4. Awareness
| General awareness, and especially self-awareness, strengthens the servant-leader. Awareness helps one in understanding issues involving ethics, power and values. It lends itself to being able to view most situations from a more integrated, holistic position. |
| Larry Spears |
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This saying applies to servant leadership as much as to other areas of life. Awareness, I think, is the key to prevention. Most issues that a servant leader might have to address are dealt with much easier when they are faced early on. The same is true in other areas of life, for example personal health. We all would much rather prevent illness or at least become aware of it in an early stage, rather than being caught unaware by an advanced health disorder. The key is that we have to be aware of the potential threats. That's why there is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, National Autism Awareness Month, Brain Awareness Week, and so on, just to name a few of the top web search hits for "awareness".
There are two parts to awareness, awareness of one's self, and awareness of one's surroundings. I readily confess that in both cases the feeling of "I wasn't even aware of that!" is all too familiar to me. Let me illustrate with an example from each category.
While I have been singing in choirs for at least the last 20 years, a few months ago I resumed taking voice lessons after about a 10 year break. Almost as soon as I opened my mouth during my first lesson, it was rather obvious to my teacher that a number of things were seriously wrong with my technique, and the result was an ugly, dark and strained sound. It took several lessons to become aware of what exactly was wrong, such as tongue placement, lack of openness in the throat, etc. I'm well on my way to correcting these problems and producing a much more beautiful, bright, and vibrant sound. However, it will take time to overcome bad ingrained habits, and the damage control would have been much easier had I become aware of these mistakes years ago. Lack of self-awareness.
I make my living as a computer programmer. Recently I noticed that my laptop computer had become much slower than it used to be. I only fully realized there was a problem when the computer spontaneously turned off several times. The solution was rather simple, but quite startling. Enough dust had accumulated inside the computer that the fan no longer succeeded in cooling down the processor. The laptop did what it could to avoid overheating, first slowing down the number crunching, and then shutting itself off as a last resort. Blowing out the dust with some pressured air instantly tripled the performance! Furthermore, all of a sudden I had such a quiet laptop! Only then did I become aware that over months I had gotten used to a noisy fan constantly running on full speed. Lack of awareness of my surroundings.
Perhaps I may allow myself some small consolation by claiming that I'm in good company. We read this about Jacob, one of the great figures of the Old Testament, in Gen 28:16:
Then Jacob woke up and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it."
More seriously, though, what do we learn from Scripture about awareness of Biblical leaders? Perhaps the most important arena for awareness is the field of conflict management. A number of passages demonstrate Jesus' keen awareness of arguments and his early intervention. Consider, for example, the following passage from Luk 9:46-48:
46Then there was an argument among them as to which of them would be the greatest. 47But Jesus knew their thoughts, so he brought a little child to his side. 48Then he said to them, "Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes my Father who sent me. Whoever is the least among you is the greatest."
The disciples, who so often missed the point of Jesus' teaching, were arguing who would be the greatest. Jesus, however, was aware of this and didn't allow their arguments to go on. In what must have been a quite disarming reply, Jesus used a little child to teach them a lesson about humility and servant leadership.
On another occasion, the disciples were complaining amongst themselves about Jesus' teaching. Jesus again tried to settle the argument, although in this case the resolution was that many of the disciples left him (excerpt from Joh 6:60-66):
60On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" 61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? ... 66At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. (NIV)
The next example is not so much about an argument, but about the disciples' lack of faith and understanding of Jesus' teaching. Jesus' reply shows his commitment to the disciples' growth, and hence exemplifies another trait of a servant leader (Mat 16:8-9):
8Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? 9Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? (NIV)
In the above cases, Jesus acted in the interest of the disciples themselves when he settled their arguments. In other cases, he got involved when their arguments were hurting others, such as the woman who poured expensive perfume on Jesus' head, much to the discontent of the disciples, who argued that the perfume should have been sold for a lot of money to be given to the poor (Mat 26:10):
Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. (NIV)
Jesus was also very much aware of the thoughts and plans of his adversaries. In the healing of a paralyzed man recorded in Mat 9:1-8, the teachers of religious law talked amongst themselves calling Jesus a blasphemer, but Jesus "knew what they were thinking" (Mat 9:4). Not long after that, the Pharisees were plotting to kill Jesus (Mat 12:14). "Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place." (Mat 12:15, NIV).
Perhaps my favorite story of Jesus' self-awareness is the story of a woman who had been ill for 12 years and who pressed through a dense crowd to touch Jesus' clothes (Mar 5:25-34). After she succeeded, Jesus' reaction is recorded as follows (Mar 5:30):
Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
As the disciples point out in the next verse (Mar 5:31), the crowds were pressing against Jesus from all around him, yet Jesus felt the woman touching just the fringe of his robe. What awareness!
I think just a few examples from the Old Testament will suffice to round out this chapter's sampling of Scripture verses. Joseph was put in charge of two prisoners that had upset Pharao. We're told that each of them had a dream, and then this about Joseph's reaction the next morning (Gen 40:6-7):
6The next morning Joseph noticed the dejected look on their faces. 7"Why do you look so worried today?" he asked.
In 1Sa 2:22 we learn this about Eli, the priest who raised Samuel:
Now Eli was very old, but he was aware of what his sons were doing to the people of Israel. He knew, for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle.
Finally, after quoting Jacob's being unaware of God's presence at the beginning of the chapter, it's time to exonerate him with regard to awareness (Gen 31:1-2):
1But Jacob soon learned that Laban's sons were beginning to grumble. "Jacob has robbed our father!" they said. "All his wealth has been gained at our father's expense." 2And Jacob began to notice a considerable cooling in Laban's attitude toward him.
How do the examples of awareness of Biblical leaders translate into our lives as servant leaders? James Autry has a chapter in his book "The Servant Leader" [5] on conflict management and resolution, in which he talks about the importance of being aware of developing conflict in the work place. I started the first day of my current job in a meeting with my boss and two other programmers. I expected this meeting to be a briefing of what I needed to know to get started on my project. Instead, most of the meeting was spent on an argument between the other two programmers about what language I should be programming in. It didn't take much skill to become aware of that conflict!
Paying close attention to body language and facial expressions is an excellent means for awareness. A few years ago, my boss approached me after a staff meeting, asking whether I was ok, and saying that I looked depressed. I had felt discouraged by a work conflict that was affecting me very much, but I wasn't aware how much my countenance was showing it. Fortunately, my boss was aware.
Another important area of awareness concerns the effects that our actions and behaviors are having on others. At one time, there were issues with the quality of work by one member of our team. His job required paying close attention to detail with little margin for error. One day he told me that I made him feel like he was in the military. I was walking a fine line between necessary quality control and being too much of a Prussian policeman, and perhaps I had become too rigid.
On a personal level, I often find myself getting physically tight, such as clenching my jaw, with a tension headache sometimes being the result. I'm not quite sure of the underlying causes (this even happens to me in my sleep!), but stress or anxiety are the usual suspects. Judging from my performance reviews, I shouldn't have any reasons to be anxious (except that there's always too much to do, of course!), but I sure would like to be aware of those tensions before they develop into the next headache.
Let me close with my personal list of things I would like to become more aware of, although many items on this lists might apply to most individuals:
- awareness of my body language
- awareness of body language and facial expressions of others around me
- awareness of how I am affecting others
- awareness of how others are affecting me
- awareness of changes in attitudes
- awareness of developing conflict
- awareness of changes in physical appearance of others
- awareness of my nervous or other personal habits
For Thought and Discussion
- Can you recount examples of situations where you were particularly aware (or unaware) of yourself or your surroundings? What lessons might be learnt from those examples?
- What things are you generally most aware of? What things are you usually least aware of, and what could you do to increase your awareness of those?
- Do you think we can learn from Jesus' extraordinary sense of awareness? Or do you think his awareness was simply a consequence of his divine powers and knowledge? Can you support your view with Scripture?
