is that leadership gets lost or forgotten. A good example is that of the early Greeks, who founded democracy. It ultimately failed because in a totally egalitarian society, they did not allow for leadership. There was no one to provide an over-arching vision and direction. All went their separate ways, and the result was chaos, not freedom.

On the other hand, leadership can become authoritarian, insensitive, and tyrannical. The challenge is to find the balance between strong leadership and servant leadership. No one leads until someone serves.

Trinitarian Servant Leadership provides a model for merging three disciplines that I believe are vital in today’s business world: relational theology, behavioral science, and management strategies.