Servant Leadership & Robert K. Greenleaf
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. . . . The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant — first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likelythemselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or at least, not be further deprived?”
When I posted on Missional Leadership on Monday, I posted assuming most people were familiar with Robert K. Greenleaf. From the emails and comments I received, I realize that isn’t necessarily the case. Therefore, I wanted to take this post to introduce you to him and his important contribution to the development of servant leadership.
Born 1904, Robert K. Greenleaf is often referred to as the father of the Servant Leadership Movement. Inspired by Hermann Hesse’s “Journey To The East”, Greenleaf believed that the most effective form of leadership was that of a servant. Where many speak of servant leadership in shallow terms giving little more than lip service, Greenleaf saw in explicit detail how these values could (and should) transform leadership in all areas of life. His pivotal book “Servant As Leader” is still seen as foundational text for leadership and management theory.
Perhaps what surprises people most when introduced to Greenleaf and his ideas is that his primary field of application and teaching was the business world. Though seemingly “secular” in his authority, his writings reflect deeply spiritual values and overtones. This integrated view of leadership makes his ideas deeply missional, with full life application.
His other works include:
Teacher as Servant: A Parable
Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
The Power of Servant Leadership: Essays
The Servant Leader Within: A Transformative Path
Servant, Leader & Follower
On Becoming a Servant-Leader
Seeker and Servant: Reflections on Religious Leadership
If you have not read any Greenleaf, go out today and pick something up. It is well worth it.
“A fresh critical look is being taken at the issues of power and authority, and people are beginning to learn, however haltingly, to relate to one another in less coercive and more creatively supporting ways. A new moral principle is emerging, which holds that the only authority deserving of one’s allegiance is that which is freely and knowingly granted by the led to the leader in response to, and in proportion to, the clearly evident servant stature of the leader. Those who choose to follow this principle will not casually accept the authority of existing institutions. Rather, they will freely respond only to individuals who are chosen as leaders because they are proven and trusted as servants. To the extent that this principle prevails in the future, the only truly viable institutions will be those that are predominantly servant led” (Robert K. Greenleaf, “Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness” pg. 24).
Its a little scary when Greenleaf himself gets the central (Arabic) book cover upside down. Maybe contextualisation only goes so far…
MENA,
Yes, it is upside down, something my blogging platform won’t allow me to correct at the moment. This is an image from the publishers website. I corrected downloaded the image and corrected it, but can’t successfully upload it to the post. Alas!
Peace,
Jamie
Yes! Fix it.
Jamie – thanks for the post. I’m one of those who had not heard of Greenleaf. Which book would you recommend for a newbie?
DAWN
McDLT,
Glad to help! Servant As Leader is excellent.
Peace,
Jamie
Greenleaf made a good beginning. Its interesting to place his work in context and then ask how it impacted the evangelical world. The impact was a lot of talk and reflection on leaders as servants.. the effect was virtually no change. We still had hierarchy, we still had congregations of passive consumers. We still had leaders who served, not servants who led. In retrospect there was no shift in paradigm, though there was some insight as to how that might begin.
Len,
Sadly, Greenleaf was better received in “secular” spheres in respect to the practice of servant leadership. I think its failure to impact the evangelical world is our failing, not his. His writings were crucial in my own journey towards the emerging-missional movement.
Peace,
Jamie
It’s true he was “ahead of his time” in that sense. But I also wonder if he went .. in one way.. too far by making servant leadership accessible as another technique (or, Pelagian). The leadership Jesus lived, and Christian leaders should also lived, is empowered by the Holy Spirit. What Sandra Cronk wrote of George Fox on peace applies: “He did not just say that war was morally wrong and we should try not to be part of it. He did not say that the Sermon on the Mount prohibited fighting and that we were to obey its precepts, so as to usher in God’s kingdom. Rather he said that he lived in a power (God’s power) which eradicated the causes of war from his heart. War was no longer possible for him
because he already lived in the peaceable kingdom, not because he hoped to bring it about with his efforts.”
Len,
I think there might be some validity in that critique, but I think that negative is minor compared the imbalance he was seeking to repair. The kind of change needed requires an incremental process- evolution, not revolution (though the latter is sometimes necessary). Given these failings, I still believe the larger Body of Christ in the West could only benefit from his ideas.
Peace,
Jamie
Jamie, you’re right, Greenleaf is still “current” in that sense.. we can still learn from him. And then keep learning and go beyond him
Leadership as “servanthood” alone is still too flat, we need a 3d picture or a hologram.. its also about imagination and inspiration and missional leadership will need to track on all these dimensions.
Len,
I agree completely.
Peace,
Jamie