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It’s been a weekend for the number twos. Lucy Powell was elected Labour’s deputy leader. Kamala Harris has been reflecting on how she handled Joe Biden’s fitness to run for a second term.

Some people think, ‘All roles are stepping stones until I become the boss.’ Others say, ‘Actually, I feel more fulfilled in a number two role. So long as I maintain trust with the top dog, I can focus less on setting the vision and more on embedding it in an organisation, establishing a culture, and empowering individuals at all levels.’

In their book Leading from the Second Chair, Mike Bonem and Roger Patterson suggest the key to thriving in such a role. They say it’s not about planning how you’d act if you were in the first chair. It’s about finding delight in the paradox of being both a leader and a subordinate at the same time.
This dynamic is the stuff of endless comedy. P.G. Wodehouse made a whole career out of the relationship between the all-knowing valet Jeeves and his floundering employer Bertie Wooster. The comedy depends on Wooster getting into scrapes from which only the serene but studiously subservient Jeeves can extricate him. The interplay between Jim Hacker and his senior aide Sir Humphrey in ‘Yes Prime Minister’ is the same.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul turns conventional notions of leadership upside down. He points out how Jesus didn’t treat his equality with the Father as something to be exploited. Instead, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. In doing so, Jesus upset all conventional forms of hierarchy. He demonstrated how true authority can be exercised from any social location.

This displays a different kind of power. Conventional leaders like Pilate, Herod and Caiaphas discover how powerless they are. Obscure characters like lowly Mary and fisherman Peter become influential figures.

The fashion seems currently to be for dictatorial leaders. But the story Paul tells is one in which authority’s something all of us can cultivate. It’s not about getting to be alpha gorilla. It’s recognising that – whatever our official role – we have some, under whose authority we rightly live, and others, over whom we may have formal authority or informal influence. Flourishing is not about the freedom and power of muscling our way to the first chair. It’s about accepting the disciplines and maximising the opportunities of our assigned role so as to serve a greater good. That good is to be a blessing to all in our organisation and beyond.

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