A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.”
—Luke 22:24–27
Every world leader, every battlefield general, every captain of industry was a kid who turned to his or her friends once and said, “Let’s go to the park and throw the football.” . . . “Let’s go to the creek and skip rocks.” . . . “Let’s go to the corner and get an ice-cream cone.” Then, after a few confident steps, they looked over their shoulders to see if their buddies were following.
Leadership isn’t something that is bestowed by titles, pronouncements, or proclamations. Leadership is determined by the willingness of the people who choose to follow because they believe they are being led somewhere good, prosperous, safe, or fun.
Too often, today’s managers forget to look over their shoulders. And when it becomes clear they are traipsing off alone, they resort to shouting, threatening, whipping, and using other methods to prove their power of persuasion. Do you know anyone like this? Have you ever had a boss who believed that leadership was the ability to order others to obey his or her commands whether they made sense or not?
The Bible teaches us that leadership is all about servitude. We are most Christlike when we serve others, who in turn see the benefit of our leadership and follow us. It is an ideal grounded in the belief that we have a responsibility to God and the creatures He put on earth. It is not a gateway to our own personal glory or financial gain, though He sometimes rewards us in this earthly way.
Perhaps nowhere in our daily lives is leadership more on display than on an athletic field, where our greatest heroes are endowed not only with tremendous God-given talent but also with the humility and devotion to team goals that allow them to stand out among some of the greatest athletes of our time.
Servanthood
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis is one of the most feared linebackers to have ever played the game. Over a sixteen-year NFL career, all in Baltimore, he has been voted to thirteen Pro Bowls, has twice been named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year, and was Super Bowl XXXV’s Most Valuable Player.
While he’s received plenty of accolades for his on-field performance, he’s made some mistakes in his life too. He had children out of wedlock, and he didn’t always choose the best friends. In February 2000, Lewis was charged with murder after two men were stabbed to death in a street fight outside an Atlanta nightclub following that year’s Super Bowl. He was exonerated of the murder charges, but not until after he’d been dragged before the public in shackles and faced the possibility of life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. It forced him to take a hard look at the people he was hanging out with.
Through the ups and downs and growing pains and all the celebrity pitfalls, Lewis maintained a resolute faith in God—one that had been instilled in him by his mother, Buffy Jenkins, as a child. It would be his support system during the worst of times and serve as a reminder of his calling to serve God in those moments when the world chose to put him on a pedestal.
More than anything, Ray Lewis will likely be remembered as one of the NFL’s greatest leaders of men, both on and off the football field.
Seated on a small stool in front of his locker a few days before the start of the 2011 play-offs, Lewis is asked to explain his leadership style and to identify those who are most important in teaching him how to be a leader. He pauses for a moment and then recites
Mark 9:35:
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
For the Ravens’ inside linebacker, it all began in the mid-1980s at Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Mulberry, Florida, where he was a junior deacon. He would attend Bible studies, take up tithes and offerings, and help out where he could. Most of his family members attended the church—his cousins were in the choir—and the congregation took notice of how mature little Ray’s prayers were. He was only eleven or twelve, but it was obvious he was reading the Bible and grasping its stories.
“My grandma and great-grandma would come and say, ‘God’s got His hands on you,’” Ray remembers.
When you are a child, such words from an admired adult make you beam with pride. It’s the sort of memory you carry with you later in life. And it’s something Lewis would remember years later as teammates began to come to him for a word or a line of scripture when they had lost their way.
He understood because like a lot of us, he, too, had lost his way from time to time. The celebrity of being a star football player from high school through the pros can be intoxicating, he says. And even though he’d had a proper religious upbringing, the women, the parties, the false friends proved too tempting in his youth.
“We all get away [from our faith] for a minute, but the Good Book says you raise up a child the way they should be raised and when need arises they’ll come back,” Lewis says. “That’s the thing Mom instilled in me very early. God is your backbone. He is your
resource. He is your confidant. So when you are young and you are going through [difficulties], the thing I learned is to never take a break from God—good, bad, ugly, shameful.”
Lewis was drafted by the Ravens out of the University of Miami with the twenty-sixth overall pick in the 1996 NFL draft. He was a dynamic player from the start and quickly developed a reputation for being a high-energy, high-impact player, capable of standing up to a 300-pound tackle and or sending a fullback flying backward.
Lewis sprinted everywhere, and by his sheer desire to get to the ball, he put himself in position to make plays whether he was making the tackle, recovering a fumble, or intercepting a tipped pass. If he didn’t make the first hit, he’d drive the pile back a step or two or three when he arrived half a second later.
In no time, the accolades began rolling in: AFC Defensive Player of the Week, All-Rookie Team, Linebacker of the Year, Pro Bowl.
Lewis was learning the pro game, and his athletic talents and work ethic allowed him to do it faster than most. It was the first stage of developing into the leader he would eventually become, he says. Lewis says there are four steps to becoming a leader, whether you work in an NFL locker room or at the local bowling alley. First, master your craft. Second, help others. Third, share the Word. Fourth, live what you are preaching so that you will be heard and others will know it to be true and genuine.
“A job title doesn’t define a leader. What you do [for a living] doesn’t define a leader,” Lewis says. “It doesn’t matter how many Pro Bowls I’ve gone to. It doesn’t matter whether I go into the Hall of Fame. None of that defines a leader.
“To be a leader, you’ve got to be willing to serve others. Learn your job and become excellent at it. Then seek to help others. As they improve and benefit from your assistance, they will see the wisdom in it and will look to you for guidance and leadership again. It’s not enough to be great at your job. If you don’t serve others and genuinely seek to make everyone around you better, your talent won’t matter. Practice your craft, then help those around you,” he encourages.
This is true on the field, but also in your faith, Lewis adds. Jesus was a leader who confessed with His mouth that His Father is our final Maker, the beginning and the end. And when He was persecuted for that, He said, “I will still confess with My tongue that You are My Father.”
In any environment, you rarely see someone confessing his or her faith, Lewis says. That’s what creates spiritual leadership. When someone sees how strong your faith is, that’s what makes people want to follow you outside of the workplace.
“Be good at your job, help others, confess your faith, back it up with the way you live,” Lewis says. “But what comes first? Servitude. And we see that in Jesus. All He did was serve, from the lowest of lows. Remember, He was a carpenter.”
Perhaps no passage in the Bible demonstrates the importance of servanthood to a Christlike life as clearly as John 13. The scene begins with the Passover feast where Jesus and His disciples are gathering for a meal. At the time, it wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary for a servant to wash a guest’s feet following a long journey and before they sat down for dinner. There were none on this day, and you can only imagine the disciples getting a little peeved and looking around for someone to do the job.
In today’s world, it might equate to the way office workers sometimes stand around waiting for the janitor to show up and rearrange the desks before a meeting or a group of people watching a busy waitress rush around getting orders while they wait for someone to bus their table. Who among us would get up and help rather than wait for the servants?
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. . . . When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:1–5, 12–17)
In practical terms, when the best player on the team is willing to serve his teammates by sharing his experience, instructing a rookie on a technique, or lending an ear when he sees someone struggling in his personal life, it shows that he realizes that in God’s eyes, he’s no better than anyone else, no matter how much money or fame society bestows upon him. And that’s a powerful thing to those who see themselves as not having the same amount of power or prestige or respect. Jesus Christ Himself, knowing that He was the Son of God, emphasized this when He washed His disciples’ feet.
Is this sort of behavior—where our leaders serve the weakest members in order to make the whole stronger than its individual parts—something we see demonstrated very often in society?
Do we see it in our political leaders? How about our corporate executives? Or our police force? And what is our personal responsibility in encouraging this behavior in our local neighborhoods and places of work?
Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.
(Titus 1:7–8)
Lewis has an enormous following in Baltimore. Fans clamor to get his autograph, and media refer to him as the face of the franchise. He is one of the most recognized and sought-out players throughout the NFL and is always the television networks’ key pregame interview, where he is usually referred to as a “future Hall of Famer.”
It would be easy for Ray Lewis to believe his own press clippings. But he says that if you maintain a desire to serve other people, and therefore God, it “steps in the way of selfishness” because you are too busy trying to help others instead of basking in your own glory and success. No one wants to follow a supposed leader who cares more about himself than his followers. And don’t think those followers and God Himself aren’t watching and judging all the time.
“When you find yourself in these workplaces, whether you are copying documents or you are a garbage man, what is your interaction when you cross somebody’s path?” Lewis asks. “What do you make them feel like? Good, bad, sad, indifferent—what does your spirit give off?”
But Lewis says that great leadership goes beyond just performing well individually and helping those around him. To be a true leader, he says, a player must also embrace his faith and be willing to confess it to others.
“When you think about true leadership, you’re not talking about man giving leadership. If you focus on that alone, then you will judge yourself by the way systems see you, by the way other men see you. Live so that people surrounded in darkness, when they see you, you light up their darkness.”
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)
Former Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow became a lightning rod in 2011 when his game-day prayers and postgame comments about his love of Jesus were portrayed as over the top and out of place in the world of professional football.
The former Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Florida defended his Christian beliefs and said God had given him and every other celebrity athlete a stage to speak to millions about the role He plays in our daily lives. It was too important an opportunity to let slip through his fingers, he says.
Tebow was attending the John Lynch Salute the Stars luncheon in Denver when he was asked about leadership. The video was posted to YouTube on May 15, 2011. Though his comments were directed toward other NFL players, listen to his words and apply them to your life and the interactions you have with the people in your house and community:
All leadership is, is someone, who someone else is looking at; who someone else will follow. So honestly, I’m not the only leader up here. Every single one of you are leaders because someone is always watching. Yes, as a quarterback and a football player, you have a bigger platform to reach more people, and I take that responsibility and obligation to heart; and honestly how I play and I live off the field, I want to be a good role model for kids. Unfortunately, today there aren’t enough great role models playing in the NFL. So it’s my goal and my passion to be a great leader for the kids in this community and the kids all over. I get so sick when I hear the athletes say, “I’m not a role model.” Yes you are, you’re just not a very good one.
Is a Boss a Leader?
Heath Evans was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the third round of the 2001 draft out of Auburn University. He played for Seattle, Miami, New England, and New Orleans before retiring after the 2010 season and now works as an analyst for the NFL Network.
Evans, who served as the New England Patriots’ ministry leader after their pastor retired, says the core principle of servant leadership is, unfortunately, looked at backward in today’s culture.
“People think leaders are, ‘You do this . . . You do that.’ That’s their idea of the boss. But true leadership is seen in guys like [Patriots coach] Bill Belichick, [Saints quarterback] Drew Brees and [Patriots quarterback] Tom Brady,” whose leadership style mimics that of Jesus Christ, whether they know it or not.
The focal point of the Bible is Jesus Christ. He came to earth and died so that anyone who chooses to believe in Him can have life. He did all the work, and we get all the gain, Evans says.
“When I look at Drew Brees, I see a guy who sacrifices his family, his time, his diet . . . everything he does is for the betterment of the team on the field and in the community. All the sacrifices he makes to try and create an edge benefits him, but it’s really for the team. And they see that.”
Sports teach so many lessons that help a child when he or she becomes an adult. Leadership, self-discipline, how to keep your mind clear and focused when under stress, never quitting, bouncing back from defeat . . . but perhaps none is more important than the way it instructs us to develop the qualities of leadership: execution, servitude, humility, spiritual guidance, genuineness.
Winning is important, but consider that NFL quarterbacks complete only about 61 percent of their passes. National Basketball Association players convert only about 46 percent of their field goals. And in baseball, players who fail to get a hit 70 percent of the time are named to the All-Star team.
Even the very best players in professional sports require a cadre of support staff, talented teammates, and a smart front office. Try finding a star quarterback with a horrible offensive line or a great linebacker without a talented nose tackle protecting him from blockers.
Furthermore, try finding a great editor without a staff of talented reporters or a terrific dentist without a team of good hygienists.
“There is a success that comes from being a humble leader or even a humble superstar,” Evans says. “Both of these guys [Brees and Brady] are the most humble superstars I’ve ever been around in my life.
“Yes, they work for their own gain. But ultimately, each guy works in a fashion where they always have the team at heart. Brady and Brees could care less whether they throw the ball thirty-five times or twenty times, as long as they win. A lot of quarterbacks in this league, well, that’s not the way they are,” he says without identifying them.
Though Tebow hasn’t had nearly the on-field success of Brady or Brees, his behavior exemplifies what Evans and Lewis are referring to when they speak about making personal sacrifice and putting others first.
Consider Tebow’s postgame comments after the Broncos’ 13–10 overtime victory over the Chicago Bears on December 11, 2011, in Denver. Tebow converted 21 of 40 passes for 236 yards and led the team back from a 10-point deficit late in the game to set up Matt Prater’s 51-yard game-winning field goal.
I just want to thank Coach Fox and the coaches for giving me the opportunity and believing in me for the entire game and for the defense for keeping us in it and our receivers and our offensive line, who at the end of the game made me look a lot better than I really am.
But guys kept encouraging one another, defense kept encouraging offense; the offense encouraging special teams. Just try to keep believing until the very end. It wasn’t looking very good, but guys kept, shoot, encouraging me, at all times, believing in me, and we kept believing, and I think that’s special when you have a team that believes and a team that’s going to continually fight for sixty minutes, even though it’s not looking good and even though it might be frustrating.
We might have had opportunities and missed them, but we kept fighting and kept going, and the defense played phenomenal and came up with a bunch of huge stops, and we were finally able to get a drive there and score—a bunch of guys stepped up on that drive; the offensive line protected great, and D.T. stepped up on that drive; and Jeremiah and Lance and Deck, and a bunch of guys really stepped up, and we were able to get the ball back and find a way to go down there.
At certain times in the game where I was very frustrated and disappointed. Obviously, I thought we had opportunities—we had opportunities for the lead—so it was disappointing we were down 10–0. But great things are only possible if you’re under very tough circumstances. That was a great comeback for this team, and it was led by our defense and coaches and a team that constantly believes.
If you believe, unbelievable things can sometimes be possible. I think that’s pretty special that we have a team that constantly believes and believes in each other.
In both word and deed, Tebow was the consummate team player. And while his performance was up and down at times, he earned the love and loyalty of his teammates because they knew him to be genuine in his beliefs and resolute in his commitment to the team. Though his religious beliefs put Tebow in the public eye, behind the scenes, he didn’t seek special favor like many celebrity athletes.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)
Top coaches demonstrate leadership in a similar way, Evans says. When their team has success, they praise the team. And when they fall short, they always beat themselves up and feel like they let their players down.
This is because leadership isn’t about having more money or a bigger house or fame. It’s about having more responsibility. Not just for yourself anymore, but for the whole group. And while that might come with perks, the leader’s responsibility in a team’s failure is greater than any one man’s.
“All these attributes are biblical core principles,” Evans says. “‘Humble yourself and lift up other people’ . . . ‘to whom much is given much is required.’”
According to Evans, these players and coaches say, “Hey, I’ve been blessed with a lot of talent and ability, and I need to use it for good.”
“I think about what they do in their communities,” Evans continues, “and [how they] use the platform to impact so many lives. The core principles of Christianity are what make true leaders. People don’t want to be barked at and told what to do. Ultimately the greatest leaders I’ve been around, they set the tone about what is the right way to do things by putting all the lessons into action for us to see.”
Evans preaches to kids that it’s better to be respected than liked. He says that in the Christian faith, many people fall into the trap of trying to be perfect, and that’s not what the Christian faith is. He tells them that respect comes from being genuine in their beliefs, being humble, and by acknowledging that they aren’t perfect.
“Throughout the Bible, God knew we would never be good enough, and that’s why He sent Jesus. So when I messed up, I was the first to apologize. If I acted out with a coach, I was in his office apologizing the next morning. I’m not perfect. I’m trying to live life right, and sometimes I fail. But I think I’m living a life worthy of respect.”
It’s about accountability, he adds. Leadership requires that we are accountable to ourselves, our co-workers, our managers, our beliefs, and our God.
New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck can relate to Evans’s experience. Tuck is one of the best pass rushers in the league, but he is human and doesn’t always feel like a superstar on the inside or behave like the perfect Christian on the outside.
He says that when people are thrust into leadership roles, it can sometimes be overwhelming. How many of us have attended a class at our place of business or had a discussion with our manager on the subject of leadership? Probably not many. Further, most managers would probably not know what to say if asked.
Raw talent or success at a particular task is hardly enough preparation to lead others. This is why players like Lewis and Aaron Rodgers and Evans speak of the value servitude plays in molding leaders.
“Sometimes you get caught up in being a leader,” Tuck says. “But what does that mean exactly? How do you do that? It doesn’t mean that I don’t go out there and make enemies or miss tackles or I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread. My faith has taught me how to follow. And I don’t think you can be a great leader without first knowing how to follow.
“Talent has a lot to do with leadership, but I know guys who have great talent who don’t show up for meetings on time or are not accountable. If you want to be a leader, you have to be the guy who runs to the ball at practice, who does the little things because everyone is watching you. Leadership is more about doing than talking.”
Tuck says that motivating other teammates requires a leader to understand them at a personal level. Some guys respond well when a leader yells or gets in their faces. Other guys respond better when he pulls them aside. And there are still other personalities who respond best when he quietly says, “You know what? I’m going to help you in this situation by showing you how it’s supposed to be done.”
Tuck adds, “If they see me doing the little things, then they say, ‘That’s our leader. He’s a seven-year vet. He’s won accolades. He’s won a Super Bowl. If he can do these things, maybe he has it figured out.’”
Tuck says his faith has molded him as a man. And it’s that personal side, rather than his talent as a Pro Bowl player, that allows him to do the most good with his co-workers.
“You see a guy is struggling, and you just go up and have a conversation with him,” Tuck said. “It doesn’t have to be about the Bible. You just have to show them that you genuinely care about them or have a care for how their lives are going. That comes from the Word and learning to love each other. That’s part of leadership too.
“We talk about this all the time in Bible study. All of us have a purpose in life, and even though I play football, my purpose isn’t to be a football player.
“My success comes from knowing I am trying to live the life that God has wanted me to live. Sure, it comes with Pro Bowls, new contracts, and a Super Bowl ring. But I can’t take any of that with me. When my days here are done, I can’t give my testimony to the Lord and Savior and say, ‘Ah, You know, God, I had a few sacks in my career. That’s got to get me somewhere, right?’”
Sometimes, leadership also means taking a stand for your beliefs, no matter how much criticism you might receive. Outside football, that can mean defending a co-worker who is being treated unfairly or standing up to a bully in the boardroom who is trying to force his views on others with threats and other forms of persuasion.
In November 2011, former Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer was being interviewed by XTRA Sports 910 in Phoenix when he mentioned that he wished Tim Tebow would pull back on all the references to God. It was a complaint many Christians and non-Christians alike had of the quarterback during the 2011 season.
Tebow spoke to ESPN’s First Take the next day and was asked to respond to Plummer’s comments:
If you’re married, and you have a wife, and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife “I love you” the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity?
And that’s how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ is that it is the most important thing in my life. So anytime I get an opportunity to tell Him that I love Him or am given an opportunity to shout Him out on national TV, I’m gonna take that opportunity. And so I look at it as a relationship that I have with Him that I want to give Him the honor and glory anytime I have the opportunity. And then right after I give Him the honor and glory, I always try to give my teammates the honor and glory.
And that’s how it works because Christ comes first in my life, and then my family, and then my teammates. I respect Jake’s opinion, and I really appreciate his compliment of calling me a winner. But I feel like anytime I get the opportunity to give the Lord some praise, He is due for it.
Tebow shows the same willingness to stand up and fight for what he believes spiritually as he does when he’s staring down the toughest defenses the NFL has to offer.
Sometimes it takes more courage to stand up and fight for the Lord in front of a nation than it does to run over a 250-pound linebacker for a first down. Tebow attacks his role as a leader on the field and as a child of God with the same tenacity.
The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
(Matthew 23:11–12)
Blessings for the Faithful
The 2011 football season proved to be a spectacular one for some of the league’s most faithful players. After a four-month lockout that canceled minicamps and shortened training camp, the league’s thirty-two teams came together to produce one of the most outstanding offensive performances the league has ever known. And some of the league’s most recognized Christians were among those leading the way.
The Saints’ Brees passed for an NFL single-season record 5,476 yards, breaking the twenty-seven-year-old record held by former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino. He helped New Orleans put up a league record 7,474 total offensive yards. And Brees was voted to his sixth Pro Bowl after leading the Saints to the postseason for the third consecutive year, including their only Super Bowl title after the 2009 season.
Baltimore’s Ray Lewis led his team in tackles (95), was voted to his thirteenth Pro Bowl, and recovered from a foot injury in time to lead the Ravens into the play-offs for the fourth consecutive year.
Tim Tebow came off the bench to lead the Broncos to five fourth quarter come-from-behind victories, helping them qualify for their first postseason berth since 2005. Then in the first-round game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he threw for a season-high 316 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown strike to Demaryius Thomas on the first play of overtime to notch the victory, 29–23.
But perhaps none of them had as good a year as Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, one of the NFL’s best passers and most devout Christians. He led the Packers to a 31–25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV in February and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player, completing 24 of 39 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns.
The Packers returned to the play-offs in 2011, after finishing the regular season with a near perfect 15-1 record. Rodgers was even better, passing for a personal best 4,643 yards and 45 touchdowns and was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player.
Rodgers, like Lewis and Tuck and so many other fantastic Christian NFL players, led by example through the way he provided leadership during the long, arduous NFL season.
Though his words come from the lips of an NFL star, they speak to all of us no matter our race, our age, our gender, or the profession God has chosen for us to pursue.
“I’ve always lived by the philosophy of the words spoken by St. Francis of Assisi who said, ‘Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words.’ I feel like you can always have a greater impact by the things you do than the things you say, so living out my faith has been primarily in that form,” Rodgers said before the Packers opening play-off game.
“I think it helps to have a pretty good knowledge of the way that Jesus spoke and taught and interacted with people in the New Testament. He cared about people, He spent time with people, He cared about relationships, and that’s kind of my leadership style. I want to get to know the guys. I want to have relationships with them. I want there to be that connection because I really feel like team chemistry is an underrated part of a team’s success. Having that tightknit feel with your teammates and trying to let your actions speak louder than your words—that’s how I’ve chosen to lead.”