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Servant Leadership Robert K. Greenleaf spent most of his career in management research. In the 1960’s, after noticing the strong distrust and indifference young people were showing towards institutions, he concluded that the institutions were to blame. He felt that any organization could not be lead well if it couldn’t serve well. In 1970, he wrote The Servant as Leader, an essay about servant leadership. He understood that customers and staff wanted leaders who would listen to them and allow them to reach their personal best. They didn’t want leaders that dominated and just barked out orders.
The main idea of the servant leadership model is that a true leader should inspire us to follow a higher calling- to serve beyond ourselves. The ten characteristics that servant leaders should try and emulate are: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to a person’s growth and the Building of community. Greenleaf said that a servant leader was first a servant. In his essay, he wrote, “It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.“ |
On a small scale, servant leadership brings positive changes in business management and customer service. On a larger scale, it can transform all areas of life, with positive changes throughout society. In many ways, the servant leadership philosophy is an adjunct to the golden rule of do unto others as you would want done to you. Greenleaf’s vision of the servant ethic continues to gain popularity in today’s business world.
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