Larry’s issues began to impact his job. The impact was great enough that the Board of Directors had set a date for his evaluation. A member of the Board, the CEO of a very large NGO, met with Larry as a friend to talk. The CEO offered to help in any way he could because Larry was key in the overall operation. The CEO agreed to a “confidential exchange.” Larry, fearful for the loss of his job, shared without reservation.

The night of the board meeting, no help was offered to Larry and he was fired. The CEO had met with the Board of Directors earlier and revealed ALL that Larry shared with him. Was the CEO a servant leader as he claimed? Who was he serving?

Leaders come in all shapes and sizes. Even leaders that enjoy the “servant leader” label often fall short of understanding it. Grasping the concept is of utmost importance.

The following words of a CEO who heads a large manager training school, James Manktelow, describe his view:

“The theory of ‘Servant Leadership’ is a risky one… it is likely to lead to an approach that is too passive, probably overly consensual, and most likely ineffective.” ¹

This CEO is stating here and further in his essay that a servant leader is passive, lacks vision, without accountability, overly consensual, and serves upwards (employees serve the boss, the boss serves the Board).

The person considered the greatest servant leader of all time is Jesus. He is one who serves, then leads – rather than leads, then serves. This Jewish carpenter, by His recorded words, His convincing life and death, was qualified to say, “For even the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mk 10:45) ²

If Jesus came to serve, how well did He do? To reach across cultures and social status in Jesus’ day, He must have responded to local needs in an appropriate way. Then and now, people in all walks of life respond to Him, resulting in a global impact. Jesus crosses all lines politically and socially without regard to His own comfort zone.

The authentic sacred documents on the life of Jesus reveal the essence of what is “real” servant leadership. As you piece together these statements, you will discover some profound contemporary and applicable leadership wisdom. Jesus encouraged, set boundaries, cast vision, instructed, challenged, and communicated openly.

It is interesting that Jesus, considered the role-model for servant leadership, is guilty of none of the descriptors mentioned by James Manktelow. Here are just a few examples:

Was Jesus passive? He walked into the temple – a place of worship for the community – found many conducting business, buying and selling animals and exchanging money. Jesus became aggressive and physically removed the offenders. In yet another story, Jesus confronted His followers harshly for their areas of disbelief.

Did He lack vision? Jesus taught His close followers to go into areas of the country and share the message of love and forgiveness. He taught people how to forgive and how to live a life that contributed to the life of the community.

Did He serve only upwards? Jesus washed His disciples’ feet.

Were decisions always consensual? On one occasion, Jesus’ followers hastily removed children from around Him. He overruled His followers. “…Jesus was irate and let them know it: ‘Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me.’” (Mark 10:14, The Message)

We, as serious servant leaders, must focus on people groups or individuals, rather than focus on organizations or accomplishing tasks. Jesus created a balance for servant leaders that shows us that tasks are accomplished as a result of who we are: servants – not just leaders.

When Jesus said, “I come to…” To what? To fulfill a purpose, a destiny – I come to live out who I am created to be. Jesus also said, “… As the Father has sent me, I am sending you…” (Jn 20:21) If Jesus came to fulfill a destiny of service, how much more are we to “… come to…” fulfill a destiny of service, sent by Jesus as the Father sent Him. Any less focus limits the individual, which limits the organization. As an individual develops and fulfills his purpose as a servant, both the individual and the organization benefit. The importance of completing tasks is obvious. We must grow. We must produce. However, task versus relationship-focused leadership styles should not be looked at as either/or but, rather, a holistic result of the individual fulfilling his role as servant.

When an organization or individual loses focus on the concern for their people or customers, everyone suffers. The religious community is not immune to this subtle slide of thinking. When having a bigger church, larger budget, bigger mission, outweighs a genuine love and concern for people, a large public display is created, but it becomes a hollow lifeless center.

When the Somali pirates took over Captain Richard Phillips’ ship, he made a quick decision. He told his crew to stay in their rooms and lock the door. He put himself in harm’s way and became a hostage. Saving and protecting his crew was his first thought. A genuine servant leader.

In contrast, how many leaders in the recent world economic crisis sold those they were to serve for self-promoting gain? Judas comes to mind.

Jack, now a retired sales manager, was challenged to adopt a country. Jack did and began to study its history and culture. He traveled there and met people from all levels of society. He served those he met by providing business contacts, educational opportunities, and even developing a hot lunch program in a public school for the poorest students. Relationships grew over the years into key political and business positions. Jack, serving his friends, led to positive changes even in the government.

A very humble Asian servant leader in a developed country wanted to help his people. He discovered in his high government position, several others with the same heartbeat. They began to meet to decide how they could better serve their families, their government, and the people they represented. Positive changes in the government took place as they reached out to their own and less developed countries in unique ways. Servant leadership at its best.

Yee, a street kid with limited education, discovered he was important as a person. He found out his life had meaning – he was not a mistake. He became interested in a high, no-roads-in mountain village. He acquired further schooling, went to the village and developed a school. After a basic educational program, the kids wanted more. They were winning honors. Yee convinced the provincial educational leaders to allow the students to attend the next higher level of education. A residence was developed in the main city for the students. Yee and his work are now regarded as a model for other isolated mountain villages. A servant leader, who, with much personal sacrifice, influenced change for thousands of young people.

A businessman, a politician, a street kid – all servant leaders. At some place in our journey we discover that being a leader is not the point. Rather, the point is being a servant. Greenleaf wrote this:

“It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead… The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant – first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”³

Dr Roy Thompson and his wife Bonita reside in Bangkok, Thailand. Roy’s ministry involves working with business and government leaders in Southeast Asia creating a safe place to talk about Jesus. Bonita, with a Thai partner, ministers to women wanting to leave the sex trade. The residential center is known as “Home of New Beginnings.” The Thompsons have a daughter who directs a violence prevention program in one of the inner cities in California.

Notes
1 Manktelow, James. “Servant Leadership.” Mind Tools. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_93.htm(Accessed April 2009).

2 All references to Jesus’ life are found in the first four books of the New Testament in the Holy Bible.

3 Greenleaf, Robert. Servant Leadership. Ramsey: Paulist Press, 1977.

The New International Version of the Bible has been referenced unless otherwise stated.

Share with us how you came to know God.

Ngiam Tong Dow (N): My father died when I was 10. My mother was left to raise five of us children single-handedly. I was the eldest and I had just entered primary one of the English medium school. By the grace of God, our neighbors were an Indian Christian family, the Pauls. The eldest daughter taught me to read, speak, and write English. Mrs Paul persuaded me to stay in school and sit for the university entrance exam. If they had not been my neighbors, my life would have been totally different. They gave me an invaluable start in life.

Thirty years passed before I accepted Christ. I was torn between love for my dead parents whose memory I cherished, and love for the Lord. As the eldest son of a traditional Chinese family, it was my duty to attend to the family altar. At dawn each day, I would light up three joss sticks and pray to my parents. My wife, Janet, born in a Christian family bore patiently the burden of this ritual of her husband. She knew that one day the Lord would speak to me. That day was Maundy Thursday, 1984, in the candlelight of the night service, I saw my son’s face glowing with faith. The thought flashed across my mind: Believe and you shall see. All at once the scales fell from my mind’s eyes. I could see the hand of the Lord at each stage of my life.

Stephen Riady (R): My whole family converted to Christianity between the 1980s and 1990s. I was the last one to convert in 1992. Since my graduation from university, my life had been quite smooth. My family members kept persuading me to convert. It was very difficult for me. Those days I lived in Hong Kong while my parents lived in Jakarta. They’d come to visit me monthly. My mother repeatedly asked me to go to church or to meet with some Christian friends or pastors. I obeyed but remained unconvinced. I thought that my mother was still a bit superstitious. Every time she heard that I made good money by selling buildings, she did not thank or praise me. Instead, she would say that “it is not you but God giving to you.” That was hard for me to accept for many years. My father wanted me to become a Christian so that I could balance the money and the influence that I have.

After I accepted Christ, I gradually experienced change. I’ve been a Christian for 16 years and I can testify that I lead a more balanced life between two laws. One is business law and the other is spiritual law. The business law means profit center – making money, which is for selfish reasons. My faith, which is in the spiritual law, is Christ centered where you find the purpose of life is to know God and to grow in Christ and to depend and trust Him. This is a good balance which I gradually learned.

What are your thoughts on the current global financial crisis?

N: The present financial crisis is man-made. As an economist, I’ll describe it this way: this whole thing began because there was too much liquidity and the bankers then became careless and loaned out a lot of money. They found a way of passing the risk to the people. Since it is a man-made problem, man has to unravel it. Now all the government has to do is to guarantee bank deposits and allow the economic system to make its way out of the recession. So I’m quite unsure about all these bailouts of banks. The real economy may slow down for a while. And as economists, we all know that when interest rates fall, and wages fall, the rate of return on capital would be higher. So entrepreneurs will go back and invest and re-appropriate. And the whole cycle will start over again.

If you read the Keynesian theory of employment, it is very simple. Keynes told the governments of his day, “Don’t be ashamed to run a little budget to facilitate.” So by putting in a little liquidity, the idling economic machinery could be re-started.

R: I think as Christians, we should know what the purpose of life is. The Bible tells us that the purpose of life is to know Christ and to grow in Him. So our purpose here is not just to make money. We want to glorify Him. And the way to do this is through our daily life, our experiences in family, business, and so on. Life is about transformation and we have to change. And people fear change. Nowadays, we talk about the global financial crisis. But we also have other uncertainties in life too. There is a lot of fear. I think God allowed this so that we can be transformed through all these crisis experiences.

It is good as Christians when we see all these crises and difficulties that we learn to adapt to change. My father taught me this Chinese saying that “whatever you take up, you must also be prepared to let go.” In the book of Philippians, Paul says he has learned a secret – he knows how to abound and to abase.

In the current situation, what are the factors that create frenzy, panic, and fear?

N: To quote Alan Greenspan, it is the “market’s irrational exuberance.” It is irrational fear. However, I have faith in the laws of economics. The wheels of the economic laws might grind slowly but they grind inexorably. So you must let the whole thing work itself out. If you panic and sell your shares, you are already realizing a loss but the real economy still exists. The hotels, airports, and hospitals will still operate and farmers will still farm. So what has changed is monetary value. The real economy will start all over again. But what really surprised me this time as an economist is that banks are refusing to lend to each other. That is very irrational. If the banks do not trust each other, how can we trust the banks? I think nevertheless that the real economy, after the fever has been purged, will start humming again. That is my conviction as an economist.

R: What people fear most is losing money. I had that fear of becoming poor in the 1998 Asian financial crisis. At that time, we had a currency collapse and many banks collapsed on top of stock markets. We owned a bank in Indonesia at that time, and every week we heard of other banks collapsing. We were wondering when ours would collapse as people totally had no trust in the banking system. However, if we had faith in our bank, we should then fully support it. That was when we withdrew all our cash from other banks to be put into our bank. My father said we should go this way. To him, trust is more important. That was a very big struggle. What if after we had put all our money in our bank, it would still collapse and all our businesses would be ruined? That was my experience and my biggest fear at that time. What would happen if we became poor and so on? My fear at that time was more severe than what we are experiencing now. But in a way I have gained experience. Some Christians say that these crises are created by God and others say by the enemy. I realize we cannot blame God or the enemy. We have to blame ourselves. It is the fallen human nature – without God, we will make wrong decisions. There is too much greed and over confidence. That’s why so many people make wrong decisions and create so many kinds of crises. We must learn to be responsible.

Where does faith come in during this financial crisis?

N: Let me begin by going back to 1961, when Singapore just had self-government and we had to be responsible for ourselves. During that time, the unemployment rate was over 10%. The government decided to do something about it. We chose a straight and narrow road of creating employment – anything that could give us a job. If you choose the straight and narrow path to solve the problem, more than likely God will be with you. But if you choose the easy option – the low road, I think it will lead you to a lot of grief. That is my Christian conviction.

R: Well, when the crisis happened, it forced me to pray more. I turned to God and became closer to Him. And faith really comes by reading the Word and of course praying. So I think it is good that we have more time for God. In the end, we learn from experience. On top of experience, we spend more time with God and draw closer to Him.

There is a difference between Christians and non-Christians. We all suffer and face the same financial crisis. The difference is that non-Christians suffer both outwardly and inwardly. For Christians, we may suffer outwardly but inwardly we can still have joy and peace. That is the difference. God’s Word promises that the Heavenly Father will look after His children. Non-Christians don’t have such promises to turn to.

How do you distinguish between faith and presumption?

R: There is a difference between testing and temptation. Temptation is when we want to find an easy way and later we will have problems. Testing is different. It is from God and usually it comes in the form of difficult times, hard work, and so on. That is why when we face a problem or crisis, testing and temptation come at the same time. It has to do with our mindset. We keep thinking: can we find an easy way? What is the quickest way to solve something? Very often, the quick way is not the right way. It may look good at first but it will give us problems later. We have to keep learning and improving ourselves because our environment is constantly changing.

N: Presumption is when you build castles in the air and then pray to the Lord to finish them for you. Whatever you do, you have got to look at the economics and check against reality. The other day, I was glad to see the report about a very good analyst who went around checking to see the number of people frequenting restaurants and concerts to understand the economy. One has got to check against reality in economic analysis.

R: I agree with Mr Ngiam. While we have faith, I think we need to do business based on facts. People in the old days might not have had enough facts but today, people have so many facts, statistics, and figures to produce good analysis work. In the early days, people may have relied on gut feelings, which can sometimes be right, or sometimes be wrong. My father did that. But I think today’s environment for doing business is different. We have to look at demand and supply, consumer behavior, purchasing power, and so on. We need to have the faith but we also need the facts, rather than relying solely on emotions.

What advice would you give to somebody who is completely wiped out this time around?

N: It’s a very tough question. We hope the economy will grow very strongly. But we have to tighten our belts and not raise our expectations too high. We have got to live within our means so that when bad times come, it will not be so catastrophic. We will then have the resilience to retreat, withdraw, and live to fight another day.

R: We have to see that we have made a lot of wrong decisions and not blame God or others. But we have to learn and repent of our greed, over-confidence, and stubbornness. This crisis can be a blessing in disguise. It depends on how old you are; if you are in your 20s, you are still so young, it is good that you see the problem in your early age and learn. And for the older businessmen, I would also give a reason to be hopeful; it is a cycle – there are always ups and downs, and there is no eternal up or down. If you talk about the US economic cycle, it is always between nine to twelve years. So don’t give up hope and be open, look for more opportunities. I happened to meet someone who had lost a lot of money. He is from the US and he came to Singapore to look for business, to meet potential clients. He said he knows he is almost bankrupt but he has the talent and technology. So I advised him to go ahead and talk to potential clients. After understanding the facts, he can then find partners and convince banks. People think that they must look at the money first but I think you need to look at the opportunities and potential first.

Mr Ngiam Tong Dow has served as Permanent Secretary in the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office, Ministries of Finance, Trade and Industry, Communications and National Development. He also chaired the Singapore Economic Development Board, Central Provident Fund Board and Housing Development Board; and corporations such as the Development Bank of Singapore and was predecessor of Singapore Technologies Holdings. Currently he is an independent director of Singapore Press Holdings, United Overseas Bank and Yeo Hiap Seng Ltd while running a private consultancy in development economics.

Dr Stephen Riady is President of The Lippo Group of Companies with US$8 billion in assets. Among his many directorships, he is Executive Director of Overseas Union Enterprise Limited and Auric Pacific Group Limited. He graduated from the University of Southern California, and holds a Master’s Degree of Business Administration from Golden Gate University, USA, an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration from Napier University, UK, and an Honorary University Fellowship from Hong Kong Baptist University.

The 5th CEO Forum on Christian CEOs In A Corrupt Environment with Mr Eddy Chieng and Dr Chatree Duangnet will be held on May 23, 2009, at The Fullerton Hotel, Singapore. For more information, please go to www.leadership.com.sg/ECF_Upcoming.html.