The Seven Pillars of Preeminence with Glen Jackson, Part 2

Devotional

Day 1: The Men’s Room Moment of Servant Leadership

A chance encounter in an airport restroom revealed the heart of true leadership. When Truitt Cathy helped a pregnant stranger with her luggage after washing his hands, he modeled that no task is too small for a servant leader. His actions demonstrated that greatness lives in ordinary moments where dignity is given through simple acts of care. Resilient organizations carry this torch by valuing people over prestige, choosing humility over hierarchy. [14:51]

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”
(John 13:14-15, ESV)

Reflection: What “small” task have you avoided that could deepen your leadership impact? How might serving in unnoticed ways strengthen your team’s culture?

Day 2: “We Just Opened Our Doors Today”

Approaching each day as if the business were new cultivates both hunger and humility. This mindset resists complacency, fuels innovation, and prioritizes client needs over past successes. Like a startup founder laying out rented furniture, it grounds leaders in gratitude while sharpening focus on what truly matters: delivering value, not resting on reputation. [17:13]

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
(Lamentations 3:22-23, ESV)

Reflection: Where has familiarity bred carelessness in your work? What would it look like to approach your next project with “first day” urgency?

Day 3: The Sleep Committee Versus the Pressure Trap

Distraction often comes disguised as opportunity. Resilient organizations sleep on decisions, resisting the urge to chase every shiny object. Like a basketball coach shouting “Next play!” after each possession, they stay fixed on their process, knowing true progress follows patience. [19:20]

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.”
(Proverbs 21:5, ESV)

Reflection: What recent decision have you rushed due to pressure? How might waiting reveal whether it aligns with core priorities?

Day 4: The Greenhouse Where People Flourish

Healthy cultures act like greenhouses—controlled environments where growth is intentional. They combine light (transparency), nutrients (development), and protection (values) so individuals and ideas thrive. Just as Publix employees braved storms to guard customers’ groceries, flourishing teams weather challenges through shared care. [10:04]

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
(Colossians 3:23-24, ESV)

Reflection: Does your work environment feel more like a greenhouse or a desert? What one change could help others grow?

Day 5: Remaining Through the Storm

Resiliency isn’t surviving the storm—it’s building structures that outlast it. Publix’s 85-year legacy without layoffs proves that steadfastness creates loyalty. Like a tree deepening roots during drought, preeminent organizations use trials to strengthen their core rather than compromise it. [23:46]

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
(James 1:12, ESV)

Reflection: What current challenge could become your organization’s defining test of character? How might steadfastness here bear fruit for decades?

Sermon Summary

Preeminence is defined as “extraordinary excellence, once reached and sustained, creates a competitive advantage.” Profit, size, and client count are not the real scorecard. Peer respect is. Preeminence shows up when other organizations want to emulate, visit, ask questions, and look for the secret sauce.

Assessment becomes the fourth pillar because an organization cannot become preeminent while only working in the business. Assessment forces leadership to work on the business with a wide-angle lens. The key questions keep the organization honest: what needs to be anticipated, what needs to be fixed, what needs to be improved, where innovation needs to happen, where giving back belongs, how leadership is growing, and what the wise thing is to do. Experience alone does not make an organization better. Only evaluated experience makes it better.

The cultural torch of servant leadership becomes the fifth pillar because healthy cultures shine. Culture is pictured like a greenhouse where ideas and people flourish, where nutrients, light, and energy help team members grow. Healthy cultures attract talent, actualize potential, permeate the DNA and bone marrow of the organization, create bonding traditions, eject bad cultural fits, and deliver rewards before results. Those rewards are fun, fascination, future, and financial care. Results do not create that culture. Those rewards drive the results.

Servant leadership is not just a leadership phrase with the grit worn off. It means no task is too small and no task is too big. Truitt Cathy’s simple kindness in handing over a Chick-fil-A card, helping a pregnant woman with her luggage, and then giving a major public talk the same day made the point plain. The cultural torch is carried in the little things and the big things.

Fanatical focus becomes the sixth pillar because preeminent organizations stay in their swim lane. Success can distract an organization, and strong cashflow can make too many opportunities look like obligations. “Opportunity doesn’t equal obligation” keeps focus sharp. Focus requires process, patience, and the humility of acting like the doors just opened today.

Resiliency becomes the seventh pillar because preeminence must be sustained. Resilient organizations are in the stamina business. They do not give up, give out, or give in. A “remain mindset” understands that it is easier to become a success than to remain a success, and that storms often create the very conditions where durable organizations gain ground.

Key Takeaways

1. Assessment keeps leaders out front Assessment is the discipline of getting out of the daily rush long enough to see the whole field. The questions may be a pain in the neck, but they expose what must be anticipated, fixed, improved, and wisely decided. A leader who avoids those questions may protect the calendar, but the organization slowly loses the advantage that careful evaluation creates. [04:05]
2. Servant leadership carries the torch Servant leadership becomes cultural when it is visible in ordinary moments, not just formal values. A leader who treats small tasks as beneath him teaches the culture to rank people by convenience and status. A leader who can help with luggage and then step onto a bigger stage shows that humility and weighty responsibility belong together. [14:29]
3. Rewards come before results Healthy cultures do not treat results as magic fruit that appears from pressure alone. Fun, fascination, future, and financial care become the soil where strong results can actually grow. When people can enjoy the work, stay intellectually alive, see a future, and be cared for rightly, performance has roots instead of just demands. [11:24]
4. Focus says no with discipline Fanatical focus protects the organization from the danger of good opportunities. Success can blur vision because cashflow makes more options feel possible and urgent. The disciplined organization stays with process, sleeps on decisions, and refuses to let pressure replace priority. [18:24]
5. Resiliency learns how to remain Resiliency is not just bouncing back after a bad moment. It is stamina over time, the grit to stay on course through peaks, valleys, storms, and economic headwinds. The remain mindset remembers that becoming successful is often easier than sustaining success with humility, hunger, and consistency. [20:17]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:22] - Defining Preeminence
[02:35] - Pillar Four: Assessment
[04:05] - Seven Assessment Questions
[06:26] - Evaluated Experience Creates Growth
[08:29] - The Cultural Torch
[09:35] - Healthy Culture as a Greenhouse
[11:05] - Rewards Before Results
[12:58] - Truitt Cathy and Servant Leadership
[15:13] - Pillar Six: Fanatical Focus
[16:34] - Process, Humility, and Hunger
[18:24] - What Losing Focus Costs
[19:54] - Pillar Seven: Resiliency
[22:26] - Resiliency as Competitive Advantage
[23:46] - Seven Pillars Revisited

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Philippians 2:3-4 (ESV)
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

1 Corinthians 9:24-25 (ESV)
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

Galatians 6:9 (ESV)
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Observation Questions

In Philippians 2:3-4, what specific attitudes and actions does Paul instruct believers to avoid, and what does he encourage instead?
The sermon emphasized that "evaluated experience" drives growth, not just experience itself ([06:26]). What examples were given to explain this principle?
How does 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 connect to the idea of "fanatical focus" discussed in the sermon ([15:55])?

Interpretation Questions

Why might Paul emphasize humility and prioritizing others’ interests in Philippians 2:3-4 as essential for unity and effectiveness? How does this relate to the "cultural torch of servant leadership"?
The sermon states, "Rewards come before results" ([11:24]). How does this principle challenge common assumptions about motivation in organizations or personal goals?
Galatians 6:9 warns against growing weary. How does the "remain mindset" described in the sermon ([20:17]) align with this biblical call to perseverance?

Application Questions

Servant leadership is described as "no task too small, no task too big" ([14:29]). What is one practical way you could serve someone this week in a "small" act that reflects humility?
The "assessment" pillar asks, "What is the wise thing to do?" ([06:08]). What area of your life or work needs intentional evaluation right now, and what questions would help you gain clarity?
"Opportunity doesn’t equal obligation" ([15:55]). Where are you currently feeling pressured to say "yes" to something that distracts from your core priorities? How could you practice saying "no" with grace?
Resiliency requires "stamina over time" ([20:17]). What habit or relationship helps you stay grounded during challenges? How could you strengthen that this month?
The sermon highlights "fun, fascination, future, and financial care" as rewards that drive results ([11:24]). Which of these feels most neglected in your current season? What step could you take to cultivate it?

Sermon Clips

"One of my professors used to say experience doesn't make you better. Only evaluated experience makes you better. Experience just puts you in a rut. The challenge with these excellent questions are they're really kind of a pain in the neck because I come to work every day like most people to get things done and to make progress and to move the organization down the field." [00:06:27]

""My pleasure." And for a 31-year-old entrepreneur, businessman, just wet behind the ears entrepreneur, it showed me first, no task is too small for the servant leader. But later he went and gave a huge talk to the Washington Press Club at noon - That same day. That same day. Yeah. No task is too big for the servant leader." [00:14:51]

"Yeah, it's always focusing on what you do best. That's what fanatical focus is all about. It's staying in your swim lane and staying patient and never forcing a decision. I think great organizations that are preeminent are never, Andy, distracted by their success. They have unbelievable focus and they say no to things that could blur their focus and their overarching vision." [00:15:37]

"I think that the best cultures, preeminent companies have a torch that they carry with them every single day. And this torch is attractive, it's warm, it's bright and other people notice it and want to be around it. And externally, when you carry that cultural torch around, other people notice and it helps strengthen your brand and it also obviously strengthens your reputation and growth as a business." [00:08:42]

"I think these questions I'm about to go over are so important because I think the assessment pillar, if you don't have the assessment pillar, you will not be preeminent, Andy. It's that important. So these questions, you can phrase them however you want to phrase them, but the questions for me from our experiences, one is what do we need to anticipate?" [00:04:05]

"Yeah, there are four rewards. I think these rewards drive the results. The first reward that every healthy culture is providing team members is fun. I think they're having fun with what they do. Number two is fascination. Particularly seeing this with the millennial generation that they're fascinated with the intellectual pursuit of the business. They are fascinated with how it's growing and what the next turn is around the corner. You want to have a business, an organization that's always fascinating your people." [00:11:40]

"And last month we talked about the fact that you know you have become a preeminent organization, not based on profit, not based on a number of clients or customers, but based on what your peers say about you within an industry or even organizations outside your industry, that you become the organization other organizations want to emulate, want to visit, want to send their folks to see, ask the questions, look for the secret sauce." [00:01:42]

"But your point is to be a preeminent organization and to be an organization other organizations look at and say, wow, they're getting it done. What can we learn from them? Somebody in that organization and somewhere in that organization, these questions are being asked on a regular basis." [00:08:00]

"I think it's a lot about stamina. I will say to our folks a lot, we're in the stamina business. It involves grit. It involves determination, unyielding commitment to getting the job done, not giving up, not giving out, not giving in. That's what resilient companies are all about." [00:20:10]

"Sure. Culture for me is, I define it like Adam Bryant does in his book, Quick and imbal so well, that healthy cultures are places where ideas and people flourish. It's like being in a greenhouse where the nutrients and the light and the energy are helping grow your team members and the overall business as a whole." [00:09:35]

"There's a dramatic difference, Andy. I think working in the business is just the day-to-day functions of your business as a whole. But when you're working on the business, you're looking at the business with a wide angle lens and you are taking a very, very, very broader look and perspective at your business and trying to make it better with some systematic questions you need to ask yourself." [00:03:17]

"Well, one of the main things I've learned is it takes discipline, Andy. I think sticking to a process is really important. So the right process leads to the right results. So whatever your process is, you stick to it. I think preeminent businesses do that." [00:16:38]

"Yes, it is. How and where can we give back? It's about obviously any business should be, I believe, about great work and good works. And this question relates to the good works piece. And then the next question is, how am I growing as a leader? I believe very strongly that leadership growth leads to revenue growth, Andy." [00:05:36]

"Well, I think as we talked about earlier, healthy cultures do shine externally. I think they also do some other things. They attract and retain top talent. They actualize, Andy. In other words, they take people and they actualize their potential. So healthy cultures actualize. They also permeate." [00:10:28]

"It's always assessing your business with some key questions that you need to ask yourself to make sure you are on the business, not just in the business, Andy. Yeah, the idea of working on it rather than in it is something we talk about all the time." [00:02:55]

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