Sometimes I wonder when I first encounter a concept that has
become important to me and my life’s work.
Sometimes I can remember, but most of the time I have no clue. Often we bump into new concepts and there
would be no way of knowing the concept will become important later in
life. Such it is with the concept of
servant-leadership.
The idea of servant-leadership defines how I have tried to
be a leader. A leader is a leader, but
many leaders are not servant-leaders.
And there are countless servants, but few would be servant-leaders. The reason this concept is important to me is
simple. I think it is a spiritual
approach to leadership. I also happen to
think most of the major world religions have championed this kind of
leadership. I think this is the style of
leadership evidenced by Jesus. That
seems true for the one called the Buddha.
Within many of the other religious traditions, we will find leaders who
also are servants.
The person who coined this idea---at least, in contemporary
times---is Robert Greenleaf. Greenleaf
worked at a major corporation---AT&T back in the mid-twentieth
century. He was a Quaker, which may
partly explain why I was drawn to this idea.
Greenleaf acknowledges that he got his idea of the leader as servant
from reading the German novelist, Hermann Hesse.
I had the good fortune of being with Greenleaf a few times
in the late 1970s and 80s. He was a
captivating man who was knowledgeable, curious and experienced. He was the kind of person who wondered how he
could make everyone’s life better and more meaningful. He was one who wanted our lives at work to
have some significance. The leaders in
our world were largely responsible for aiding the process of helping people
live meaningful lives---at work, at home and at play. If the leaders could be servant-leaders, they
would probably be even more effective.
This is how Greenleaf describes a servant-leader. “The servant-leader is leader first…Becoming
a servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to
serve first. Then conscious choice
brings one to serve to lead…The best test…is this: Do those served grow as
persons? Do they, while being served,
become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to
become servants? And what is the effect
on the least privileged in society, will they benefit or at least not be
further deprived?”
I continue to be fascinated with this approach to
leadership. How amazing would it be if
everyone who aspires to lead has the commitment to lead by first serving? Again, this sounds so much like Jesus or any
responsible spiritual leader. To aspire
to serve first grounds my leadership in a humility that means I am more likely
to use power responsibly. It would mean
that people in positions of authority would have the best interests of their
followers in mind.
I also admire the way Greenleaf offers to test
leadership. What a great question to
ask: do the ones served grow as persons?
How many leaders ponder this question?
No one who is arrogant or power-hungry would care to ask this
question. But don’t you think Jesus
would have asked it? Of course!
Greenleaf continues to make perfect sense to me. Do the people served become healthier? I would suggest this question is posed with
respect to health in its multiple facets: physical, mental and spiritual. I must ask whether the ones I am leader of are
more healthy as a result of my leadership.
Greenleaf pushes further. Do the
ones served become wiser and more free?
It is easy to think of leaders in our community and around the world who
seem to be imprisoning people, rather than freeing them. It is a good question to ask of our own
leaders.
Do those leading enable the served to become more
autonomous? Do the men and women being served
actually become more of the people they are capable of becoming? Or does the leadership make people smaller,
more scared, less and less genuine people.
Unfortunately many work places are doing just that to people. People sometimes go to work as a person and
leave work as a mess!
Effective servant-leaders should be sources of healing and
not hurting. They should be encouragers
and not discouragers. This ties in with
Greenleaf’s last query. Do the
least-privileged in our society come away from my leadership better off…or at
least, no worse off? If a leader’s
effect on the less privileged is negative, then that leadership is a
travesty.
I am sure Robert Greenleaf would have said that he did not
invent this idea of servant-leadership.
It is a genius form of leadership because it is spiritual and that is
why Jesus and so many spiritual giants were servant-leaders. Their work was to heal, free, enlighten. They had followers and they wanted all their
followers and disciples to find wholeness, significance and meaning. Contemporary leaders---all of us---should
want nothing more.
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