5 practices for cultivating servant leaders

Mark Deterding Feb. 6, 2020

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The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

~Matthew 9:37-38

“There need to be two of me.”

“There need to be more hours in the day.”

How often do you say these things, or at least think them?

When you move from serving a few to serving hundreds and thousands, how do you keep from getting overwhelmed?

The answer is straightforward: multiply the number of servant leaders in your life. Build up the people around you so that they, too, experience the awakened heart and aptitude for service. 

Get more hands on deck. Scale your service through equipping others to serve alongside you.

Here are five practices to help you cultivate servant leaders within your sphere of influence:

1. Leverage your servant purpose filter

You want to relieve your sense of overwhelm through building more servant leaders. Consider, is every decision you make every day focused on this goal?

Or, do you take shortcuts, doing things yourself instead of coaching others to lead because it feels easier and quicker?

You can change this. You have the strongest filter imaginable to help you focus your energies on multiplying servant leaders—your servant purpose. Through gaining detailed understanding of your purpose, you can see exactly how to support others to step up, serve, and fulfill their God-given potential.

2. Model work-life balance

Which do you think people are more likely to want to emulate: a leader who works all the time and finds no joy outside of work, or a leader who works hard, but knows when to quit for the day, go home and relax?

If you want to attract people to the concept of servant leadership, you’ve got to make it look satisfying! People who do nothing but work are clearly not satisfied with what they’re accomplishing. Otherwise, they’d feel comfortable saying, “That’s enough for now.”

This isn’t true of you. You take great satisfaction in serving others. At the end of your workday, you feel spiritually rich. Let people see that. Don’t let feeling overwhelmed force you into a pattern of overwork—that’s bad marketing for servant leadership.

3. Be consistent about your one-on-one meetings

I can’t say enough about the importance of holding regular one-on-one meetings with the people in your life, both at work and at home. These meetings provide your deepest opportunity to build people up for servant leadership.

4. Practice extreme self-care

Your mind, your body and your spirit. How vibrant is your connection between these three things? Your feelings of overwhelm will decrease as you increase your mental, physical and spiritual health. I can promise you this from my own personal experience and from the experiences of dozens of my coaching clients.

Start small. Commit to one tiny, positive shift. Then, stick with it. Current research tells us it takes at least 30 days (and probably closer to 60 days) to form a habit. Don’t try to improve everything at once. Turn your attention to your weakest link in the mind-body-spirit connection and start there.

5. Lean on Jesus

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. ~Matthew 9:38

You want more people by your side who have the heart and aptitude for service. Are you asking Jesus to send those people to you, and ripen their spirits for your mentorship?

The Lord wants to support you to multiply servant leaders. He knows in great detail how people change through serving and being served. Lean on His insight. Make time to go to God in prayer, with receptive ears.

Which of the practices above does He need you to take so that you more effectively multiply servant leaders?

Photo source: istock 

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Mark Deterding is the founder and principal of Triune Leadership Services, LLC. In 2011 he formed Triune Leadership Services to follow his passion of working with leaders to help them develop core servant leadership capabilities that allow them to lead at a higher level and enable them to achieve their God-given potential. He is married to his wife Kim, and they have two sons, two lovely daughter-in-laws, and three wonderful grandchildren. This article was first published on triuneleadershipservices.com. Used with permission. Learn More »

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