Servant Leadership as Spiritual Technology
- Jun 15
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 18
The First Gate of Helping Your Family: Leading From Below the Throne
The following mini lesson is brought to you by the H pillar of the SHIFT Approach, “Help Your Family.”
This pillar embodies the importance of creating Mastermind Alliances, collaborative networks of like minded individuals who support each other’s growth. SHIFT’s approach encourages people to build strong community ties and engage in mutually beneficial ventures that solve everyday challenges. In doing so, we create intergenerational mobility and wealth opportunities that uplift not only the individual but their families and communities.
📜 Lesson Overview
You cannot help your family if you do not understand service as a strategy, empathy as architecture, and humility as power.
This mini-lesson initiates you into the ancient and modern understanding of servant leadership. Not as submission, but as a sovereign act of alignment.
In SHIFT, “Helping Your Family” is not about handouts. It’s about becoming the kind of leader your bloodline has prayed for.
🔥 Key Point to Know: Servant Leadership Is Not Weakness. Servant Leadership is Ancestral Awakening.
In Kemet, the Pharaoh’s greatness was measured not by conquest, but by how well he maintained Ma’at, the order, truth, and harmony of society.
In West African systems, leadership was rotational and sacred, earned through merit, listening, and the ability to resolve conflict.
In early Christian mysticism and Gnostic tradition, Yeshua washed feet before he fed the multitudes. In that act was encoded a principle: true power stoops to lift.
In the SHIFT Framework:
Service is the foundational idea Leadership is built upon.
You build upward by going inward first, and THEN outward.
The one who can bend low in humility rises high in trust and impact.
🧠 Applied Wisdom | Critical Thinking As Inner Vision
Helping your family requires more than resources. It requires discernment. Whereas a colonized mind reacts. The decolonized mind responds with purpose.
If you’re going to serve, you must be able to think above the noise.
Consider these techniques for Enhanced Critical Thinking from the leadership perspective.
Mind your words by asking Questions That Open Doors.
Instead of “Why did this fail?” respond with “What was missing that would have helped this to work out better."
Rise above narrow thinking by Challenging Cultural Assumptions.
Ask yourself:
“Who taught me leadership looks like dominance?”
“Is my definition of ‘success’ inherited from a system that does not serve me or my people?”
Give yourself room to think by Zooming Out, Then Zooming In.
Use strategic detachment to view your decisions in 3 dimensions:
🌀 Family Impact🌀 Generational Consequences🌀 Cultural Ripple Effect
📚 Take a look at this Parable, we'll call it a case study in servant leadership...
The Leader Who Sat Last
There was a village chief who always ate after everyone else had eaten. One day, a visitor asked him, “Why not eat first? You earned it.” He replied,
“I do not lead to be fed. I lead to make sure no one is starving.”
His people never feared famine, because they trusted his eyes were always on their wellbeing. His discipline became their security. His sacrifice became their surplus.
This is the kind of legacy servant leaders leave: not noise, but nutrition.
🛠️ Now it's your turn:
Create a time and space for you to become an active listener.
This is you spending one day per week asking, and not telling.
In a practical way, sit with your team, your family, or clients and ask:
What do you need right now to grow?
What’s blocking you that I may not see?
You do not have to be prepared to act in the very moment, but it is important to know and understand what your community needs in their own words.
Design With Empathy: Take one product, service, or relationship and audit it:
Who is this really serving? And how can I serve better without losing myself?
Sometimes we do things just because, so an audit of our actions in both our personal and business life can be very revealing.
Do One “Beneath the Throne” Act: Wash a metaphorical foot.
Fix the backend workflow no one notices.
Write a thank you note to an often overlooked contributor.
Sit in the back at your own meeting and listen.
Life is all about perspective, and you can learn a lot when you are not sitting on the throne.
These are your rites of passage into intergenerational relevance.
💎 Let's look at one Final Insight before we close this session:
To Help Your Family, You Must Outgrow the Performance of Leadership.
You are not building your life for applause. You are constructing a sanctuary where dignity and design meet. Where legacy is not written in stone, but engraved in systems.
A servant leader becomes the invisible hand that moves generations forward. That is how we help our families...not just with money, but with memory, meaning, and mental freedom.
🧭 If you are reading this along, set a timer for 7 minutes, and give yourself time to reflect. If you are in a group, set a timer for 15 minutes and give your group time to discuss what we just heard using these prompts.
What does servant leadership look like in your household, not just your business?
When have you chosen ego over empathy? What would you do differently now?
Who is the “last to eat” in your circle, and how can you uplift them this week?
What assumptions about leadership were passed down to you that you now reject?
Write one sentence that defines your model of legacy leadership.
📲 Deeper Engagement and a Call to Action:
Begin your servant leadership walk today.
Pick one practice above. Journal it. Live it. Lead from it.
And when you’re ready, move forward to the next SHIFT Gate, we are building leaders who serve from the soul and scale with precision.
Below is the Stewart's Test. Take this critical thinking assessment as part of your reflection time today.
This temple isn’t going to build itself. 🛕✨
BONUS: Innovative Engagement: The Foundational Leader's Blueprint
The Concept:
This is not a quiz. It is a sacred space for self-reflection. This is your guided to creating a one-page visual document. This will become your personal leadership blueprint. This exercise helps you translate the abstract, ancient wisdom from the lesson into a concrete, personal artifact for guiding your actions.
The Prompt:
🏛️ Architect Your Foundation: The Leader's Blueprint
You have received the teaching. Now, you must make it yours. This is not a test of memory, but an act of sovereign creation.
Take a single sheet of paper, a page in your journal, or open your favorite digital tool. We are going to map the foundation of the leader your bloodline has prayed for.
Divide your page into three sections:
Section 1. The Foundation: My Ma'at
The Pharaohs' duty was to uphold Ma'at, which is about truth, harmony, and order.
What is the harmony you are uniquely called to create for your family or community?
In one powerful sentence, define your personal Ma'at.
For example: "My Ma'at is to create a home where open communication replaces assumption," or "My Ma'at is to build a business where every team member feels seen and valued."
One sentence.
Section 2. The Pillars: My Practice
True power stoops to lift.
How will you practice this? For each of the three pillars of foundational leadership, write down one concrete, real-world action you can take.
Leadership Pillar 1 is Humility (I will bend low to...): _______________
Leadership Pillar 2 is Empathy (I will understand by...): _______________
Leadership Pillar 3 is Service (I will contribute by...): _______________
Section 3. The Vision: My Legacy of Nutrition
The chief who sat last left a legacy of "nutrition, not noise."
Looking one generation into the future, what is the single most important form of "nutrition" (wisdom, security, opportunity, love) you want your leadership to have provided?
Take 15 minutes.
Make this blueprint a work of art or a simple sketch.
The goal is not perfection, but intention. This page is your compass.
How to Use Your Blueprint:
For Individuals: Treat this as a sacred, private reflection. Keep your blueprint in a place where you can see it daily. Let it be a private commitment between you and your highest self.
For Families or Groups: This is a powerful tool for building alignment. Invite each member to create their own blueprint privately. Then, hold a "Council of Architects" meeting where each person can share their "Vision" and one of their "Pillars." This isn't for debate, but for understanding the deeper motivations of those you love and lead.
For Businesses & Teams: Use this as a foundational leadership exercise. Have each leader complete their blueprint. In your next strategy session, use these as a starting point to discuss how your company's actions align with the team's deeper sense of service and purpose. It can transform your company culture from one of transactions to one of shared mission.
Let us hear your feedback on this mini lesson
About the Organization
SHIFT Enterprise Academy is where purpose meets profit. We equip entrepreneurs, creatives, and leaders with practical tools and inner wisdom to build sustainable businesses and generational wealth.
From real estate to personal growth, SHIFT is more than a program—it’s a mindset, a movement, and a mission to create change from the inside out.
About the Teacher
Ethan Brisby is a visionary educator and entrepreneur who teaches from lived experience, not just theory. After building SHIFT from scratch and navigating real financial highs and lows, he now helps others unlock true wealth from within.
His approach blends business sense, ancestral wisdom, and spiritual clarity to guide purpose-driven leaders into alignment and legacy.
Part of our mission is to empower leaders with accessible wisdom. Your contribution fuels this work, keeping our lessons free and available for all Enterprisers. Thank you.
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