3 leadership lessons learned about serving others

Echo VanderWal May 2, 2024

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In 2005, my husband, three-year-old triplets and two-month-old baby moved at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis to the Kingdom of Eswatini, a small country in southern Africa with the highest rate of HIV in the world. Our mission was to serve. We felt called to address the marginalized and the vulnerable who were struggling to access quality healthcare.

We founded The Luke Commission to provide compassionate, comprehensive, patient-centered healthcare to underserved populations in Eswatini, building it with the idea of empowering others. Today, The Luke Commission hosts over 300,000 patient visits annually, but this growth was only achieved with a few bumps along the way.

Here are three lessons I learned that are applicable to all leaders:

1. "Do unto others."

We should not be surprised that Jesus' words in Matthew 7:12 to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" are an effective management principle.

When we founded The Luke Commission, many of those who needed our services were also the most skeptical of us. The nation was ravaged by the HIV/AIDS crisis and those suffering had been stigmatized by the illness.

We chose to go into communities, adopting a team motto of "Every Last One." We committed to refusing to leave a community until every last patient had been seen.

Through following Jesus' command and treating people the way we would want to be treated – with basic kindness and respect – we found the doors were open to serve even more.

2. Scaling compassion unlocks growth.

Compassion was a fundamental trait modeled by Jesus. Whether it was engaging with the woman at the well or healing the lepers, Jesus never shied away from caring for those whom society so often disregarded.

As leaders, we should emulate Jesus in all we do, and I'm convinced that compassion is one of the greatest traits you can scale among your team. I have seen firsthand its transformation to the growth of teams not just physically but also emotionally.

From the start, with little to no supplies or medicines to combat the HIV/AIDS crisis, compassion was vital to our organization because it was all our team had to give. We quickly learned that compassion is an unlimited resource in a resource-limited world. We began to train our team to lead with compassion, which led to exponential growth. The Emaswati, who had experienced rejection and condemnation at other clinics, flocked to TLC in increasing numbers.

Today, a culture of compassion is embedded in every activity and process, from patient care to conflict resolution. It is not just a simple mantra; it is highly visible at every level of the organization.

Compassion has strengthened our team but also the level of care we can offer those we serve. We have a 99% satisfaction rate among our patients who continue to come back not just because they will receive physical care, but because they know they will also be treated with the level of respect and love Jesus modeled.

3. Healed people can better heal others.

As is common, unprecedented growth of The Luke Commission led to new challenges. As we added professionals to our staff, we realized many were traumatized and broken because of being orphaned by the HIV/AIDS crisis. While they were doing their best to care for those in need, they were held back by their own brokenness.

People must be healed before they can heal others. This is not an overnight process, rather it involves reconciliation, mentoring, and essentially showing them the compassion they will ultimately show to others.

As we implemented a formal program called Base Camp to provide this healing, staff members encountered life-changing breakthroughs, with many experiencing love and acceptance for the first time. The change was transformational within our team.

For many leaders, it might seem counterintuitive that taking time to nurture each individual will reduce efficiency, but the opposite is true. An atmosphere of cohesion is created. Staff are spiritually strengthened and confident. All the distractions and hindrances fall away. Infighting, backstabbing and insecurities melt away.

Healing changes people and the way they work. When people's hearts are healed, they feel accepted. They feel like they belong. They feel safe. Ultimately, the healing poured into them allows them to thrive and gives them a heart to serve. As a result, they're empowered to take care of each other and themselves.

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Echo VanderWal is the co-founder and executive director of The Luke Commission, which serves the most isolated and underserved people of Eswatini with comprehensive, compassionate healthcare through over 300,000 patient visits annually, all at no cost to the patient. Learn More »

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