Servant Leadership

The church needs saints and servants, not “leaders,” and if we forget the priority of service, the entire idea of leadership becomes dangerous. Leadership training must still follow the pattern our Lord used with his twelve. (J. Oswald Sanders)

What does the headship in marriage call a husband to do or be? Servant-leadership. (R. Kent Hughes)

The church needs saints and servants, not “leaders,” and if we forget the priority of service, the entire idea of leadership becomes dangerous. Leadership training must still follow the pattern our Lord used with his twelve. J. Oswald Sanders)

Jesus came to serve and give his life for many, and so also must our service be to benefit others, not ourselves. Servant leadership is selfless. (Aubrey M. Maiphurs)

Servant leadership is required precisely because servanthood is the basic stance of all truly Christian behavior, modeled as it was by the “Servant King” himself. (Gordon Fee)

Servant leadership is characterized by valuing people, developing people, building community, displaying authenticity, providing leadership, and sharing leadership. Mark L. Strauss)

Here’s the heart of my ethos and the foundation of everything I will say in this book: there’s leadership, and then there’s Christian leadership. Christian leadership is categorically different from any other mode of leadership. (Tim Suttle; Scot McKnight)

Robert K. Greenleaf and Larry Spears, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness, 25th Anniversary Edition. Paulist Press, 2002.

Companion volume: Sipe and Frick, Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership

Referenced in: Servant Leadership

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

Greenleaf’s books and his organization, The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership are the recognized authorities on this subject. His principles are universally applied by not-for-profit and for-profit organizations, including schools, hospitals, churches, and businesses.

The Greenleaf website features several quotes (also found in the book) that capture the essence of the Greenleaf philosophy. First is what he called the “credo.”

“This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions – often large, complex, powerful, impersonal; not always competent; sometimes corrupt. If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”

Second is where Greenleaf offers a definition of servant leadership:

“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. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”

“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 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?”

Greenleaf’s conceptualization of servant leadership is widely regarded as one of most useful statements on leadership in the last half-century. He has received accolades from authors such as Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, and Margaret Wheatley. His books should be required reading for every leader . Although his application context is non-profit boards, education, and health care, his insights are universally applicable.