Fall is my favorite time of the year in Minnesota. There is nothing like the cool, crisp fresh air and sunshine against the color of the leaves in the trees.
Fall is a time of harvest. A time for celebration that all the hard work has paid off with a great crop. It is also a time of preparation for the upcoming winter. Birds migrate south, bears hibernate, and people in the north bring in their boats and lawn furniture.
This reminds me of how preparation, harvest, and celebration play into the life of a servant leader.
Preparation is obviously critical. I just watched Peyton Manning set the all time record for most touchdown passes in an NFL career. The announcers were talking about the meticulous preparation he does that leads to his success.
Servant leaders prepare for what is ahead as well. They set the foundation for the upcoming season, insuring full understanding of the organization’s purpose, vision, and values. They insure people are properly trained for the tasks ahead. They make sure everyone understands what is expected of them. When proper plans are in place, things go well, and people achieve their goals.
It also made me reflect on what a servant leader’s harvest looks like. What is it that they celebrate after all the planning, preparation, and hard work has paid off.
Servant leaders celebrate:
- People that focus on purpose, vision, and values
- People that feel and understand the importance of their work
- Empowered people
- New levels of achievement in key responsibility areas
- High performing teams
- Relationships
- People that focus on the behaviors of love to build their character
- People that prioritize their life’s activities – Faith / Family / Career
The items on this list might make for a good scorecard for a leader who desires to serve. I will guarantee you that if you focus on this list of items for your harvest as a leader, you won’t have to worry about the performance of your team. Your team will produce a bumper crop!!
How are you doing in each of these areas this fall season?
Mark
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
This post is meaningful. Your points of celebration are all worth the preparation and investment. My personal favorite is priorities Faith / Family / Career. I used to have on my personal profile at work: God, Family, Work – in that order I’m sure Work took the upper hand a lot more than it should have back then.
It’s interesting that I got to your blog by clicking on a link where I read a comment from Dan Forbes and the scripture you have to sum up your post is the same scripture I sent to him privately a couple months ago. I don’t remember now what prompted it, but that’s not important. At the time I felt led to share and I did.
Jane, thanks so much for your excellent comments! I love your priorities and the fact that you made it visible on your personal profile. That in itself helps on the accountability even though it is hard. As leaders we should be celebrating those people with those priorities and help them keep them!
That’s really cool you had shared the same scripture with Dan Forbes. I think it is good for us as leaders to be holding ourselves accountable to the right metrics in God’s eyes. I sure appreciate your focus on encouragement! Just awesome!!
Blessings on your day!