Disciple Leadership

 

Disciple Leadership was the focus of this week’s coursework in Intro to Entrepreneurship. For me personally, this means leading the way Jesus did. We read a series of talks and essays written by different religious and entrepreneurial leaders and these are some of my takeaways:

Kim B. Clark, former President of Brigham Young University – Idaho said there are 3 principles in “Leadership with a small L”. He focuses on being a servant leader, not unlike how the Savior led. The three principles are:

1.       Lead by example

2.       Lead with vision

3.       Lead with love.

He quoted this scripture which echoes the list above: 

“And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:27-28)

Guy Kawasaki, a Silicon Valley marketing guru, author and venture capitalist emphasizes servant leadership from a more secular perspective, but the principles are the same. He focuses on the quality of Trustworthiness. He encourages his audience to be “the first to trust.” To me this is similar to Clark’s “lead by example.” His premise is that if you trust others first, they are more likely to trust you. He gives the example that Amazon will sell you a Kindle book and you can return it in 5 days with no questions asked. It would be easy for someone to read a book within this time frame, but Amazon doesn’t grill you about returning the book – they just accept it.

Kawasaki also encourages his audience to think of networking as a way to consider “What can I do for them?” instead of “What can they do for me?” This could coincide with Clark’s principle of leading with love. Putting others first is a way to show our love and respect for others, like the Savior did.

Kawasaki then discusses the difference between “Eaters and Bakers.” Eaters look at a pie and want to eat as much of the pie as they can. The look at the pie as something to win or lose, and they want to be the winners. Bakers, on the other hand, say “I want to make lots of pies and bigger pies – how can I do that?” They want everyone to have some of the pie. Kawasaki asserts that most trustworthy entrepreneurs are bakers, not eaters. This idea correlates to Clark’s principle of leading with vision.

I think a lot of the world’s problems could be solved if humans were able to tamp down their egos and adopt a Servant Leader approach. I’m really grateful for a program that is emphasizing these kinds of values.