This leads into another important question: What does it actually mean to be a servant leader?
Jesus certainly served people, but He didn't personally meet every need. He invested deeply in His disciples, equipped them and sent them out to do the work themselves.
Servant leadership therefore doesn't mean becoming the person who must personally respond to every crisis, visit every sick person, pray for everyone who asks, solve every problem or make every decision.
Sometimes the most servant-hearted thing a leader can do is equip someone else to serve.
This requires you to ask:
- What am I actually called to do?
- What do I need to empower someone else to do?
- Where am I holding onto responsibilities that someone else could carry?
This becomes even more important when our leadership identity becomes mixed up with personal ambition.
We can begin to enjoy being the person everyone needs. We can become attached to being recognised, being indispensable or being the one who makes things happen. We may tell ourselves that we are serving God when, underneath it all, our identity is being fed by being needed.
Healthy leadership therefore requires us to examine not only what we are doing, but why we are doing it.
Consider these three questions:
- What do I believe about God?
Do I see Him as a Father who cares for me, or primarily as someone I must constantly perform for? - What do I believe about myself?
Do I believe my value comes from what I accomplish, how much I serve or how needed I am? - What do I believe about my role?
Do I believe I must control and carry everything, or can I trust God enough to stop and let Him work?
These questions can help us recognise when our understanding of calling has become tangled with our need for achievement, recognition or control.
This also highlights a simple but powerful shift in perspective: moving from “I have to” to “I get to.”
A healthy leader may still have a demanding workload and significant responsibilities. The circumstances don't necessarily change. What can change is the posture from which they approach those responsibilities.
Instead of leading from pressure, fear or the need to prove yourself, you can begin to lead from a place of trust, gratitude and freedom.
That is the heart of working from rest.
What am I known for?
Perhaps you are the reliable one, the problem-solver, the person who always says yes, the person who never seems to crack under pressure.
Now ask:
If I stopped doing those things, would I still know who I am as a leader?