Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: The Joy of Serving Quietly

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it teaches us about the value of serving quietly.

In my first school leadership role, we had built a new school building that also had shared use with the church that owned the school. Within a few months, teachers were communicating a frustration with me about having to clean up their classrooms every Monday morning, needing to put all the desks back in order, which was taking away from their time to prepare for the start of the week. I encouraged the teachers to have a servant’s heart in response to this situation, but I also passed on their frustration to the church leadership, and asked if we could give the Sunday school teachers some instruction on how to put the rooms back in order when they were done with the children’s classes on Sunday. It seemed like a simple request to me, so the reply I received was unexpected. I was informed that the building was owned by the church, that many of the church members had funded it, and that they were volunteers, so they needed to be able to use the room how they wanted to on Sundays without being obligated to extra work, and the teachers could straighten the rooms up on Monday mornings.

This put me in the middle of a dilemma (which I eventually learned was not an uncommon occurrence in school leadership). The church leadership, and by extension, the Sunday school teaching volunteers, did not see the opportunity they had to be able to serve the school teachers, and the teachers did not see the opportunity to serve children coming to church. Instead, each was focused on their own needs. I was in the middle, with the responsibility of resolving this conflict well.

So, my wife and I started taking the kids to the grocery store after church on Sunday to get a loaf of French bread, some deli meat and cheese, and chips, and then head back to the church. By the time we got there, everyone would be gone, and we would sit in the school cafeteria and have lunch together. Then, along with our two kids who were in elementary school at the time, we would set up all the classes for school the next day. Neither side knew we were the ones going through the building every Sunday afternoon to make sure all the desks were arranged, and that everything was in order.

To this day, my children, who are adults, still talk about that time as a great family memory. They remember having French bread sandwiches and serving together as a family, and finding joy in knowing that we were meeting a need, and no one knew that it was us. In their eyes, it was a secret mission that took care of people, and they had the joy of knowing that teachers would walk into their classrooms at the start of the week with everything ready but without knowing my kids had made sure it was so. They also remember the joy that came because we were serving together and making it a valuable time for our family.

These are wonderful lessons on leadership from this little thing in life, from Sunday afternoons with my children quietly putting classrooms back in order. First, they highlight not just the value of serving the needs of others, but the importance of doing it for the right reason. You serve not for your own praise or glory, but for the well-being of others. Second, they highlight the heart and attitude that should be present in you. If you have the right attitude, you get to experience the joy of being a blessing, especially knowing that your honor should come from God and not from others. So I encourage you to pursue this mindset. If you are a leader, you are also a servant. Look for opportunities to serve, but do it quietly, and experience the joy of seeing the blessing it is for those who experience the results of what you have done.