A CEO For All Time
Christmas Day is celebrated as both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two millennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Popular customs include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, for some, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. Perhaps your own family traditions are similar to these.
For most Christians, though, Christmas is a day to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ (knowing that his actual birth was not on this exact day). While many venerate Jesus as coming as a baby, God in the flesh, some recognize him only as an infant but not as the amazing leader he truly was. I recall a small book that was published years ago that described Jesus as a CEO, articulating leadership lessons taken as observations of his life from the pages of the Bible.
One obvious lesson is that, according to Scripture, God the Son became a human, forsaking the esteem and glory of a heavenly kingdom for dust and straw, labor and sweat, physical and emotional pain, and ultimately, an unjust death. This storyline has the making of an episode of Undercover Boss, the TV series highlighting CEOs who changed their appearance to serve as low-level employees in their own organizations. In each show, these business-savvy men and women learn to perform the responsibilities of their hard-working, boots-on-the-ground team members. For many of these leaders, it was a wake-up call to the real challenges that their employees faced.
Jesus accepted such challenges for a greater purpose—not TV ratings or personal renown—but to testify to Truth. He even knew that his own death would come one day, yet still embraced that purpose. Leaders like you and I must seek out our people in their various roles, observe them, understand them and their work, learn their names and stories, mentor, and recall that these individuals are the motor of the organization. They are unique and valuable. In short, leaders should approach their work with humility, as Jesus did in coming to live among us. No pretension. No self-aggrandizement. Just the powerful life statement of choosing to value others by setting aside our titles to sacrificially serve those in our care.
As a leader, Jesus also instructed his disciples for three years and intentionally prepared them to take the mantle of leadership after his departure. If you knew that your current role would end in one month, what actions would you take to ensure a smooth transition for those who remain after you? You certainly would want them to understand your mission, your purpose, your priorities, your disciplines, your schedule, and your responsibilities, to name a few. This involves explanation, conversations, shadowing, observation, feedback, correction, and instruction on a regular basis. As you know, this life-on-life investment is called mentorship.
I’m sure that you have had a mentor in your life who helped prepare you for your current role. Where would any of us be without a mentor in one fashion or another? Jesus’s life exuded mentorship that was personal and purposeful. What you and I know through experience and training is helpful to us and our organization. But let us not die with that wisdom; our goal must be to pass it on. As Jesus testified to the truth, so we must likewise testify to others to prepare them for our absence, whenever that may come.
There indeed is much to learn from the life of Jesus. The coming of Christmas celebrates the birth and life of Jesus Christ, as an infant from an obscure village in Nazareth, Israel who became a man honored in every modern nation 2,000 years later. While we enjoy the festivities surrounding his birth, let us also learn from other parts of his life—a true CEO for all time.
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones from all of us here at Leadership Development International!