Godly Leader Series: What it Means to be a Servant

In today's society we're often expected to be separate as a leader, to separate ourselves from those we lead so that they will respect and follow us but this is not what Jesus calls us to do. We start our new Godly Leader series by exploring how to be humble and have a servants heart when we take on a leadership role.

The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23: 11,12)

Cody Persinger joins Tyler and I today as we dive into how to embody the quiet power of servant leadership and use it to build your business.

Three Things You'll Learn

• Becoming a leader people want to follow doesn't happen overnight. We talk about how to build trust with those we lead.
• Holding people accountable for their missteps is part of leadership. The way you respond to other's failures can either strengthen their commitment to you or break it.
• It can be tough to figure out how to show up for our clients. There are practical ways that we can make an impact.

About our Guest

Cody Persinger is a team leader, investor and the owner of The Persinger Group. He is really focused on the values which exist in Keller Williams, which is God, family and business. He is passionate about serving and loving people. For more information,  follow @cspersinger25 on Instagram and connect with him on Facebook. 

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Transcript

Welcome back faithful agents. We are so glad that you've joined us once again for another episode of the faithful agent podcast. I've got with me today. The magnificent Cody person or we call him short shorts. He is back on the show. What's up short shorts, say hello, fans.
Appreciate your hey go.
Yeah, appreciate you. Well, we've gotten Tyler Wilson known around my house in my office as chiseled chin was up chisel.
What's up man and offensive one
office of one and myself Garrett, maroon, the loudmouth. We are glad that you have joined us once again. And we're going to be diving into a new series on what it means to be a godly leader. We're going to cover since this is the first episode of the series we're going to cover. What does it mean? How does a godly leader first a servant? How are they teachable, filled with the Spirit enthusiastic about their role a model of humility and forgiveness, loving to those they lead and ready to admit their failures in the areas they need growth. Today, we're going to, we're going to hopefully do our best to tackle the topic of what does it mean to be a godly leader who is first a servant using Matthew 2311. So we are excited to get into this topic with you all today. But first, let's do some Christian jokes. So t you were the only one that felt confident about your joke, man. So, you know, let's see if it's good.
I think it's because I lack confidence. Because anytime I say one, you're just blown away if it's any type of good, so there's no pressure on me. But this is one of my I like homophone jokes. So what's a miracle that can be done by a complainer? They can turn anything into wine.
That's funny. I'm still trying to remember what a homophone was. Right? Don't don't pull your UVA up educate me. I was a liberal arts school. Careful, buddy.
Don't let everybody behind the curtain too much on your intelligence level.
I'm pretty sure they know. You're the Sparwood of the group. Man Cody. Do you? Were you able to find what buddy?
Yeah, if it's okay. What animal could know what not trust?
Cheetah? No.
That's actually funny. That was good. Okay, all right. All right. That's good. Okay, so at Sunday school, the children were learning how, how? In the Bible, God created everything, including people. Little Johnny paid particular attention when the teacher told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam's ribs. Later that week, Johnny's Mommy found him lying on his bed like he was sick and said, Johnny, what's the matter? To which Johnny replied, I got a pain in my side. I think I'm gonna have a wife.
That's funny. That's awesome. So long as good. But
yeah, that was good. That was like we're taking it. Yeah. All right. Thanks. Hey, thanks, Tyler. Good mood today. That's That's fantastic. All right, so let's dive in. Let's dive into our scripture of the day. What does it mean to be a godly leader who is first? A servant? So T man, why don't you Why don't you read Matthew 2311? Why don't you go ahead and read 11 and 12? Yep, 11 2311 and 12,
the greatest among you shall be your servant, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
It's good. So give us the context for this, who says this tea? What's going on at the time? You know, just give us a little bit of context. That's that's a shorter passage.
Yeah, we're in the Gospel of Matthew, this is obviously wisdom coming from the mouth of Jesus as he teaches to crowds into his disciples. And so what I think is so important about this is it is obviously Jesus is known as King of kings, Lord of Lords. He is the greatest leader that the world has ever known, the most sacrificial leader that the world has ever known the embodiment of what true leadership looks like as he lays down his life, literally, for our salvation. And so for him to be speaking in this moment to tell them that when these disciples are going forth, and they're growing the kingdom and they're fulfilling the Great Commission, that the greatest of those to do that are not the ones who are trumpeting their own exploits, trumpeting their own successes, but humbling themselves to come into places and to serve. I mean, we have the image of Jesus washing feet in Scripture, we have so many images of him picking people up off the streets, meeting a woman at the well like just loving on the least of these, which is what we are always called to do when a lot of times the world is going to challenge us To be in a position of leadership to prop ourselves up, to create separation to establish a hierarchy, so that people will automatically listen and hear follow directions from us when that is just not even close to what Jesus embodies and teach us. So I love this scripture specifically. And it's, you know, his life is this embodied, of what it looks like to truly put others before yourself and to choose to humble ourselves to have a servant's heart, we use that I mean, the title of our podcast formerly was serving, not selling, Jesus was the greatest servant the world has ever known. But let's not forget that he's also a king. So if Jesus is the greatest king that the world has ever known, and the greatest servant the world has ever known, we can obviously do both of those things. And that's what we want to talk about today is what does that what does it look like to do both?
Yeah, I think that's good. And just to add on real quick to its were three in the book of Matthew are three chapters away from when they take Jesus and His death and His sacrifice starts the process, right where they come in, and they capture him, and they flog him, and all the things that happen right before Christ is crucified, are only three chapters away, I just find that fascinating. He's talking about being a servant, and he's about to, like you said, T. Show and live out the greatest sacrifice that the world will ever see and has ever had ever known and will ever know. Alright, so I think that's really cool. So the greatest among you shall be your servant, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, whoever humbles himself will be exalted. What do you think it means? Cody to be a servant? Why? Why does it matter? Being a servant? Why does it Why do you need to be a servant? If you want to be a leader?
Yeah, I think this is a super cool too, because like you said, you know, it's right before Jesus went to the cross. And, you know, he knew it was going to happen to which is amazing to me, because he could have stopped it. Of course, he's Jesus, but he knew that that was what he was sent to do. And he's still here talking about the greatest among you shall be your servant, he knew that he was serving everyone to come after him. Which is amazing to me, that just, it just speaks so much to God's true art, which is amazing. Definitely something that you know, within our business world that we continue to strive to do every single day, especially within my team, in building a business, you want to be a servant. I'm definitely not the perfect example of this. But at the same time, it's a standard that we absolutely try to live up to. And I think that the most successful businesses and a lot of the business mentors and stuff that I've had in the past, I've had ones that are very much along these lines, and ones that are not, and you can tell, I think from what way they lead very clearly, because if you're if you leave from a serving heart, I think that I just it's not a day, about how how your business runs, what your culture is, like, what how people feel about your business. And I think that it's it's one thing for me, it's been extremely important to portray that, I think, not only to my guys, but to the public as well. And just serve to serve first, everything else is a byproduct.
What is the what do you guys think is the mindset that someone has to have in order to be a servant? Right? You can't be puffed up with deceit. You can't be puffed up and think you're amazing. And then go serve, serve people? Well, there's a lot of people, let's be honest, there's a lot of people in real estate that that all audience we all know, who will talk about the service projects they do or whatever. And the reality is, it seems seems like it's coming from a place of vanity. Right? They're doing it to get recognized for what they're doing. I don't think that's what Scripture is talking about here. Right? So what kind of heart posture? Do we need to have to be a servant to our clients to be a servant to someone in our office to be a servant to our families? What does that look like to you? What do you think?
Yeah, you're touching on something great. I mean, the first verse that came into my mind, as you were talking was Matthew six when he talks about don't let your left hand know when your right what your right hand is giving, like don't give in an effort to be publicly routed or proclaimed. And so I mean, what I think it would it means to truly serve in a leadership position, and it doesn't mean you're a pushover. It doesn't mean that you don't hold your team accountable. Because we are absolutely called to accountability as believers. In our brotherhood and our community of believers, we're called to hold each other accountable. Scripture is abundantly clear about the standard of the law that we are aimed to uphold. Now we will always fall short and never fulfill it. Praise God for the grace that comes through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. But we are called to have a high standard, and to challenge the people around us to meet that so that they grow so that they're refined, and from a Christian perspective, so that they're sanctified. One of the real, like, literal example of grace that I think makes a lot of sense. From a business standpoint, I forget what book it was. And I forget which significant world changing entrepreneur, it was, like Andrew Carnegie, or Henry Ford, or something where somebody made a mistake, one of his employees made a mistake that cost him a million dollars. And the employer is just so upset over the mistake that he's made, he's certain that he's gonna get fired, it gets called into his boss's office. And the guy walks in, and he says, you know, I'm so sorry, like, I'll have my bags packed, and I'll be out of here tomorrow. And the boss looks at him, and he says, Hey, man, where are you going, I just, I just invested a million dollars of my money into you. And my hope is that you will continue to learn from that mistake, and that you'll be better because of it. So in an opportunity, what that means as a faithful leader, is when somebody falls short, in a situation which everybody on your team 100% is going to do at some point. And let's not forget that you're gonna let them down at some point as well. So let's have take a log out of our own eye, when we're looking at the splinter, and and others and say, hey, that's what grace looks like, from a tangible standpoint. So one, you have the opportunity to build trust by showering your team with grace, and their mistakes, you hold them accountable, and give them the opportunity to grow from it. So you're sanctifying them in the moment, both from a spiritual perspective and from a vocational perspective. And you have the opportunity to deepen your relationship and knit the commitment of that person to your business and to you as a brother, or sister even more intimately than you did prior. So Grace serves a greater purpose. I mean, it obviously serves the purpose of witnessing to Christ's grace that he showers over us, but it also, I mean, truly serves a like a productive standpoint, you know, showing people Grace creates commitment creates buy in and shows the path in which you want to run your business. That's literally living out what you believe and what you're trying to instill in the culture of your team firsthand.
Yeah, that's real quick, Cody. Let me just add, because that was John D. Rockefeller, just to clarify your worries about John Rockefeller. Yep. And, you know, in today's money, he cost him like $10 million, is what it would have been. And yeah, so he goes into him. And he says, to what you said, he said, Why would I fire you? I just invested a million dollars into your education. Right, go and be great. And so exactly what you talked about toddler that grace, because we tend to give ourselves grace to fail, but not others. So I love what you're talking about. Sorry, Cody. Go ahead, buddy. What kind of heart do you have to have Cody going into? Yeah, man.
Yeah, that's super cool. I've actually never heard that story about Rockefeller. It's really cool. But I hadn't had a similar instance, on my team, where one of my guys, his very first deal, did something made a mistake, where it cost us $5,000, I had to pay five grand out of pocket to like, basically get him out of the situation. And, you know, it was terrible. But at the same time, I looked at him and I was like, Look, man, like, you have so much potential in this business. And, and, you know, I just wanted him to love this business. I told him, I was like, I want you to love them. And I want you to enjoy this business, because I think you can bring so much good to people. And I just had to, absolutely had to love him through that. And like, because he was so upset. And I hope he listens to this, because he knows what he's talking about. He I just, you know, had to walk him through it and, and just like, show him so much grace and not like, that's where my heart was, I wanted that if I knew he was upset about it, I knew that he didn't mean to do what he did. And it's totally okay. Because he has since made us so much more right than that. And he is one of my best guys, one of my top producers. And, you know, because I felt like I sewed into him then and showed him grace, the way that I would hope he would show other people in that that same instance. And so yeah, that was a real world, one that it hurt, but it was good. It turned out to be good. But yeah, I love the way that like what you said about, you know, how Jesus talks about the way the way that he would teach was not always from, it's okay, you know, whatever it was, he taught from a point of correction a lot of times, and I think that to be a servant leader, a lot of times, it's not just, you know, hey, it's all good, you know, whatever. It's also a tough love kind of thing, you know, letting them go through things and you're loving them more and serving them more but, you know, teaching the way to teach that Jesus taught from a correction standpoint in a heart posture within that as well. So it's good.
Yeah, it's really good. Yeah, I mean, I think certainly how having humility, the willingness to serve the willingness to we see a lot in this industry, right? We've talked about before, but we see a lot in this industry. There's so much ego, right? And so someone is trying to succeed, or someone's trying to have a team and they don't know why it's not working, or whatever it is. And it's it's this desire to prop ourselves up over everyone else. Right? The leadership looks like it's okay, if someone else gets the credit, right? Leadership, servant leadership, a lot of times looks like I'm going to pour myself and what I've learned into you and hopes that in genuine hopes that you will far surpass what I've done. Right? And that's hard. That's hard for me. It's hard for people to do that. And I think about you know, like you said earlier, Tyler, which I think is 100%, right? Being a servant doesn't mean we're weak. And we're pushovers. Christ was meek, right? It was it was it was power under control is what that was, he has this great strength. And obviously, and he could, he created the world, he could have done anything that he chose to do. But he had this power under control. And still yet this great compassion and love for people. And so I think an aspect of of servant leadership is also from we talk about a lot with our teams with the people that we know, but also with our clients, right, just as real estate agents, let's be realistic. Here, we have an influence in the community. People watch how we live, because we say we're Christians. And because real estate agents are interesting to people, right? They just are, we just kind of get to choose and do what we want all day. And people find that fascinating. One of the ways I think we lead, one of the ways we serve our community is to set an example of the best that we can have. What does it mean to be a godly man? What does it mean to be a godly woman? Right? What does that mean to show that we are servants of our King, servants of our family, and then servants of our clients in our business, right? Having that, right, doing that in the right order. And there's so much to the aspect of being a servant. And the hardest part for me, if I'm honest, and doing that is it takes humility and not pride. And that's hard. And so I think as we we seek and desire to be men and women who truly serve those around us, in our families, in our, in our, in our work, and our job at our church, whatever that looks like, right? It takes a constant reflection, in my opinion, What did Christ do for us? And he, as you said earlier, so Well, T, he is the greatest example of a servant and look and say, you know, look who Christ is, for me to have any puffed up conceit is pretty ridiculous to think that I'm great or worth anything apart from Him. Therefore, man, let me go and do likewise as he did. Right. What do you think t look like? Yes, I'm gonna say that.
I think it's all really good. I mean, a couple of scriptures just jumped in, as you're talking there. I mean, James tells us that every good thing comes from God, all good things are coming from him. And so let's not pretend, and also, Scripture tells us that our works apart from Him are filthy rags, and so that we can't pretend like any good deed that were accomplishing apart from him is any good. And then that and that means that doesn't mean that there isn't work to be done that may have benefit to the world. But if the motivation is from a heart posture, that selfish and outside of a spirit, lead, selfless desire, then it is a filthy rag, it's not for the Kingdom. And so, you know, thinking about leadership in particular, and my experience, I've been on a lot of teams, right. I mean, that's the great thing about sports is you get to learn, you know, these buzzwords of culture, and teamwork and leadership and buy in. I mean, everybody, every team, year over year has a different one of those. And people fight for it constantly. People want to use those words, they want to talk about it, but I don't think people really know exactly what it means. And so I played on great teams with great culture. But believe me, there are a lot farther, fewer and farther between then the teams that have bad culture that are driven by selfish ambition. And so I just testify to what it means to be on a team that doesn't have servant leaders on it on a team that is focused on making decisions with leaders that are focused on making decisions out of self preservation or bottom line driven results and taking the people out of the equation. You know, I was on a team with the probably the most talent in the major leagues, we had 1213 All Stars on the Orioles and I was playing for him but we had leaders on that team that created a culture where people should be grateful for the opportunity to be there rather than a culture where the team is excited that you are a part of it. And you have a significant Roll in taking this to where our goals are and what our what our desires are. So when you start creating the selfish environment leaders that don't welcome people in with open arms, and don't aim to serve even the least important guy on the team that might have only been there for a single game that year and didn't even play, that culture grows and spreads throughout the industry, and people become very, very aware of it. And the way that you treat the least important quote, unquote, person on your team, because we all know that everybody is equally important, especially being made in the image of God, but the way that you treat the least contributing or the least producing agent, or the, what the person that the world would define as insignificant is what's going to drive your culture and your business because that's what people see. That's what people inside the organization. See. That's the the example that you're setting for the people around you. And again, that's what Christ means when he talks about being servant hearted. And so when I played on teams, where I had leaders who I knew cared about me who I knew, were focused on getting the best out of me, and were willing to sacrifice so that I had opportunities, even if there was some risk involved, so that they could put me on a path towards success, I was so much more focused on accomplishing what they had laid forth than any ambition I had in my own mind. But the second, you start creating a leadership mentality of people that are focused on their own goals, or leaders that are focused on their own goals, it creates the same thing for your team. And all the all the all the players in this situation are all the members of your team are going to be starting to focus on their own in return results as well, which pulls away at the seams of what a culture route truly stands for. So that was a little bit of a practical kind of run on on how things are. But it's it's a real simple case study on how when you have leadership that's committed to serving even the least of these, the culture gets knit even tighter together, whereas the opposite creates the exact inverse effect.
It's good. Yeah, I mean, it's good to look around. And why are my clients acting this way? Why are they doing this? Maybe one of the questions to ask is, How am I serving people? Or am I right? Am I doing a good job? From that perspective? You know, one of the things that, and I'm going to ask you both what is the practical thing? So I'm glad you went there. As we wrap this up, what is one practical example? What is one, excuse me, one practical and tactical thing somebody could do to just serve their people better their clients better in particular, but one thing I was going to say was, you know, asking the question, of when you get into a position, and you're you're trying to figure out what to do, just ask the question, what would a godly servant do, right? What would a godly servant do right? Now? Try to figure that out? And I'm gonna go and do that. Right? I think just having awareness of sometimes we're not going to be about service, sometimes you're going to be about pride. Right? Or whatever else it is. So what do you think Cody? What's what's a practical example, buddy have something that someone could do to just serve their clients? Well, yeah.
I mean, going back to treat people the way that you would wish to be treated. I think one thing that I ran into a lot of people ask me, you know, you know, success, you know, how are you growing your team? And what's, what's your secret, per se? It's not really any secret. I mean, it's, it's literally right here in Scripture, you lead a certain way you do certain things, you're a good steward, with the things that God's given you and it grows. That's literally it. How do you lead generate I pray, I pray for leads, I pray for, you know, new clients that come into our lives, that we can then serve in a great way. And yet, when you put their needs first, and you serve them before yourself, like I said before, everything that comes after money, success is a byproduct. You're just doing what God's called you to do. And that's it.
That's good, man. What do you think T?
Yeah, I mean, I think a practical thing that's really simple and easy to do, is just asking questions and listening. The greatest thing that some that you can give somebody, in terms of showing them that you care is that you just choose to listen, but you're not just there and you hear him. But you listen. So what does that look like? It means when somebody shares something with you, hey, it's my kid's birthday. Next week, we got a birthday party. How hard is it to send a text or send a note a little video something saying, hey, hope you how was the kid's birthday party, you know, hearing identifying what drives and motivates people. I mean, that is a little bit of a dig deeper dive when you're talking about people on your team and where they're trying to get from a career standpoint. But if you can learn something about somebody that you didn't know, prior to a conversation, we don't get to spend that much time with people that aren't on our team or that we're not spending every day with we get you know, the occasional interaction with clients and these touch points that we're talking about having on a month to month basis. Why not treat them like they matter? The touch points, obviously the clients but why not treat the touch points like they matter? And instead of just aiming to check the box and say that you did it and I completed my marketing or I I fulfilled my leads and plan for the year what is why don't we treat them like accounts and treat it like an actual choice to to get something out of it? You know, I want to hear something, I want you to know that that I'm here, I'm not just doing it just to do it, people notice that and people, that's what begs the question of like, why are your woods different about him? You know, I get all these mailers from different people from different industries. But why is this? Why does his say this? Or why did he follow up on this question? Like, what's different about that guy? And even if you're not, you know, hammering Bible verses all over your marketing, or every time you have a conversation, you're sharing the gospel, like, when you're different, as Christians are called to be. It begs the question of why. And what's the source of that motivation? Why are you choosing to be different, and that's when you have the opportunity to testify. And that's when, you know, you have the opportunity to share the gospel. It's good.
It just reminds me, you know, Philippians to write Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. And we've talked about that, use that verse before. But I think having the heart posture, right, everything we would say, is a heart posture. You're not going to be a godly servant if your heart is not posture in that way. So great insight. Gentleman. I think this is a I hope, audience a helpful conversation t give us that scripture. One more time, buddy, as we wrap up, Matthew 2311 to 12.
Yeah, you gave me show that my slugs and bugs Philippians two do nothing.
I did not want you to sing. That's why I didn't so les can sorry. Hey, there, there's a skip ahead. 32nd button. That audience you guys should take advantage of. All right.
All right. You're right. Please do. Alright. Matthew 23 Verse 1112, the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Amen. Faithful agents. If you want to join a community that is trying and striving to be good godly servants, come join our faithful agent community. Go to faithful aja.com Click Join our Facebook community. We'd love to see you there and we'll see you next week.