Leadership Legacy Issues - Essay Example

The opening chapters of the book disclose various advances towards leadership, but insist that the leadership ought to be “transformational”. Because Jesus transforms, he should be our servant model. The book exposes the domains of the servant leader from a holistic perspective (heart, hands, head, and habits). As a leader, I would want to be remembered by the people in my church, at work, at home and in my community. Applying the four spheres of leadership, I will act in a manner that mimics the “transformational” leadership of Jesus Christ. I will highlight my points in the different paragraphs for better clarity (Blanchard & Hodges, 2005).

In the book Lead Like Jesus, Blanchard says that this is the most significant of all the four domains. According to Blanchard, it’s all about what motivates a leader (Blanchard & Hodges, 2005). As a servant leader, I will exhibit the Exalting God Only traits through confidence and leadership. My main motivation will be the urge to touch and transform the lives of the people I come across. I will be there not to serve myself, but the people I lead to their progression and not mine. Blanchard goes on to say that this is the place to start as a leader.

This domain mainly deals with a leader’s viewpoint, theories and beliefs about motivating and leading others. Since I intend to lead like Jesus, whose point of view was servant leadership, I too will conform to the same.  As a leader, I will set the destination and course on how to get where my subjects ought to be. For this reason, as described by Blanchard is the visionary role of a leader. A leader has to plan for the future and how to get there (Blanchard & Hodges, 2005). While setting my visions, I will personally see to it that everything is done using the right set of protocols. All things done to get to our preferred “destination” will be focused on serving, and not my pleasure.  I certainly will exhibit these two roles, as Jesus did an excellent job exemplifying both (Webb, 2007).

The authors of the book suggest that a servant leader becomes a performance coach: setting targets, scrutinizing performance, redirecting bad behaviour and praising improvements. As a leader, will set feasible targets for the future; observe performance while redirecting inappropriate behaviour and praise improvement. As a leader, my main motivation is “Transformation”, and I will act as a performance coach to teach others about living life the holistic way. All the time, Jesus was setting targets, reproaching bad behaviour and teaching people how to become better people (Webb, 2007). I intend to follow Jesus’ form of leadership, which was transformational. Leading like Jesus will contribute to my legacy.

This domain addresses the need to rejuvenate the daily commitments as a servant leader. Jesus used to pray in solitude, knew the will of God and fellowshipped with his intimate group (disciples). As a leader, I will constantly rejuvenate and refresh my commitments as a servant leader by praying hard, trusting God for guidance, and joining a cherished group of friends to exalt Jesus. I will encourage others to do the same, to create a “transformation” (Webb, 2007).

Not all these traits are strange to Jesus, since they are the ones that guided him from day to day. Not considering one’s beliefs, the one accuracy that remains is that Jesus is the best example ever of effective leadership. I as a leader will emulate Jesus so that “leading like Jesus” will make me leave a legacy. I intend to focus on transformational leadership, just as Jesus did. I will focus on transforming others to work and live in holistic ways. My intention as a leader is to lead by example to my subjects and maintain an application of the four spheres of leadership.