DAVE RAMSEY
I’ve always been a big fan of Dave Ramsey. When he spoke at a leadership conference I was part of a few years ago, I was fascinated by his thinking. He has a unique way of making complicated topics like finance simple and interesting. With his popularity, he certainly could think of himself as a big deal—successful people often are used to being served rather than serving. But that’s not the case with Dave. Why? Because he realizes, and will share in this essay, that with success comes the responsibility to serve. —KB
I’VE SPENT A lot of time thinking about what God’s done in my business over the past two decades. This thing has literally grown from a one-man show on a card table in my living room into a team of more than 550 superstars doing work that’s changing lives. It’s crazy! I always knew God was going to do some big things with our stuff, but the level of talent and commitment He’s brought alongside me over the past twenty years has totally blown my mind.
As I tried to put all those experiences into my book, EntreLeadership,1 and as I thought about all the stories that have led us to where we are, one concept kept coming to the surface as the key to our success: servant leadership. That mindset changes how you do just about everything.
Back at the start of my career, when I was a young hotshot looking to make my mark in business, I attended just about every leadership seminar that came to town. That’s something my parents taught me. Even back when I thought I knew everything—which is another way of saying young and stupid—I still soaked up information from everyone around. There was always something new to learn.
So when as an adult early in my career I came to know Jesus, I started checking out Christian leadership speakers and authors. I remember when I was sitting in one of those seminars, the guy on stage said something like, “The greatest leaders are always servant leaders.” My first reaction was You have got to be kidding me. If I wanted to be a servant, I’d go work for someone else. I want to be my own boss! Now that I get to teach and speak on leadership pretty often, I see the same reaction on other people’s faces. In corporate America, the gap between servant and leader is about the size of the Grand Canyon!
Here’s the problem. When some leaders hear servant, they think subservient. That is, they think servant leaders bow down to the whims of their teams. They mistakenly think that a servant leader only takes orders and acts like a doormat at the front door of the business—trampled on by everyone who walks in. That’s way off the mark, but it’s something I watch young leaders struggle with every time I teach on this topic.
I get so frustrated at the false notion that servant leaders are weak, timid figureheads with no power. Was Jesus timid when He went head to head with the pious religious leaders of the day? Was He weak when He drove the moneychangers out of the temple? No way! He served His people far more than anyone else ever has, but He always maintained His strength. The truth is, servant leaders are powerful. We are warriors for our people, and we act to defend the culture from anything that would tear it apart.
When I call out a salesperson who is only making half the calls he is supposed to make, I’m serving him, because his income will always be limited by his weak performance. When I immediately fire someone who was sexually inappropriate with a coworker, I’m serving that coworker and everyone else in the building by removing a cancer. When I enforce our strict no-gossip policy with a new team member, I’m serving them by helping them understand the environment that we all enjoy around our place.
When I lead a staff meeting, invite a great devotional speaker, help plan our annual Christmas party, or authorize a pay increase, I’m serving my team. When I do a month-long media tour to promote a new book or go through endless hours of meetings with the city trying to get building permits approved for new office space, I’m serving my team. Serving them as I lead them doesn’t really change what I’m doing; it changes how and why I’m doing it.
I remember the day this lesson really clicked with my son several years ago when he was still in high school. We had just arrived at our annual company picnic. When I say picnic, please don’t picture a traditional, corporate America, get-in-and-get-out kind of deal. This thing was huge. We rented out an entire park facility, and we had giant inflatable bounce houses, slides, zip lines and other games all over the place. There were kids running, screaming, and playing everywhere.
We’ve got a pretty young team, so we’ve got a lot of young families. For this particular picnic, that meant we had ninety-seven kids under the age of ten running around. As the president and CEO, I’ll admit it was pretty humbling walking across that park. As I felt that responsibility wash over me, I looked over at my son, Daniel, and realized this was a perfect opportunity to teach him what it means to be a servant leader.
I said, “Daniel, look across this field. What do you see?” He laughed and said he saw way too many little kids. I smiled and said, “Yeah, there are ninety-seven kids here under age ten that are the children of our team members. Do you know what that means?”
He shook his head. “Nope, but I bet you’re going to tell me.”
I said, “Those kids’ parents make a living, have a future, and those kids have a future partly because of how I act. If I misbehave in my personal life, if I fail in areas of integrity, if I screw up, it will mess up a ton of lives. As a servant leader, I understand that I am at least partially responsible for those little kids.”
He hung his head a little and said, “Dad, that much responsibility is kind of heavy.”
He was right. It is a heavy responsibility. But what I got to tell him that day was that he—even as a teenager—shared that responsibility with me. I explained that if he went out and acted crazy, he could impact those kids’ lives just as much as I could. If he went out and got drunk, got into a car accident, and killed someone, we’d get sued and some of those team members could end up losing their jobs. As my son, he gets to enjoy the benefits of our success, but he also shares in the responsibility of servant leadership. He needed to know, even as a teenager, that the decisions he makes and the actions he takes have an impact.
If there’s one big key to servant leadership, it’s pretty simple: put other people first. It kind of sounds like the Golden Rule, doesn’t it? Your team will share your values, so make sure you’re modeling what you want them to emulate. That means no executive perks and no ivory towers. Maybe it means eating lunch in the company break room every day and getting your own coffee every morning. If there’s an all-hands-on-deck emergency, make sure your hands are on deck too.
Show your team by your actions that leading is serving. Look for every opportunity to show them that, although you’re in charge, you’re all in this together.
Dave Ramsey (www.daveramsey.com) is a personal money management expert, a popular national radio personality, and bestselling author of several books including Financial Peace, The Total Money Makeover, and EntreLeadership. Ramsey Solutions provides biblically based common-sense education and empowerment that give hope to everyone in every walk of life. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than fourteen million listeners each week.
1. Dave Ramsey, EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches (New York: Howard Books, 2011).