To speak of leadership would immediately bring to mind such illustrious names as John Maxwell, Winston Churchill, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, George Bush, Billy Graham, Alexander the Great and Mao Tze Tong comes to mind.

There seems to be an almost intuitive feel within people that leadership is all about leading others towards a goal. This intuition is also merged with the picture of a person who is charismatic, energetic, persuasive, dynamic and inspiring.

You might have observed by now that I do not put Jesus of Nazareth into the previous list. Yet, if we ever needed to epitomize leadership, it would centre around this carpenter and prophet from the backlands of Israel, in Galilee. This unassuming, quiet and low-profile preacher literally stands at history’s divide. Our modern calendar takes its cue from before His life and proceeds from His resurrection.

Leadership as Jesus saw it, and practiced, was all about “serving”. This is a core fundamental aspect of Jesus’ brand of leadership. He underscored this ethos by saying that the “greatest among you must be servant of all”. This certainly goes against the grain of modern (and post-modern!) literature on leadership. Can you imagine the chairman of Petronas serving his colleagues coffee before the management meeting? Or directing the Human Resources department to do all it can to enhance the working environment holistically?

This macro principle must be held closely to the heart of every leader worthy of his salt, be he in ministry or management. Only upon adopting servanthood as a basic tenet of work philosophy, will leaders truly be leaders. When servanthood guides the heart of management, will other productive qualities rise to the surface. It is only when workers see their top bosses leading by serving, will they themselves begin to serve the aims and aspirations of the ministry or organization. Servant leadership puts the common goal above the individuals. Servant-leadership does not give room for envy, jealousy and other disruptive work factors with the resulting lost productivity these qualities engender.

Jesus Christ embodied servant leadership. Within a space of barely 300 years, the existing empire of the time was already reeling under the influence of the prophet from Galilee. His followers paid the ultimate price for His leadership – with their lives. The true test of leadership then is whether we will follow a leader even if it may cause us our lives. Will we be leaders worthy of a following? Leaders who would lead by serving; leaders for whom their followers, disciples, employees, and subordinates would “die for”.