Most people think that you lead from the front or the top. But author John C. Maxwell wrote a whole book on leading from the middle. A leader is someone who sees a need, sets a plan to meet it and achieves his or her goals by serving others. Leadership, therefore, is not a position—it is an action. “Leader” is not a title, but a position of servitude.
A servant leader is a person who serves others. If you are not serving, then you are not a leader. Leadership isn’t a pyramid with the leader at the top. It’s an inverted pyramid with the strength being the point upon which others are built up. Again, if I am not serving you, I am not a leader. Leadership is serving others so that they achieve the communal goals set forth by the group.
A desire to lead started early
Growing up, I wanted to be a leader, but I didn’t know how to get people to follow me. I was the runt of the litter so to speak. I was bullied and always the last one picked to be on a team in school. I wanted to be smarter, so I stayed after school and asked my teacher for extra help with math. I voluntarily went to summer school. I was not asked to the prom, so I asked a friend of mine who had graduated two years earlier to be my date.
When I graduated from college, I had no idea how to write a good résumé nor did I have a mentor who could help me get my foot in the door—any door. But I did have eight years of important experience—public speaking in high school and speech and debate in college, along with competing in the Lions Speakers Contest. I had strong research skills and good people skills. I wanted to succeed and had to look at my situation as an obstacle or an opportunity to self-educate. I had a degree in communication in speech writing. Now what could I do with it? I went to a small Christian college that didn’t assist with internships or career planning.
Learning how to lead from the ground up
I began applying with temporary placement agencies and quickly discovered the “first in, first out” rule. There was always someone new to give the latest assignment to, so I learned to show up early and brought candy for the office staff. I would work on an assignment and ask my colleagues to request me again for any future needs. I would lead other short-term workers to achieve a deadline, and a project that was scheduled to take a week would take three days. I did not realize at the time that, by serving others, I was developing leadership skills.
One day, while serving in ministry, I was asked if I wanted to lead the ministry. The leader was burning out and didn’t want to do it any longer. I was shocked. She said, “You always show up early and are willing to do whatever I ask. You are the type of leader this service needs.” I ended up serving as a hospitality ministry leader for eight years. I always let my teams know: I am here to serve you as you serve others. I won’t ask you to do anything I wouldn’t do.
My local Lions club was the perfect fit!
Years later, after a volunteer history that spanned 20 years, I met a member of the Encinitas Lions Club. I shared with her how I competed in the Lions Speakers Contest while in high school. She invited me to the club’s upcoming luncheon. During the lunch, I was asked to be a judge in the upcoming speakers contest, and I said “yes.” After I served as a judge, I was invited to the following luncheon as a thank you. During the thank you luncheon, I was invited to join and have been a member ever since.
My first year in the club, I was asked to be the membership chair. “What?” I exclaimed! I had just joined, but they reassured me by saying, “Don’t worry, we will help you.” I reflected on my childhood and my sadness by always feeling like I was not “good enough.” I smile now because, as a leader, I look for the small opportunities to help. I look for the quiet person who is often overlooked and ask how I can help him or her. Leadership is not a position of “standing tall” importance. It is a position of kneeling down washing feet.
Joining the Encinitas Lions Club elevated my love of volunteering from being a “hands-on-deck” community volunteer and faith-based project manager to becoming a board member for my club. I’m enhancing my understanding of organizational budgeting, building club partnerships with local businesses and expanding the club’s outreach to area high schools to start our Leo clubs.
Servant leadership is a desire to learn, grow, share and improve in order to help make people’s lives better. Lions teach the next generation by mentorship and example. These life skills are the foundation of love in action.
Our annual Blind Surf event is one of my favorite events. Twenty-three years ago, our founding president realized that we live in a surf culture and that if we could teach those who are visually impaired how to surf, it would give them a confidence, self-awareness and a strong sense of what they were capable of achieving. My Lions club reached out to a local surf club that ran surf camps. They researched and invented techniques to teach those who could not see how to feel the wave and ride it!
Helping others to help people
I come from a love of theater and public speaking. I now chair our club-level National Speaker’s event and Peace Poster Contest. I spent eight years volunteering and working with professional theater companies and an art gallery. In 2018, I revived our middle school Peace Poster Contest at the club level in addition to assisting the district chair in reaching out to other middle schools in other cities. The 2019 Public Speaker’s contest is my favorite project, and I am very proud to be its chair.
I wanted so much to be a leader as a young person, but now I’m glad I wasn’t. I would have ended up believing that leadership meant ruling from the top of the heap. Learning that “Leadership” with a capital “L” is a position of service, I know that I don’t have success, we have success. I always ask those whom I have served not to pay me back, but to pay it forward. When someone needs help, do it with the same joy I showed when I served them.
I still volunteer within the theater community, through my church and for social and political causes. I take each tool I forge in every area of my life and ask how I can use it to serve someone else. I have been an employment advocate working with unions, and I have mentored young people, organized special event catering and knocked on doors to get out the vote!
Sitting on the board of the Encinitas Lions Club has been a privilege and an honor. All I ever ask of my senior board members is to please teach me. I was told that our club is special in that everyone has a passion project that the club supports. I love public relations and helping people help people. I have found a place where my passions, gifts and life lessons serve me as I continue to serve others.
Enhance your leadership skills today with Lions’ many leadership development opportunities for club leaders!
Lion Rachel White is a member of the Encinitas Lions Club in California, USA.
