In today’s society, we tend to be impressed by c-suite leaders with large organizations, big offices, and lots of employees. Obviously any business large or small can have a CEO, but there’s just something that seems more impressive about the executive of a large corporation with thousands of employees versus the leader of a small business with only a handful of employees.
But are size and scope really the most impressive characteristics of someone’s leadership? Is the measure of a leader’s greatness really the number of people who work under him or her?
Pastor John Hagee once said, “The measure of a man’s greatness is not the number of servants he has, but the number of people he serves.”
While “servants” is of course an antiquated term, and employees are not servants, I believe the concept still translates:
The measure of a leader’s greatness is not the number of people he or she leads, but the number of people he or she serves!
True, inspirational leadership is never focused on how many people are following and “serving” the leader, but instead on how the leader can best serve the people—both inside and outside of the organization.
On the one hand, while the senior executive of a huge corporation might appear to have much greater power and reach than the leader of a small organization, true greatness hinges not on size and scope, but on how well the leader serves his or her organization and those impacted by the organization.
So how about you, how is your serve? Don’t worry about what position you have or how many people might answer to you. Focus on how well you are serving others through your position, experience, skills, and passion. That is the true measure of greatness!
