Catholic U Leadership Panel: Servant Leadership

Catholic U Leadership is back with the Leadership Panel series! We kicked things off this year with the Servant Leadership Panel that went in accordance with the First-Year Leadership Academy.

The amazing panelists explained what servant leadership meant to them. From their own personal experiences to the advice they shared, the discussion was incredibly insightful and important for all to hear. Read below to hear from our panelists!

What is servant leadership to you?

“Servant leadership to me is seeing Christ in other people and treating them as you’re seeing Christ. Treating people with the love and respect that you would treat Christ if you were walking with Him is what servant leadership is.”

— Abby Anger

What do you value about servant leadership?

“Bringing joy accomplishes some many things through teaching. Getting to meet someone where they are at and bringing something that they might not have ever received elsewhere and seeing a smile on someone’s face is just the most awesome thing. You can’t put it into words.”

— Scott McKinnon

Are there any difficulties when it comes to servant leadership?

“I think there’s a temptation when you’re a student leader anywhere to kind of get an inflated ego to think ‘I’m so important’ and it’s a very hard thing to guard against. Sometimes the little thought creeps into there that it’s all about you and it’s very ‘it’s about me.’ It’s important to ask who you’re doing this for. Take a minute and take a step back to ask if I’m doing it for others or for myself. There’s a healthy choice to make where you need to step back and focus on yourself to take a break. Sometimes you burn both ends of the candlestick and it’s a hard realization to come to and say no.”

— Thomas Dompkowski

Servant leadership comes in all shapes and sizes, and this panel proved just that! Abby, Scott, and Tom all have different backgrounds, but they are all united in that fact that they lead to serve others.