Robert K. Greenleaf
Encyclopedia
Robert K. Greenleaf was the founder of the modern Servant leadership
movement.
Greenleaf was born in Terre Haute, Indiana
in 1904. After graduating from Carleton College
in Minnesota
, he went to work for AT&T
. For the next forty years he researched management, development, and education. All along, he felt a growing suspicion that the power-centered authoritarian leadership style so prominent in U.S. institutions was not working, and in 1964 he took an early retirement to found the Center for Applied Ethics.
’s Journey to the East
. In this story, we see a band of men on a mythical journey… The central figure of the story is Leo, who accompanies the party as the servant who does their menial chores, but who also sustains them with his spirit and his song. He is a person of extraordinary presence. All goes well until Leo disappears. Then the group falls into disarray and the journey is abandoned. They cannot make it without the servant Leo. The narrator, one of the party, after some years of wandering, finds Leo and is taken into the Order that had sponsored the journey. There he discovers that Leo, whom he had known first as servant, was in fact the titular head of the Order, its guiding spirit, a great and noble leader." His essay "Servant as Leader" inspires people all over the world.
A conceptual framework that is helpful for understanding servant-leadership is found in the “Ten Characteristics of the Servant-Leader” described by Larry Spears (1998). Spears distills Greenleaf’s (1977/2002) instrumental means into ten characteristics: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community (pp. 3–6). It is important to note that these characteristics are not simply traits or skills possessed by the leader; a century of research has rejected what Bass and Stogdill (1990) referred to as an “approach [that] tended to treat personality variables in an atomistic fashion, suggesting that each trait acts singly to determine the effects of leadership” (p. 87). Rather, servant-leadership is an ethical perspective on leadership that identifies key moral behaviors that leaders must continuously demonstrate in order to make progress on Greenleaf’s (1977/2002) “best test.” The “best test,” which gives us the ethical ends for action, combined with Spears’ distillation of traits that identified the means, create a powerful framework for a review of the literature that furthers the conceptual framework for servant-leadership.
." Later, the essay was expanded into a book, which is perhaps one of the most influential management texts yet written. The Servant Leadership movement was born.
Of his philosophy, Robert Greenleaf wrote in "Essentials",
Greenleaf’s most important work, Servant Leadership (1977/2002), is subtitled A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness. Though his terms are secular, his definition of leadership is the clearest statement of his belief that the needs of followers are holy and legitimate, and the leaders use of power arises from the consent of the followers. Greenleaf was very focused on action and ends, and he held a Sabbath attitude about organizational life. Like Christ, who said “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” Greenleaf believed that institutions should serve people. He also felt that he was on the threshold of an important historical moment, of a paradigm shift in the collective American response to formal authority.
Greenleaf (2002) felt strongly that his “best test” should apply to all of our institutions. His “best test,” which he knew would be hard to grade, is stated:
Implementing Greenleaf’s ideas in modern American institutions is anathema to many leaders and followers, who desire a different paradigm that is based on coercive power and control rather than legitimate power based on mutual agreements. Greenleaf’s book, however, is the text for anyone interested in connecting the two often disparate terms, servant and leader. His work addressed these two questions in particular: How can leaders serve people? What is the source of legitimate power?
, Inc. He continued writing, fine-tuning his ideas and focusing them on several different areas of leadership. For example, to apply Servant Leadership to an organizational level, he wrote "The Institution as Servant". For educators he wrote "The Leadership Crisis: A Message for College and University Faculty" and "Teacher as Servant". Other writings targeted seminaries, personal growth, religious leaders, and trustees, among others.
Servant leadership
Servant leadership is a philosophy and practice of leadership, coined and defined by Robert K. Greenleaf and supported by many leadership and management writers such as James Autry, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Block, Peter Senge, Max DePree, Scott Greenberg, Larry Spears, Margaret...
movement.
Greenleaf was born in Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute is a city and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, near the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a population of 170,943. The city is the county seat of Vigo County and...
in 1904. After graduating from Carleton College
Carleton College
Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...
in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, he went to work for AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
. For the next forty years he researched management, development, and education. All along, he felt a growing suspicion that the power-centered authoritarian leadership style so prominent in U.S. institutions was not working, and in 1964 he took an early retirement to found the Center for Applied Ethics.
Philosophy
According to his essay, "Essentials of Servant Leadership", Greenleaf’s philosophy had its roots from reading a work of fiction in 1958: "The idea of the servant as leader came out of reading Hermann HesseHermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature...
’s Journey to the East
Journey to the East
Journey to the East is a short novel by German author Hermann Hesse. It was first published in German in 1932 as "Die Morgenlandfahrt". This novel came directly after his biggest international success, Narcissus and Goldmund.-Plot summary:...
. In this story, we see a band of men on a mythical journey… The central figure of the story is Leo, who accompanies the party as the servant who does their menial chores, but who also sustains them with his spirit and his song. He is a person of extraordinary presence. All goes well until Leo disappears. Then the group falls into disarray and the journey is abandoned. They cannot make it without the servant Leo. The narrator, one of the party, after some years of wandering, finds Leo and is taken into the Order that had sponsored the journey. There he discovers that Leo, whom he had known first as servant, was in fact the titular head of the Order, its guiding spirit, a great and noble leader." His essay "Servant as Leader" inspires people all over the world.
A conceptual framework that is helpful for understanding servant-leadership is found in the “Ten Characteristics of the Servant-Leader” described by Larry Spears (1998). Spears distills Greenleaf’s (1977/2002) instrumental means into ten characteristics: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community (pp. 3–6). It is important to note that these characteristics are not simply traits or skills possessed by the leader; a century of research has rejected what Bass and Stogdill (1990) referred to as an “approach [that] tended to treat personality variables in an atomistic fashion, suggesting that each trait acts singly to determine the effects of leadership” (p. 87). Rather, servant-leadership is an ethical perspective on leadership that identifies key moral behaviors that leaders must continuously demonstrate in order to make progress on Greenleaf’s (1977/2002) “best test.” The “best test,” which gives us the ethical ends for action, combined with Spears’ distillation of traits that identified the means, create a powerful framework for a review of the literature that furthers the conceptual framework for servant-leadership.
Works
Greenleaf was captivated by the idea of a servant actually being the leader. In "Essentials" he wrote, “As it was, the idea lay dormant for 11 years during which I came to believe that we in this country were in a leadership crisis and that I should do what I could about it.” In 1970 Greenleaf published his first essay, entitled "The Servant As Leader", which introduced the term "servant leadershipServant leadership
Servant leadership is a philosophy and practice of leadership, coined and defined by Robert K. Greenleaf and supported by many leadership and management writers such as James Autry, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Block, Peter Senge, Max DePree, Scott Greenberg, Larry Spears, Margaret...
." Later, the essay was expanded into a book, which is perhaps one of the most influential management texts yet written. The Servant Leadership movement was born.
Of his philosophy, Robert Greenleaf wrote in "Essentials",
"The servant-leader is servant first... Becoming a servant-leader 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... 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 the most difficult to administer, 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?"
Greenleaf’s most important work, Servant Leadership (1977/2002), is subtitled A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness. Though his terms are secular, his definition of leadership is the clearest statement of his belief that the needs of followers are holy and legitimate, and the leaders use of power arises from the consent of the followers. Greenleaf was very focused on action and ends, and he held a Sabbath attitude about organizational life. Like Christ, who said “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” Greenleaf believed that institutions should serve people. He also felt that he was on the threshold of an important historical moment, of a paradigm shift in the collective American response to formal authority.
"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" [italics original]
Greenleaf (2002) felt strongly that his “best test” should apply to all of our institutions. His “best test,” which he knew would be hard to grade, is stated:
Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served [italics original], become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And [italics original], what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?.
Implementing Greenleaf’s ideas in modern American institutions is anathema to many leaders and followers, who desire a different paradigm that is based on coercive power and control rather than legitimate power based on mutual agreements. Greenleaf’s book, however, is the text for anyone interested in connecting the two often disparate terms, servant and leader. His work addressed these two questions in particular: How can leaders serve people? What is the source of legitimate power?
Consulting work
Through the next twenty-five years Greenleaf served as a consultant to such notable institutions as MIT, the American Foundation for Management Research, and Lilly EndowmentLilly Endowment
Lilly Endowment Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana is one of the world's largest private philanthropic foundations and is among the ten largest such endowments in the United States....
, Inc. He continued writing, fine-tuning his ideas and focusing them on several different areas of leadership. For example, to apply Servant Leadership to an organizational level, he wrote "The Institution as Servant". For educators he wrote "The Leadership Crisis: A Message for College and University Faculty" and "Teacher as Servant". Other writings targeted seminaries, personal growth, religious leaders, and trustees, among others.