How to be a Shepherd CEO
Who doesn't love a good title? CEO. President. Project Director. Head accountant. Chief Operating Officer.
When you take on a leadership role, you are given a title that defines your relationships. It's a quick way to tell people what you do and for others to know who you are in the organization.
But how does that title impact your self-perception as a leader? How does it impact the way that you relate to people?
In the culture where I live, my team members don't generally call me by my first name. They just say, "Boss." Every time they talk to me, they say, "Hey boss..." or "Boss, what do you think about that?" My title is that much more reinforced and I can forget what my name is and just think of myself as "Boss!"
The truth is that you are heavily influenced by what people call you, and it impacts the way you see yourself in relationship to others.
The challenge is that those titles don't always do the best job of giving you an identity as a leader that is congruent with the way that God primarily views leadership.
When Peter was restored and commissioned into leadership, Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." He didn't see, "You are the big boss. You are the head of the organization. You are the Director of the Board." He said, "Feed my lambs” John 21:15. He was implying that Peter was to be a shepherd. And this would impact the way that Peter viewed himself, i.e. as a shepherd rather than as a commander or a general.
I was praying this last year and sensed God speaking to me about how he wanted me to grow as a pastor. I initially felt that he was encouraging me to grow in a spiritual gift, i.e. that pastoring/shepherding is a spiritual gift that he wanted me to grow in similar to other gifts he wants me to develop. I began talking to others about what a shepherd does and how to be a better pastor to people around me.
But I soon realized that God wanted me to adopt the word shepherd as a primary identity in my leadership and that he wanted me to change the way I view myself. I knew that I was team leader, boss, project director and a variety of other titles. But I have begun to see myself as shepherd, as one who is caring for sheep, who is looking out for people. There are projects to be managed, but they are all made up of people, and every project is meant to serve others.
Let's take a trip to the manger scene. Two special groups of people got word that Jesus was going to be born: shepherds and kings. Both were given signs in the sky to go to Bethlehem.
For those of you who know your manger history, you know that the shepherds were there first. They were there at his birth. The kings came later, when he was two years old, and they came to him in a house (Matthew 2:11).
Does the timeline matter? God could have made it so that kings appeared at his birth. But he chose first to have shepherds come. Why? Jesus was a shepherd and then a king. He has the name that is highest above all other names, but he got that name by going low and becoming humble. He goes low to go high. His kingship flows out of an identity as a shepherd.
I have begun to see myself as a shepherd boss, a shepherd team leader, and a shepherd project director. The second title still plays a role, as it still describes my relationship to the organization. But I put shepherd before any title that I take on.
What leadership title do you have in your organization? What would it look like this Christmas season to think of yourself as a shepherd CEO, a shepherd President, a shepherd COO, a shepherd partner, or a shepherd leader?