Loving is sacrificing and serving. Love is laying down one’s life for our fellow human beings. In the context of leadership, love is laying down our lives for those we serve as leaders, putting their interests first before our own. The greatest statement I’ve ever encountered on how to love comes from Jesus of Nazareth, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.” To Jesus, God was not simply an invisible person, God was life, and light, truth.
Notice that when Jesus talks about loving with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, he is talking about loving with all the fibers of one’s being. It is loving with the total being. Because leaders are servants, effective leaders serve with their entire beings. Leading is loving and loving is serving.
High-impact leaders lead with their entire being. They lead from within; from inside-out.
Notice that when I say, leading is loving, I simply mean that leading is an expression of love. It’s not the only way to love. We are all built to love. All of us are made for love and called to love. Those who love well use all their being to live out this call to love. Because we are created so differently, the way we love looks very different as we use our natural design and giftedness to influence the world around us.
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