Photo/Alexandria D. Dalton
By Simon Baker, student news writer, Office of University Communications
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – What does it mean to demonstrate servant leadership?
Dr. Joseph Michelli, an internationally sought-after speaker, author, and organizational consultant, explained at Campbellsville University’s chapel that to have servant leadership, one must have a “servant’s heart.”
Michelli spoke on Jan. 24 at CU’s Ransdell Chapel.
Michelli told a story about how he wanted to be a doctor, applied to UCLA and was turned down. He then wrote a letter to UCLA rejecting their rejection of him.
He went on to say, “I was persistent, so what do you think I did in response to their letter of rejection? I wrote them a letter of rejection. My letter read, ‘Dear graduate school, please accept my letter of rejection of your letter of rejection.’”
He said this taught him he only cared about himself, and it also taught him the need for a “servant’s heart.”
Talking about serving, he said, “As long as we never, ever stop caring about making a difference in the lives of those we serve as excellently as possible in a form and fashion consistent with their wants, needs, desires and with the pureness of a servant’s heart.”
After graduating from the University of Southern California (USC), Michelli said he started learning about servant leadership and value.
“I went to USC, got out of USC, and I started to learn that it’s about how you create value for others that success comes to your life,” Michelli said. “It is about living servant leadership. It is about having a service heart.”
He added, “You only become relevant when you stop trying to point to yourself and start pointing outward in the service of others. You create value, and you are valuable when you stop focusing on being interesting and focus on being interested.”
Michelli said that when his wife Norah’s breast cancer had spread to multiple areas of her body, their son, Andrew, quit his job and came home to take care of her.
Michelli said Andrew told him, “I’ve moved home. I quit my job because my job is not my home. My home is where my mom is.”
“A great opportunity” to show care is to “just get to know people,” Michelli shared. He said, even when you can’t find the words, this allows you to be “fully present.”
“You being with them shows you are caring about them, and you don’t have to have the words. The heart speaks through God, through your presence,” Michelli shared.
Michelli’s stepparents, who later adopted him, found him “in a trash can, at three days of age.” However, Michelli explained how, despite this, he still tries to bring joy, laughter and happiness to those who are suffering.
He explained that to bring joy to others through clowning, he and his friend, Patch Adams, would dress up in clown suits and go to poor areas around the globe because, he says, he believes, “laughter is the best medicine.”
“We clowned because it was an access point to get to places like China where we could really be among the people,” Michelli shared. “It was in that that I really saw the first iteration of probably the only time in my life – to be honest with you – where I delivered flawless service exactly as my client wanted in an environment of caring, and it was a little girl in a Chinese orphanage.”
Michelli said even though the moment might not have seemed “all that grand,” he noted the moment was powerful.
“I delivered a hug, a flawless hug, delivered exactly as she wanted in an environment of caring,” he said, “and the moment was so powerful that in reality, I wasn’t sure if I was hugging her or if she was hugging me.
“I went halfway across the world to get hugged by a little girl in an orphanage in China.”
Michelli continued: “God hasn’t made a flawless one except One, so the rest of us have flaws. People understand that we really don’t need to be perfect. We just need to aspire to the greatest possibility.
“When we do fall short, we should at least try to deliver service the way people want to be served.”
At the beginning of chapel, CU President Dr. Joseph Hopkins introduced Michelli.
“By setting the theme for the spring semester as ‘Serve with Excellence,’” Hopkins said, “we wanted someone who could help us to articulate this well and to begin our year with the thought about what it means to serve with excellence and then to challenge our community to do just that, and once again, it was not difficult.”
“One name rises high above others for me and for most of us, Dr. Joseph Michelli.”
Hopkins presented Michelli with the Campbellsville University Leadership Award for “recognition of his international impact inspiring servant leadership and teaching others exceptional business practices that develop joyful and productive workplace places with the customer as the focus.”
Hopkins also shared that Dr. Michelli will be “joining our faculty as visiting assistant professor.”
“I’ve had the opportunity for a year now to develop a relationship with Dr. Michelli and get to know his heart, his impact, his skills, his talents, and his story,” Hopkins announced. “I’m very proud to say that over that time, we’ve begun to talk about how he might have a vested interest in Campbellsville University itself.”
Chapel is designed to provide opportunities for corporate worship and exposure through a variety of informative speakers and presentations.
Chapels can be viewed on YouTube by searching “Campbellsville University Chapel Playlist.”
Chapels can also be found on the Campbellsville University Facebook page.
Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university that offers over 100 programs including doctoral, master, bachelor, associate and certificate programs. The website for complete information is www.campbellsville.edu.