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The mission of the soul is to help others. This is a different idea from just being a leader to gain power. Servant leadership teaches that you feel the most fulfilled when you help others grow. As such is the soul’s mission.
This mindset starts with putting others first. It doesn’t mean you ignore your own needs, but that you choose to help others. This changes your focus from yourself to others.
In daily life, this means asking a coworker, “How can I help you succeed?” instead of focusing solely on your own tasks. The soul years to connect with another, and it would be delighted to serve.
A true servant leader sees their job as helping others thrive, not just giving orders. This focus on the success of others gives you a deep feeling of purpose. It shows you that your work is about more than just a paycheck.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
The Mission of the Soul to Be Kind and Caring
To have a spiritual calling is to have a quiet voice inside you that guides you. Ondrejka’s book links this calling to being kind and caring. A servant leader shows kindness, gives healing, and is aware of others.
Kindness is about understanding how others feel. Being kind helps you see things from their point of view. This requires you to be a good listener. You need to hear not just what people say, but also what they might be feeling.
Healing means helping people improve their emotional well-being. It’s a way to help someone change for the better by creating a safe space for them to share their struggles. Being aware of yourself and others enables you to act with honesty. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses helps you lead better. Being aware of the group helps you understand how everyone works together. These are all tools for living a life with purpose.
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
The Call to Helping People Grow
The search for life’s meaning can be a long one. Servant leadership gives a clear path: help people grow. The book says everyone has value.
Thus, your role as a leader is to help them become “healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to become servants.”
This is about helping people grow, not just in their jobs. You see the good in people and help them reach their potential. This can mean mentoring someone or giving them new responsibilities. You give people a chance to lead, not just to get a job done, but to help them grow.
When you help others, you are also fulfilling your own purpose. The meaning you find in this work is not tied to a job title. It comes from the lasting positive impact you have on the lives of others.
This is a process of helping others that gives you a more profound sense of meaning.
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
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Being a Servant Leader
Servant leadership is a way of thinking where you put the needs and growth of others before your own. This is a mindset you can use every day.
To be a servant leader, you should listen carefully to what people say and try to understand their feelings and thoughts. This shows you care about them and builds trust.
It’s also important to know how your own actions affect others. Take time to think about yourself and ask for feedback to learn how to be better.
The Influence and Responsibility of Your Personal Destiny
Your personal destiny is the path you choose with your actions and your conviction.
In practicing servant leadership, the path involves influence and responsibility. Instead of using power to get things done, a servant leader influences people by inspiring them. This is a way of leading that respects others. It builds a shared goal and gets everyone on board. It shows you trust the people you lead.
Responsibility is about taking care of your organization or team for the good of all. This means you look at your role as a temporary caretaker of a group. You make choices that will help everyone in the long run. This focus on the greater good guides you to a destiny that helps the world, not just yourself.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
The Vision and Community of Your Inner Mission
Your inner mission is what motivates you every day.
Ondrejka’s SERVANT LEADERSHIP: Ethical, Engineering, and Effective highlights having a vision for the future and building a community.
To be a visionary is to learn from the past and plan for the future.
Having a vision helps a leader create a better future, and it also helps anyone to ground themselves in life.
Possessing a principled perspective is not about guessing what will happen someday, but about getting ready for its inevitability and working towards realizing it.
On the other hand, community building is about creating a sense of belonging and shared purpose with one another.
It’s about working together and trusting each other.
Having strong community support means helping members to be creative and flexible.
When you have a vision and build a strong community, your inner mission becomes a force for good. You are not just living for yourself; you are living for a bigger purpose.
This is the mission of the soul.
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…so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
To learn more about these ideas, consider reading the book that inspired them. You can find more information about SERVANT LEADERSHIP: Ethical, Engineering, and Effective, and buy it to start your journey.
