The IMPACT Show
The IMPACT Show is where leadership meets legacy. Each episode unpacks the stories, strategies, and insights of visionaries who are shaping industries, communities, and futures. Whether you're a business leader, entrepreneur, or changemaker, this podcast offers real conversations with real impact—designed to inspire, challenge, and equip you to leave a lasting mark. Tune in and start building your legacy today.
The IMPACT Show
The Mandate of Servanthood: Leading with a Servant’s Heart
What does it truly mean to serve others? In this episode of IMPACT Podcast, hosts Jeremy Melton, Daniel Brown, and Maddie Atkinson dive into one of the most powerful leadership principles—servanthood.
From honoring others before ourselves to choosing ethics over personal gain, we break down the fundamentals of servant leadership and discuss how embracing a servant’s heart can transform not just leadership but everyday life. We also revisit key takeaways from last week’s episode with Pastor Danny Harrell, including the powerful message: "Lead with grace, land with truth."
We explore:
✅ How society has distorted the meaning of servanthood
✅ The role of humility in true leadership
✅ The impact of servant leadership in business, family, and community
✅ A real-life example of leadership in action—and how it changed someone’s perspective
We even take a moment to reflect on Jesus washing the feet of His disciples—one of the most profound acts of servanthood in history. And we ask: What does washing feet look like in today’s world?
Whether you’re leading a company, a team, or simply trying to be a better human, this episode challenges you to embrace serving others as the key to true leadership.
🔹 What kind of IMPACT are YOU making in the world? Join the conversation!
🎧 Listen now and let’s grow together.
Welcome back to Impact Podcast. My name is Jeremy Melton, and I'm your host, along with Daniel and Maddie. And what kind of impact are we making on the world that we live in? That's what we're going to talk about today. This is episode number 11, and today we're going to discuss the mandate of servanthood, which I was telling Daniel a while ago is going to be my favorite. It is very likely my favorite talk that we will do. I'm so excited about this one. So we're going to get started. Last week we met with Danny Harrell. Y'all, that was great. Our pastor. Yeah. So let's do some takeaways. And I have to start because if not, you might steal my thunder here. Okay. He said, lead with grace and land with truth. That was one of the best things that I heard him say. I mean, look, he said a lot of good stuff, but that stuck with me, and I don't know why. Say it again. Lead with grace, land with truth. And I thought, wow, that is the embodiment. Anyway, y'all go. Daniel, what was your takeaway?
SPEAKER_01:And this is an excuse I was producing and not as engaged as everyone else. But just really having Danny here and having him communicate with us, he's just so down to earth. He is so relatable. He is so just easy to talk with. I actually ran into him. Uh, since then and just so approachable and just regular old guy, just a regular old guy, regular old dude. And, uh, yeah, he was, he was fantastic. It was great to have
SPEAKER_02:him. Maddie.
SPEAKER_00:Um, I thought it was really cool that he was, he gave us the same quote that Nick, I think did. Was it Nick? One of our previous guests was, um, nobody cares what you know until they know what you, that you care. Um, And I think that was my key takeaway from Nick's episode, and I just think that it was reinforced with Danny. But then also kind of not that I was intimidated by having Danny on the show, but I think I've just completely changed from meeting Danny, then having him on the show last week, and then to today. I mean, he's... really opened up my eyes and it's helped my family tremendously and it's been great.
SPEAKER_02:Good. Well, another thing that he said and kind of echoes what Danny's talking about. He said several times, he said, just be real. Like there's not a lot of fake in Danny, right? So he, he's just being real. And that's what he says. Just be real. Like there's nothing to hide. We're all full of sin, you know? And so, um, that was one of the things, and I thought that was great. Um, But it was cool to have him on the show. So anyway, before I start this week, I was going to go ahead and roll, but I said I wanted to share something. And I think I shared with y'all personally, individually, but I'm not going to call out any names. But I do want to highlight something that last week happened. And y'all remember when I called y'all and told you that I had someone call and tell me that... I'm not going to give any names, but several weeks ago, I had a guy call me and... was using me as a soundboard and he was complaining about an employee at his job and the employee was not listening and it was a subordinate employee and this guy was a leader. And the leader told me that, you know, I asked the question, you know, again, he was being soundboard, right? But I asked the question of, did you communicate clearly? And the answer was, yeah. Oh yeah. And I was like, well, if you feel like you've communicated clearly, well, then maybe you do have a right to have the conversation, right? The conflict. And I said, but as a leader, your responsibility is to make sure you communicate clearly. And they said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, our podcast was aired and they have been listening and following and they listened to one of our, one of the ones that we've already produced. I don't know which one.
SPEAKER_01:It had to be episode three with the mandates.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And, and Basically, he called me two weeks later and he's like, dude, I just want you to know that I was wrong. In fact, I did not communicate clearly. After listening to your podcast, I feel like I owe an apology. I was like, you owe me an apology. You owe the employee an apology, right? Anyway, it was very cool to see that, hey, look, this is working. People that are following on this journey with us are going to use this information to become a better human being. a better leader. And then there were so many other people that just called me and encouraged me over the last couple weeks, and it just gave me some more fuel for this show. So I want to say that. And to the listeners, genuinely, if you go back and listen to these and you implement them, you will find yourself being a better human being. Right?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:I've shared that with several people. I'm like, yeah, it's about leadership and leadership's like, but it's just human stuff. It's just like treat people better. The golden rule. Be a human. Be a good one. Go be a good human.
SPEAKER_02:Anyways, so back to anything, any comments on any of that? Y'all ready to rock?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, I've had a lot of people reach out too. I spent a couple of hours yesterday with some people and who one of them brought it up, you know, brought the podcast up and, um, and we all got to talking about it and yeah, hopefully we have a few more listeners today.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. I think, I think we're going to build some, some steam here. Um, especially as we get into some of these deep dives, which we're going to do today. Um, uh, I, I, I would just hope and pray that more than a million people hear this very, uh, discussion that we're about to have because it is life changing. So, um, The mandate today is servanthood, the state of being a servant. That's what I call it. So what is a servant? Let me tell you. I'll just say the definition. Servant is a person who performs duties for others, especially a person employed in a house or domestic duties as a personal attendant. But the main thing you should hear is a person who performs duties for others. Okay, so... Society today, in my opinion, has stained the Word. When you hear servant, again, society stained it. But it's not a bad word. It's not a bad thing. In fact, it is the most powerful thing that you can do. And that's in our nature. God created us that way. And I believe that in serving, that is where you find life, find fulfillment in life. And so... When you're serving, you will be happier. When you're not serving, you will be less happy. And we're not about being happy on the show. I'm just saying that those two go together. And there's no way around that. And no one could ever tell me otherwise. But serving others is the ticket to life. And so we should seek to serve. So, Maddie, I'll put you on the spot. What are your first thoughts when you hear the word servant? Servant.
SPEAKER_00:Um, I'm very excited about this episode because I am the person in the world who thinks of it in a negative ish way. Yeah. Like I've not your servant, you know, like when my kids are like, yeah, like, I mean, mom, will you go in my room? No, you've got, I'm not your servant, you know? Um, so I definitely have more of a negative, not a negative. I mean, I understand serving people, um, It's totally different than how I just used an example. But looking at servant as a different way than– or in a different way than how I've normally always looked at it, I'm excited to know. I'm excited to learn today.
SPEAKER_02:Good. Dee?
SPEAKER_01:Well, it jumps back for me because we've talked about– we've had servant leaders. We've been talking to servant leaders, and it's all about– being willing to do whatever you're asking someone else to do and not asking someone to do something that you're not willing to do. And that's the servant leader. I think Tyler, like we just hit Tyler with that and, and just in serving so natural to me. I mean, it's just what, what, I mean, I was, I was a server in my restaurant days and that was, I excelled at that just because of my personality traits and who I am. But that stuck with me in every business venture that I've gone into and with my kids and relationships. And I mean, yeah, I serve. I serve. And I've never thought about it like that, but I understand that it does have like a negative. But no, I want to serve. That's who I want to be. Just naturally.
SPEAKER_02:It does have a negative connotation, like she said. And look, let's just be real. Honestly, a lot of women... feel that way. Okay. I mean, cause look again, society has, and I'm not getting into the male female stuff here today cause we're not talking about that, but society has taught women, you know, you're not going to serve man and you're going to, you know, and there's, and it also society teaches men the same thing, but at the end of the day, it is our sinful flesh that desires to serve ourself. Okay. And so, um, God delivers us from that, despite whatever you may hear. You must be delivered from yourself, and that is where you find life, okay? And so that's why this is my favorite. But we're going to get started. So either way, we can all agree that society would have us believe that we don't need to serve anybody, right? They kind of just do for you, and that's... counterproductive in leadership, period. I mean, when we're talking about, you know, desiring to serve only comes when the desire to lead for what it actually is comes into play. And so when you fully embrace the position of leadership, fully embrace it, that is when you understand what it means to serve and what the fruit of that looks like. Now, we're talking about the endowment of leadership, not the position of it, because a lot of times when we talk about the position of leadership, you start thinking about the boss. Again, we're not talking about that. We're talking about a leader, someone that leads, so it doesn't have to be a boss. But The leader's greatest asset is, in fact, what? Say I'm a leader. What is my greatest asset as a leader in order to hold my position, in order to hold my influence? My greatest asset is my people. That's right. I was like,
SPEAKER_00:is this a trick question? No, no,
SPEAKER_02:no. So as a leader, their greatest asset is their people. Right. Because without that, they're no longer leading. Okay, so makes sense? All right. So when leaders come under their people and they acknowledge how great that asset is, that is when they begin to understand what it means to serve. Okay? You heard me say when they come under their people. How often do you hear leaders, bosses, people in position of leadership coming under their people? Very seldom. Okay. It's funny when I draw out the, you know, you have an org chart at a company. So you have a hundred million dollar business. You got an org chart. You got a CEO, CFO. You got all the people and you got all the teams. Well, one time I went into a facility, you know, typically when you draw those out, it's a tree. Boss at the top, all the way down at the bottom are all the worker bees, right? Well, I went into a facility one time and that chart was turned upside down. And I said, tell me about that right there. He said, well, and it was the CEO. He said, well, I'm the CEO. That's me at the bottom. I support those people. Those people support those people. That's how we look at leadership here. And the culture there was amazing. I love it. Look, at the end of the day, that dude was a servant leader. And so, again, the leader's greatest asset is his or her people. And When leaders come under their people and hold them up and esteem them for who they are, then you learn what serving is. Y'all remember Tyler? He came week five, several weeks back. I taught a class one time at HVH, the company that I work for. I taught a class on leadership. I was actually teaching these mandates. This was like two years ago. And we got to this class, and I thought to myself, Tyler's one of the best servant leaders I ever had. I'm going to have him come in and teach. So he came in and taught on servant leadership at HVH. He got up in front of the people and led a class. And so some of today, what I'm going to talk about is stuff that I'm stealing from him. So I'm letting him know. I called him last night. I was like, bro, just so you know, I'm taking this stuff from you. He's like, no, it's good. But some of the things that he said, he had made his own fundamentals. of servant leadership. And so we're about to learn those. So get your pen out. Take some notes. Number one, and this was directly from Tyler. I stole it. He gets the credit. Number one was honor others, but for yourself. Number two, and we're going to go back over these. Inspire vision. Number three, choose ethics. Number four, empower others. Number five, Privileged people. We'll talk about that in a minute. Number six, balance, focus with flexibility. And number seven was serve with humility. And we're going to spend just a minute talking about Tyler, and then we've got some other stuff. But one of the things he said during that time that really stuck out was being a servant leader is quite simple. And I was like, well, just tell me how simple it is, bro. It's simple yet profound. And he said, no, it's not complicated. I'll never forget. It's not complicated. And I was like, you can say that, bro, but it's not easy. It's not complicated, but it's not easy. And so it's not easy because of what it takes, and it is complete sacrifice. And so we're going to talk about that. Tyler said, I've got some quotes in here, find the balance between the mission and what is best for the people. We as leaders must believe that we incur a debt of as we take a leadership role within an organization. That debt is a debt to take care of our people. He quoted this. It's pretty good stuff. We need to post it on our page.
SPEAKER_00:I was about to say.
SPEAKER_02:We as leaders must believe that we incur a debt. As a leader, when you accept a role, if you get asked to lead something, you accept responsibility to lead it well. And you accept the responsibility to be in debt to those people, period. If you don't look at it that way, then you don't deserve the position to lead. So if someone comes to you and says, Hey, man, I got this thing going on. I need you to lead it. And you say, Yeah, great. Oh, yeah, I'll do it. But you don't take it seriously. Then you're directly responsible for not leading well. If you don't look at it as if you have a debt to those people, And so that's some strong stuff that Tyler had put pen to paper on. He said leadership goes beyond the job. We have an opportunity for impact, positive or negative. He wrote this two years ago. Yeah, yeah,
SPEAKER_01:yeah.
SPEAKER_02:He wrote this two years ago, and I went back and got it because I'd kept it. Leadership goes beyond the job. We have an opportunity for impact, positive or negative, and this can really change someone's trajectory in life. Strong stuff. All right. So now that we're done with his quotes, anything on that? Did that string a cool word, struck a cool word or anything? Y'all good?
SPEAKER_00:Positive or negative.
SPEAKER_02:Positive or negative.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean that, you know, if you're a leader, everything that you do, positive or negative, is going to impact the people underneath you, the people watching you.
SPEAKER_02:Good or bad.
SPEAKER_00:Good or bad. Doesn't matter. And that's a, it's a weird way to think of it because in my head, I think of a leader, you know, we, we have very few leaders that have every single one of these mandates, you know, like we were like, Oh, but we're still trying, you know, trying to become and striving to become this better leader. But you also have to think, yeah. Okay. So I'm doing all of this positive stuff, but if there's negative things that you're doing too, that's going to have an even bigger impact. I feel like 100.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I agree.
SPEAKER_00:That's what stuck out.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, positive or negative. That's good.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'm just over here thinking, Tyler, two years ago, are you giving him credit for coming up with the name of our podcast? Hey, whatever. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I
SPEAKER_02:went back and read this. Like I said, when it came time to do the serverhood, I was like, I got to go back and look at Tyler's PowerPoint. So I dug it up, and some of the notes that I had taken– And that, man, this stuff just hit me in the mouth. It's some real good stuff right there. So what I want to do, we're just going to talk through the seven fundamentals, okay? And then I've got something else I want to share that's really, really, really, really good. But honor others. Okay, so the first fundamental was to honor others before yourself. Let's talk about that for a minute. So how do you, first of all, how do you honor someone? Like, if I told you that I'm bringing somebody in two weeks, man, an honorable individual, and we should show them honor,
SPEAKER_01:how do you do that? It's kind of tricky.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:How do we show them? How do
SPEAKER_02:you show someone honor?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I'm going to give them like a firm handshake. Yeah. Firm handshake, eye contact. Yeah. Is that weird? No. Is that the end? I don't know. I don't know. It's good. So when
SPEAKER_02:I think about that, I think about opening the door for someone. Yep. Okay. Not rolling a rug out, but pulling their chair out. Uh-huh. Serving them coffee. Uh-huh. That's how you honor someone, right? So you... Right, right. Where's my coffee today? But look, you don't understand what that does to someone. And especially... when you do it without an ill motive, when you just do it. Maddie, I don't want to call you out on this, but does Ruben do things to you and Daniel, same thing? But do we honor people? I mean, do you show your husband honor, Maddie?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So...
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think where I was a little confused just a minute ago because you said an honorable person was coming to our podcast, just say. How do we honor them? I feel like this is different because you may have employees or whoever in your life who may not be honorable people but still deserve honor.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you have to do it. You have to give it to them, whether they deserve it or not. It's unmerited, by the
SPEAKER_00:way. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That's what a leader does. So a lot of people, if I told you that Donald Trump was coming over, everybody would, would, would honor him.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Well, not everyone, but most people
SPEAKER_00:around here. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But an honorable individual, most people show honor to, but someone that's not even, that's not honorable, someone that's not, do you still show them honor? And the leader does. That's what we're, where I'm going. So I'll tell you this. And I, Look, my wife is not always the... I'm not always the greatest person to my wife. I'm not. We get it sideways. I have found that if I will continue to honor her despite however she's acting, it's much better for me. But it's not easy. And so that's why I told Tyler, it's not complicated, but it's not easy. So it's two different things. But In the end, the leader shows honor to everybody before himself. So that's a way to have servant leadership. That's just one of the fundamentals. And so when you fully embrace that, like literally showing up with every person around you, the people that you lead, and this includes your spouse, And obviously, Ruben is the leader of your home, should be. And so he should be honoring you. And that's just the way it is. That's one of the things that's necessary. So number two, inspire vision before setting the course. This is from Tyler here. Inspire vision. What does that make you think about?
SPEAKER_00:Forward thinking.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Just having a goal, sharing the goal. Hype. Hype, man. Once you have the goal, how are you delivering the message that this is how we're getting to the goal?
SPEAKER_02:Right. So when you inspire vision, you tell the team where we're going, right? And it says before setting the course. So before you start. So you don't go rally the troops and then start trying to cast vision, right? You cast the vision. What I gathered from this, and Tyler is not here to speak, so I'm just going to take it because he's not here to talk about it. But when I hear this, I'm thinking, inspire the vision, which means before you go. So I owe it to my team to prepare myself. What is the vision? Make it clear to me. And then go cast it to them. And then go. Right? And if I don't do that, again, then I'm not... doing what I need to do to be a servant leader. And you'll notice all of these things go back to what's good for them. Always good for them. That's what a servant leader is focused on is them. I'm for them, right? I was part of a men's group years ago, and the men's group was called I'm for You. And then I've seen bracelets going around where it says I'm for them. But number three, was choose ethics over profit or gain. Now, you could use profit, but then you might think about monetary things, but it's just gain. I think I added that to Tyler's thing. Choose ethics over profit or gain, which means what?
SPEAKER_00:Treating your people right over... I think of monetary, over profit or gain or growth or any... Anything. Any, any form of game.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Any form of game.
SPEAKER_01:So, I mean, I just think like, don't sell out your guys. I mean that, that simple. Don't sell them out for you. Move yourself forward. Whether that be a promotion or, you know, just the glory, you know, don't keep it for yourself.
SPEAKER_02:When you talk about choosing ethics and you remember Tyler's of Italian chief at Rockdale fire. Oh, maybe I shouldn't have said that, but yeah. Um, He said that oftentimes there's decisions that we face where we have to choose ethical decisions. And that's obviously ethical decisions are for the people. You have to do the right thing by the people before the money.
SPEAKER_00:For yourself, too.
SPEAKER_02:Or the department. And that's counterintuitive because you heard that you go to work. And you reach a situation where you have to compromise your people for an incentive or something that the company wants you to do. The company wants to meet X goal, right? The goal's over here. The company wants you to meet that. And here's what you have to do to get there. And along the way, you have to step on a person to get there. No, you don't step on a person to get there. You stop. You lift that person up and bring them with you, right? And you don't hear– that's not commonly taught today. I'm just– it's not. But the true leader embraces that. And so that is very hard to find. And so those people that embrace that. I
SPEAKER_00:also think that like a true leader, this one's hard. I mean, because especially if you're put in a position where you have to– or you're given– the compromise or you have to step on the person or whatever, it's scary.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So it's like you've got to be brave.
SPEAKER_02:Courage.
SPEAKER_00:And, you know, know that ethically you're choosing not to step on this person, which might get you into trouble or it might get you, you know, whatever personally, you know, less money or whatever it might be. You could lose
SPEAKER_02:your job. You could lose money. Absolutely. And let me tell you something. This is the raw truth. Mm-hmm. A strong leader absolutely comes to these obstacles all the time. I asked Danny last week, I said, Danny, has there ever been a time in your ministry where you had to compromise anything along the way and it was a setback? And I think he went through a couple things. But in business, and not always in church, because most of the time church people do follow by the ethical way. But in business, when you ask a business leader if he's ever compromised his convictions, he's been challenged on it more than once, a bunch of times, most likely. I mean, I've been challenged on it, and I choose to plant my feet, and that gets me in trouble. But that's the way it was, just the way it is. And so when the leader does not choose ethics, choose— The right thing to do over the game, it's noticed. And that leader loses capital. Mm-hmm. Okay?
SPEAKER_01:That's right.
SPEAKER_02:Every single time. And he doesn't even realize it, but he's lost it. And if the people that are under him are smart enough, they'll seek it out. And he loses credibility. And he takes it a long time to get it back.
SPEAKER_00:He never can compromise. These are really hard. really great fundamentals because there are things that, um, they're not, you don't see them as soon as it happens. Right. So it's like, you know, honor others before yourself. Okay. You can do that. It's going to gradually change. You know, it's gonna, it's not just like a, Oh, well I honored this person, you know, and it's now I'm this great leader. It is a gradual thing. Inspire the vision before setting the course and choosing ethics over, uh, Profit or gain. I mean, if you do it one time, it's a habit. That's right. You've got to do it all the time.
SPEAKER_02:That's good. So number four was empower others before personal gain.
SPEAKER_00:This is my favorite.
SPEAKER_02:That's a good one. Tell me about it. What do you think?
SPEAKER_00:Because I think when I empower others, I love lifting other people up. I think it's one of my favorite things to do, whether it's in my personal life or at work. I love being able to just... What do you think? We have this thing at work where we ask our employees, what do you think?
SPEAKER_02:That's good.
SPEAKER_00:It could be something totally random, but you're giving them some sort of sense of belonging, that they're helping you shape a decision. And I love that. But I think that empowering others before my personal gain, I think empowering others... is my personal gain.
SPEAKER_02:100.
SPEAKER_00:You know, like I just think that when you do it or when I do it personally, I, I'm, it makes me happy. Yeah. You know, so maybe that is, I mean,
SPEAKER_02:maybe that's your game, but that's not your, your, that's not the goal. Your goal is to empower them. Right. And the fruit of that is that you have in fact gained. Yeah. Well, you've gained leadership capital, right? Well, for one, um, But, yeah, empowering others is leadership. You can't lead without doing that because you can lead from position, but you can't lead from influence. And that, to be honest with you, is one of, I mean, again, that one is right in the middle of the lineup too, and it's necessary. You have to empower others. Number five is, and I had to call Tyler out on this one, privilege people. before tasks. I read that and I called him and I was like, bro, what are you talking about privileged people? I'll look this up. I don't, it's not clicking. And he said, well, and he tried to explain it to me. Essentially put the people first. Okay. Before the task. So, and he, he likened it to a task at work where you got to get it done. You got a certain amount of time to do it. And, you know, essentially keep the people first during the task, no matter how dangerous it is. And he was likening it to a fire. Say you have a dangerous task to do, and everyone acknowledges that it's dangerous. But you put the people first in the task, even though it's dangerous, and then you have to keep them as the central effort despite the danger around it. And, you know, when you're thinking about business, I mean, it could be a job that you're doing that happens to be... I mean, again, there's a hundred ways to skin the cat here, but the point was the paramount issue is to keep the people first. And no matter what you're doing, and if you can do that with every... If that's your central unified goal, keep the people first, then... everything else falls into place in its time, right? And maybe not when you want it to or when you've been told it has to, but you can never, a leader, a leader, a true great leader can never sacrifice his people for the task. Never. No matter what.
SPEAKER_01:It makes me think of like, when you do that, it might even lead to failure. 100%. We're not focused on the task. We're focused on the people and that might turn to failure, but...
SPEAKER_02:But your people are good.
SPEAKER_01:People are good.
SPEAKER_02:And they trust you because of that. And again, that's one of those things that normal day-to-day people in your flesh, when not being intentional on these things, you will sacrifice that because you want to get it done. And the servant leader, the true great servant leader does not do that. It's a no-no. If it's not good for the people, it's not good for the business. It's not good for the department. It's not good for the company. If it's not good for the people, we don't do it. Here, that's where you've got to plant your feet. And that's what's hard. Because trust me, I know from experience that this, this one right here, will hold you back in growth. Okay? It will hold you back in growth because... It's not progressive all the time, right? It's not progressive all the time. And this one right here will slow you down and get you left behind. I
SPEAKER_00:think that if you have your employees who are beneath you and you do empower them, you give them tasks, you're going to find that you're going to succeed. Because if they are... all in on it because they trust you and they love working for you. And there's just so much more that you'll get out of it than what I think is even expected by running a good business or whatever you want to.
SPEAKER_02:Number six was balance, focus with flexibility when making decisions. So as a leader, you're going to make a lot of decisions. And one of the things that you have to balance is being focused on the goal while being flexible for the people. Okay. So we are humans. And a lot of times, and a lot of times, you know, someone wants to iron fist and we're not, we're not budging from this. Well, the reality is, is we're dealing with people. And so you got to be flexible at the same time. So you want to maintain that. intentional focus on the goal that you have. But you also want to remember while being firm that you will have to be flexible. And that is a servant leader. There's
SPEAKER_00:more than one way to skin a cat.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:More hiccups, you
SPEAKER_02:know. Number seven was serve with humility above all. We're going to talk... Have we talked about humility? I
SPEAKER_00:think so.
SPEAKER_02:No. I don't think we have.
SPEAKER_01:Like a full...
SPEAKER_02:A full mandate study? No. No. I don't think so. No. I don't think so. No. I don't think so. But we'll get there if we haven't. And if we have, I need to go back and check my memory.
SPEAKER_01:If we can just recap real quick, we did ownership and then we did clarity. That's right. And this is number three, if I'm not mistaken.
SPEAKER_02:That's right. You're right. Yeah. I think you're right. Good memory, Dee. Yeah, I'm like... Thank you, sir. So we talked about humility, but it was just in the... Brief. Yeah, we were going over the 20 mandates.
SPEAKER_00:I just remember it because it's the hardest one.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so humility will be another one of my favorites after this one. This is my favorite, but...
SPEAKER_01:They're all going to be your favorites.
SPEAKER_00:I know, by the end of it, Jeremy's like, this one's my favorite. This one's my favorite. Okay. I love this one. This one's my favorite. Today. Serve
SPEAKER_02:with humility and... I remember Maddie saying, this is difficult. This is hard for me. You remember? And it's hard for everyone because it's not in our nature to be humble. It's just not. When we're operating in the flesh, it is not in our nature. Okay, so that's the seven fundamentals of servant leadership. And so, you know, take notes because those are things you want to be intentional about.
SPEAKER_00:We'll put the notes in the description too.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. Oh, boy. Maddie's getting down. I love it. We're starting to figure this thing out. Yeah, we're getting it figured
SPEAKER_00:out. We'll get it. We'll get it. Hopefully, hopefully by, you know, the end of it.
SPEAKER_02:So, I've got one more thing I want to do, and then we're going to wrap this, land the plane here, but anything y'all want to go over before I do? Good. So, if you're listening today and you think, well, you know, how can I be a servant leader? Well, first you can Follow the seven fundamentals that we just read. And you take everything you heard today and you can put it into practice. You can literally take those seven fundamentals and you could say, how can I honor people? And you could do what I said. You could open the door for them. You could serve them coffee. You can do a lot of things. How can I inspire vision? And again, write that down. And literally, you could write 10 ways you can do that with your team. And then you literally, like a checklist, you go through and grab those and you write it down. And you do it. And again, this is where the rubber meets the road, what I like to say. But I can't let us go without sharing this. And this is why it's my favorite part. I think about Jesus washing the defeat of His disciples. So you hear people say, well, Jesus was the greatest leader of them all. And then you'd think, well, then what I need to do is see what Jesus did. And so it leads me to where the ultimate pinnacle of serving another person, if you can just think about washing someone's feet. And so I went back and read it in the Bible this week, and I was like, wow. So, I mean, look, most people's feet are pretty gross, okay? Maybe not. Maybe everyone has pretty feet, but my feet ain't pretty, okay? And I know lots of dudes out there, their feet are not pretty, all right? But I thought about, well, what if I lined my people up on my team and I said, all right, guys, let's just sit down in chairs, put your feet in this bucket, and I'm about to wash your feet, okay? Number one, they would look at me like I was crazy.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, and number two, make sure I'm there with the camera when
SPEAKER_02:you do it. Look, bro, I'm serious. I thought to myself, could I do that? And it would be so difficult. And then to do it in front of an audience on a stage. Could you do it? And I thought to myself, that would define a servant leader. And so anyway, I actually want to read that. In the Bible, right now. Because some people have never heard it, and they need to. But I'm going to read it. It's John chapter 13, verse 5 through 20. And I just want to read it. So, it says, Then He poured water into the basin, talking about Jesus, and began to wash the disciples' feet. And to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. And so he came to Simon Peter and he said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? And Jesus answered and said to him, What I do, you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter. Peter said to him, Never shall you wash my feet. And Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, You have no part with Me. Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. And Jesus said to him, He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. For He knew the one who was betraying Him. For this reason He said, Not all of you are clean. And so when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and reclined at the table again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you're right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen, but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. And from now on, I'm telling you, before it comes to pass, So that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. And truly, truly, I say to you, He who receives whomever I send receives me. And he who receives me receives Him who sent me. So that's verse 5 through 20. And again, this is the picture of what it means to be a servant leader. Right here in the Word, right here in the Scripture, just picturing that to me was really, really, really good. But modeled by the greatest leader of all time, he considered himself, Jesus did, a servant of all, of all people. And so when given the honor of leading God's people, we have the responsibility to serve in this way. And so I want to go through this real quick. There's five things that stuck out to me. in that reading of passage. And I'm going to hit them right here. The number one thing that stuck out was in verse 8 where Peter said, Never shall you wash my feet. And Jesus told him this. He said, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. So the leader, because we're putting this into the context of a servant leader, the leader says, If I don't serve you, then you have no part with me. You just don't see that today, okay? But if I don't serve you, you have no part with me. That, to me, is very strong. And Peter, what did Peter say? Well, if that's the case, wash my hands, my feet, my head, wash me all over. And so when I read that, the first time I wept because Peter's saying, well, if that's the case, then wash me all over because I want to be I want to be fully with you, so just wear me out. Wash me all over. So that was the second thing that stuck out, was that Peter said, wash my whole body. Number three, in verse 15, he basically said that he gave us an example as we should do. So he told his disciples right there, I've given you an example. You do this. Now, how often... Look, maybe I'm just weird. But I bet you these people, these disciples, washed each other's feet. Because why? Because Jesus did it to them. And he told them to. He said, go and do as I've done to you with each other. And so my only guess is, if my leader exhibited that for me, and it was something that he did, and I watched him lead people, the way Jesus led, I would, this is what I need. I mean, you do what people teach you to do. They taught, he taught them to do this. So my guess is that maybe for the next hundred years, they did it. And at some point it died off. And, you know, do we need to go wash each other's feet? You know, I, yeah, but look, I've never seen people do it, but think about it, how powerful that is. Number four, A slave is not greater than his master. The one that's sent is not greater. He said that. So I put that in today's terms. An employee is equal to the boss, and the boss is equal to the employee. At least that's what Jesus said. I mean, never forget that. We are all the same, and we bleed the same red blood. And then number five, he said, you know these things in verse 17. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. He said that. So we know those things. Again, take the foot washing out for a minute. Just say that it's just an example that Jesus wanted us to follow. Again, did He really want you to wash feet? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. And we're not doing it. So go do it. Okay, what's it going to hurt? It can't hurt. But nonetheless, serve each other. Serve people. A leader today must serve his people. And if he's not serving his people, then he's not leading. That's just the way it is. At least not leading to the capacity that he could be. And so all the people that we've interviewed here the past three or four episodes, whatever, they've all exhibited and they've talked about servant leadership.
SPEAKER_00:That's their favorite type of leadership, I've realized. That's what they say.
SPEAKER_02:What
SPEAKER_00:type of leader are you? We haven't
SPEAKER_02:had anybody say any other thing. Maybe that's because of the type of leaders I'm bringing on. I'm drawn to those type of leaders. So we can look at that from 3,000 feet. I like to say pull up and look down. Maybe it's because of who I've invited. We'll continue to invite and I'm sure at some point we'll spice it up. But This is the greatest leadership attribute that there is. Because when you do this, when you serve other people, you're tickling heartstrings. And it's in your nature to be drawn to that. And so if you're a leader today and you're listening to this, find a way to serve your people, man. Because that's what matters. And that's your duty is to serve others. Your people. So anything to take away from that? It
SPEAKER_01:was beautiful. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:What do you think today's washing feet would be? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:That's good. Let's circle back on that. That's the meaningful question.
SPEAKER_00:Man, I'm full of them. I'll tell you that. I just sat here and I'm just thinking, like you keep talking about, well, maybe we should be washing each other's feet. And I'm like, surely there's something in today's world, like nowadays. Yeah. What is the equivalent? I don't know. To that. We need to think about that.
SPEAKER_01:Because whatever it is, I want to do it.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:I want to share something with you guys. There was this wedding that I went to probably about three years ago. And my buddy Matt Evans, just an amazing man, communicator, just good people. But him and his bride washed each other's feet. And I didn't know much about it, but I thought I was moved just automatically. I was
SPEAKER_00:like, that's amazing. I've been to a few
SPEAKER_01:weddings. Did you really? I'm with that. Bro, I've never seen it. It was just the most beautiful thing. Well, now you
SPEAKER_02:know where it comes
SPEAKER_01:from. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, which makes perfect sense knowing Matt. Like, it makes perfect sense. I love it.
SPEAKER_02:Well, kudos to Matt. Matt Evans, wherever you are, if you're listening. That's awesome. So, wash feet. I don't know what else to say. I'm lost for words. So, thank y'all for joining us. In closing, anybody ever needs anything and wants to chat, hit us up. message us on DM us or messages or call us or whatever.
SPEAKER_00:You, we have this new option on our podcast now where you can send us a text and it'll, it doesn't go to, it just is a generic number. So our numbers aren't published out there. It's just a, and we get a
SPEAKER_02:cool
SPEAKER_01:text message. Oh man,
SPEAKER_02:Maddie's
SPEAKER_00:doing it up. If you need a friend or to chat, just text us. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:I love it. All righty. We're signing off. This is Jeremy.
SPEAKER_00:Maddie.
SPEAKER_02:Danny. Thanks, guys. Love y'all. See y'all.
.png)
.png)
