day 192: The Upside Down Pyramid

Back in the early 1990's there was a lot of talk about how companies that really understood their employees would be thinking differently about the organization charts of their companies What they would do is invert the traditional organizational pyramid with the CEO upside down so that the front-line employee would be at the top of the pyramid, not the bottom. It was a visual way of trying to show that they wanted the front-line employee to feel like they were all there for them. Companies started renaming their headquarters into "service centers" or "support centers" with the idea that the senior executives and the people in headquarters were there to serve and support everyone else. Those ideas hung around for awhile but now we hear less about them. The principle was right though. If you are manager, you are there to support and serve the needs of those who work for you, not the other way around. Those who think that they are the boss to have others serve them find out sooner or later that they aren't very good bosses. Servant leadership is about knowing who is really doing the work and being there for them. There is no better example that the leader who served others first than our Lord. We read in Mark; "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many." The thought for today as you go to work is how are you serving others? Are you looking at the needs of the people on your team and in your organization and trying to figure out how you can best provide service to them? Or, are you waiting for others to serve you? I think we all know the right answer. See if you can't turn the pyramid upside down today and take a different vantage point and become the leader or team member who serves others. You may find that it is a much better view from that vantage point.

Reference: Mark 10:45 (New Living Testament)