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FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP
spea_ffirsqxd 101501 1111 AM Page i
BOOKS EDITED BY LARRY C SPEARS
Focus on Leadership Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury (with Michele Lawrence) 2002
The Power of Servant-Leadership 1998
Insights on Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership 1998
On Becoming a Servant-Leader (with Don M Frick) 1996
Seeker and Servant (with Anne T Fraker) 1996
Reflections on Leadership How Robert K Greenleafrsquos Theory ofServant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos Top Management Thinkers1995
As Contributing Author
Cutting Edge Leadership 2000 edited by Barbara Kellerman andLarraine Matusak 2000
Stone Soup for the World edited by Marianne Larned 1998
Leadership in a New Era edited by John Renesch 1994
spea_ffirsqxd 101501 1111 AM Page ii
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP
Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-First Century
Edited by
Larry C Spears and Michele Lawrence
JOHN WILEY amp SONS INC
spea_ffirsqxd 101501 1111 AM Page iii
Copyright copy 2002 by The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc New York
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmittedin any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording scanningor otherwise except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United StatesCopyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Publisher orauthorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright ClearanceCenter 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax (978) 750-4744Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the PermissionsDepartment John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY 10158-0012(212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 E-Mail PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard tothe subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is notengaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-41162-0 Some content that appears inthe print version of this book may not be available in this electronic edition
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
fcopyebkqxd 102501 908 AM Page iv
v
C ON T E N T S
Foreword The Heart of Servant-Leadership ixKen Blanchard
Preface xiii
Introduction Tracing the Past Present andFuture of Servant-Leadership 1
Larry C Spears
Part One
Servant-Leadership and the Individual
1 Essentials of Servant-Leadership 19Robert K Greenleaf
2 Servant-Leadership and Community Leadershipin the Twenty-First Century 27
Stephen R Covey
3 Servant-Leadership and the Imaginative Life 35Michael Jones
4 Leadership as Partnership 47Russ S Moxley
5 Teaching Servant-Leadership 53Hamilton Beazley and Julie Beggs
6 Fannie Lou Hamer Servant of the People 65Lea E Williams
7 Servant-Leadership Three Things Necessary 89Max DePree
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page v
vi CONTENTS
Part Two
Servant-Leadership in the Workplace
8 Become a Tomorrow Leader 101Warren Bennis
9 Servant-Leadership and Rewiring theCorporate Brain 111
Danah Zohar
10 Servant-Leadership and the Best Companiesto Work For in America 123
Nancy Larner Ruschman
11 From Hero-as-Leader to Servant-as-Leader 141Ann McGee-Cooper and Duane Trammell
12 The Business Case for Servant-Leadership 153James D Showkeir
13 On the Right Side of History 167John C Bogle
Part Three
Servant-Leadership in the Community
14 The Unique Double Servant-Leadership Role of theBoard Chair 189
John Carver
15 Servant-Leadership in Community Colleges 211Ruth Mercedes Smith and Kent A Farnsworth
16 Servant-Leadership and Philanthropic Institutions 223John Burkhardt and Larry C Spears
17 Foresight The Lead That the Leader Has 245David S Young
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vi
CONTENTS vii
18 Servant-Leadership and Creativity 257Tamyra L Freeman Scott G Isaksen andK Brian Dorval
19 Table for Six Billion Please 269Judy Wicks
Part Four
Servant-Leadership for the World
20 Synchronicity and Servant-Leadership 287Joseph Jaworski
21 Servant-Leadership Leading in Todayrsquos Military 295Rubye Howard Braye
22 Leadership and the Chaordic Age 305Dee Hock
23 Servant-Leadership Public LeadershipWrestling with an American Paradox 321
Scott W Webster
24 Servant-Leadership and the New Economy 333John P Schuster
25 The Work of the Servant-Leader 349Margaret Wheatley
Afterword A Remembrance of Robert K Greenleaf 363Larry C Spears
Acknowledgments 367
About the Editors and the Greenleaf Center forServant-Leadership 369
Permissions and Copyrights 373
Recommended Reading 377
Index 381
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vii
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page viii
ix
FOR E WOR D
THE HEART OF SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
Ken Blanchard
I AM EXCITED ABOUT this book Why Because I am a fan of RobertGreenleaf and think that servant-leadership is the foundation for ef-fective leadership
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Greenleaf in the late 1960swhen I was at Ohio University in Athens Ohio I was attracted tothe school because Vernon Alden had come as president of the uni-versity with the vision of creating the ldquoHarvard of the MidwestrdquoHe had recruited all kinds of exciting people and resources to makethis vision a reality
I went to Ohio University in 1966 as an administrative assistant tothe dean of the School of Business Administration to help developa graduate program in administration In this role I participated inthe activities of the Ohio Fellows Groupmdasha special undergraduateleadership program designed by Les Rollins a longtime friend ofRobert Greenleaf Alden and Rollins were two of the first boardmembers for The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership (thencalled The Center for Applied Ethics)
When Greenleaf spent a weekend with the students I was en-thralled with his thinking In fact when I got a chance to teach Itried to put his servant-leadership concepts into practice At thattime I began my practice of always giving the students the finalexam during the first day of class When I started doing that otherfaculty members would ask ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page ix
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP
spea_ffirsqxd 101501 1111 AM Page i
BOOKS EDITED BY LARRY C SPEARS
Focus on Leadership Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury (with Michele Lawrence) 2002
The Power of Servant-Leadership 1998
Insights on Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership 1998
On Becoming a Servant-Leader (with Don M Frick) 1996
Seeker and Servant (with Anne T Fraker) 1996
Reflections on Leadership How Robert K Greenleafrsquos Theory ofServant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos Top Management Thinkers1995
As Contributing Author
Cutting Edge Leadership 2000 edited by Barbara Kellerman andLarraine Matusak 2000
Stone Soup for the World edited by Marianne Larned 1998
Leadership in a New Era edited by John Renesch 1994
spea_ffirsqxd 101501 1111 AM Page ii
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP
Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-First Century
Edited by
Larry C Spears and Michele Lawrence
JOHN WILEY amp SONS INC
spea_ffirsqxd 101501 1111 AM Page iii
Copyright copy 2002 by The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc New York
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmittedin any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording scanningor otherwise except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United StatesCopyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Publisher orauthorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright ClearanceCenter 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax (978) 750-4744Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the PermissionsDepartment John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY 10158-0012(212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 E-Mail PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard tothe subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is notengaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-41162-0 Some content that appears inthe print version of this book may not be available in this electronic edition
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
fcopyebkqxd 102501 908 AM Page iv
v
C ON T E N T S
Foreword The Heart of Servant-Leadership ixKen Blanchard
Preface xiii
Introduction Tracing the Past Present andFuture of Servant-Leadership 1
Larry C Spears
Part One
Servant-Leadership and the Individual
1 Essentials of Servant-Leadership 19Robert K Greenleaf
2 Servant-Leadership and Community Leadershipin the Twenty-First Century 27
Stephen R Covey
3 Servant-Leadership and the Imaginative Life 35Michael Jones
4 Leadership as Partnership 47Russ S Moxley
5 Teaching Servant-Leadership 53Hamilton Beazley and Julie Beggs
6 Fannie Lou Hamer Servant of the People 65Lea E Williams
7 Servant-Leadership Three Things Necessary 89Max DePree
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page v
vi CONTENTS
Part Two
Servant-Leadership in the Workplace
8 Become a Tomorrow Leader 101Warren Bennis
9 Servant-Leadership and Rewiring theCorporate Brain 111
Danah Zohar
10 Servant-Leadership and the Best Companiesto Work For in America 123
Nancy Larner Ruschman
11 From Hero-as-Leader to Servant-as-Leader 141Ann McGee-Cooper and Duane Trammell
12 The Business Case for Servant-Leadership 153James D Showkeir
13 On the Right Side of History 167John C Bogle
Part Three
Servant-Leadership in the Community
14 The Unique Double Servant-Leadership Role of theBoard Chair 189
John Carver
15 Servant-Leadership in Community Colleges 211Ruth Mercedes Smith and Kent A Farnsworth
16 Servant-Leadership and Philanthropic Institutions 223John Burkhardt and Larry C Spears
17 Foresight The Lead That the Leader Has 245David S Young
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vi
CONTENTS vii
18 Servant-Leadership and Creativity 257Tamyra L Freeman Scott G Isaksen andK Brian Dorval
19 Table for Six Billion Please 269Judy Wicks
Part Four
Servant-Leadership for the World
20 Synchronicity and Servant-Leadership 287Joseph Jaworski
21 Servant-Leadership Leading in Todayrsquos Military 295Rubye Howard Braye
22 Leadership and the Chaordic Age 305Dee Hock
23 Servant-Leadership Public LeadershipWrestling with an American Paradox 321
Scott W Webster
24 Servant-Leadership and the New Economy 333John P Schuster
25 The Work of the Servant-Leader 349Margaret Wheatley
Afterword A Remembrance of Robert K Greenleaf 363Larry C Spears
Acknowledgments 367
About the Editors and the Greenleaf Center forServant-Leadership 369
Permissions and Copyrights 373
Recommended Reading 377
Index 381
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vii
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page viii
ix
FOR E WOR D
THE HEART OF SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
Ken Blanchard
I AM EXCITED ABOUT this book Why Because I am a fan of RobertGreenleaf and think that servant-leadership is the foundation for ef-fective leadership
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Greenleaf in the late 1960swhen I was at Ohio University in Athens Ohio I was attracted tothe school because Vernon Alden had come as president of the uni-versity with the vision of creating the ldquoHarvard of the MidwestrdquoHe had recruited all kinds of exciting people and resources to makethis vision a reality
I went to Ohio University in 1966 as an administrative assistant tothe dean of the School of Business Administration to help developa graduate program in administration In this role I participated inthe activities of the Ohio Fellows Groupmdasha special undergraduateleadership program designed by Les Rollins a longtime friend ofRobert Greenleaf Alden and Rollins were two of the first boardmembers for The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership (thencalled The Center for Applied Ethics)
When Greenleaf spent a weekend with the students I was en-thralled with his thinking In fact when I got a chance to teach Itried to put his servant-leadership concepts into practice At thattime I began my practice of always giving the students the finalexam during the first day of class When I started doing that otherfaculty members would ask ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page ix
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
BOOKS EDITED BY LARRY C SPEARS
Focus on Leadership Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury (with Michele Lawrence) 2002
The Power of Servant-Leadership 1998
Insights on Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership 1998
On Becoming a Servant-Leader (with Don M Frick) 1996
Seeker and Servant (with Anne T Fraker) 1996
Reflections on Leadership How Robert K Greenleafrsquos Theory ofServant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos Top Management Thinkers1995
As Contributing Author
Cutting Edge Leadership 2000 edited by Barbara Kellerman andLarraine Matusak 2000
Stone Soup for the World edited by Marianne Larned 1998
Leadership in a New Era edited by John Renesch 1994
spea_ffirsqxd 101501 1111 AM Page ii
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP
Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-First Century
Edited by
Larry C Spears and Michele Lawrence
JOHN WILEY amp SONS INC
spea_ffirsqxd 101501 1111 AM Page iii
Copyright copy 2002 by The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc New York
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmittedin any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording scanningor otherwise except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United StatesCopyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Publisher orauthorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright ClearanceCenter 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax (978) 750-4744Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the PermissionsDepartment John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY 10158-0012(212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 E-Mail PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard tothe subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is notengaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-41162-0 Some content that appears inthe print version of this book may not be available in this electronic edition
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
fcopyebkqxd 102501 908 AM Page iv
v
C ON T E N T S
Foreword The Heart of Servant-Leadership ixKen Blanchard
Preface xiii
Introduction Tracing the Past Present andFuture of Servant-Leadership 1
Larry C Spears
Part One
Servant-Leadership and the Individual
1 Essentials of Servant-Leadership 19Robert K Greenleaf
2 Servant-Leadership and Community Leadershipin the Twenty-First Century 27
Stephen R Covey
3 Servant-Leadership and the Imaginative Life 35Michael Jones
4 Leadership as Partnership 47Russ S Moxley
5 Teaching Servant-Leadership 53Hamilton Beazley and Julie Beggs
6 Fannie Lou Hamer Servant of the People 65Lea E Williams
7 Servant-Leadership Three Things Necessary 89Max DePree
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page v
vi CONTENTS
Part Two
Servant-Leadership in the Workplace
8 Become a Tomorrow Leader 101Warren Bennis
9 Servant-Leadership and Rewiring theCorporate Brain 111
Danah Zohar
10 Servant-Leadership and the Best Companiesto Work For in America 123
Nancy Larner Ruschman
11 From Hero-as-Leader to Servant-as-Leader 141Ann McGee-Cooper and Duane Trammell
12 The Business Case for Servant-Leadership 153James D Showkeir
13 On the Right Side of History 167John C Bogle
Part Three
Servant-Leadership in the Community
14 The Unique Double Servant-Leadership Role of theBoard Chair 189
John Carver
15 Servant-Leadership in Community Colleges 211Ruth Mercedes Smith and Kent A Farnsworth
16 Servant-Leadership and Philanthropic Institutions 223John Burkhardt and Larry C Spears
17 Foresight The Lead That the Leader Has 245David S Young
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vi
CONTENTS vii
18 Servant-Leadership and Creativity 257Tamyra L Freeman Scott G Isaksen andK Brian Dorval
19 Table for Six Billion Please 269Judy Wicks
Part Four
Servant-Leadership for the World
20 Synchronicity and Servant-Leadership 287Joseph Jaworski
21 Servant-Leadership Leading in Todayrsquos Military 295Rubye Howard Braye
22 Leadership and the Chaordic Age 305Dee Hock
23 Servant-Leadership Public LeadershipWrestling with an American Paradox 321
Scott W Webster
24 Servant-Leadership and the New Economy 333John P Schuster
25 The Work of the Servant-Leader 349Margaret Wheatley
Afterword A Remembrance of Robert K Greenleaf 363Larry C Spears
Acknowledgments 367
About the Editors and the Greenleaf Center forServant-Leadership 369
Permissions and Copyrights 373
Recommended Reading 377
Index 381
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vii
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page viii
ix
FOR E WOR D
THE HEART OF SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
Ken Blanchard
I AM EXCITED ABOUT this book Why Because I am a fan of RobertGreenleaf and think that servant-leadership is the foundation for ef-fective leadership
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Greenleaf in the late 1960swhen I was at Ohio University in Athens Ohio I was attracted tothe school because Vernon Alden had come as president of the uni-versity with the vision of creating the ldquoHarvard of the MidwestrdquoHe had recruited all kinds of exciting people and resources to makethis vision a reality
I went to Ohio University in 1966 as an administrative assistant tothe dean of the School of Business Administration to help developa graduate program in administration In this role I participated inthe activities of the Ohio Fellows Groupmdasha special undergraduateleadership program designed by Les Rollins a longtime friend ofRobert Greenleaf Alden and Rollins were two of the first boardmembers for The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership (thencalled The Center for Applied Ethics)
When Greenleaf spent a weekend with the students I was en-thralled with his thinking In fact when I got a chance to teach Itried to put his servant-leadership concepts into practice At thattime I began my practice of always giving the students the finalexam during the first day of class When I started doing that otherfaculty members would ask ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page ix
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP
Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-First Century
Edited by
Larry C Spears and Michele Lawrence
JOHN WILEY amp SONS INC
spea_ffirsqxd 101501 1111 AM Page iii
Copyright copy 2002 by The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc New York
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmittedin any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording scanningor otherwise except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United StatesCopyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Publisher orauthorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright ClearanceCenter 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax (978) 750-4744Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the PermissionsDepartment John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY 10158-0012(212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 E-Mail PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard tothe subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is notengaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-41162-0 Some content that appears inthe print version of this book may not be available in this electronic edition
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
fcopyebkqxd 102501 908 AM Page iv
v
C ON T E N T S
Foreword The Heart of Servant-Leadership ixKen Blanchard
Preface xiii
Introduction Tracing the Past Present andFuture of Servant-Leadership 1
Larry C Spears
Part One
Servant-Leadership and the Individual
1 Essentials of Servant-Leadership 19Robert K Greenleaf
2 Servant-Leadership and Community Leadershipin the Twenty-First Century 27
Stephen R Covey
3 Servant-Leadership and the Imaginative Life 35Michael Jones
4 Leadership as Partnership 47Russ S Moxley
5 Teaching Servant-Leadership 53Hamilton Beazley and Julie Beggs
6 Fannie Lou Hamer Servant of the People 65Lea E Williams
7 Servant-Leadership Three Things Necessary 89Max DePree
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page v
vi CONTENTS
Part Two
Servant-Leadership in the Workplace
8 Become a Tomorrow Leader 101Warren Bennis
9 Servant-Leadership and Rewiring theCorporate Brain 111
Danah Zohar
10 Servant-Leadership and the Best Companiesto Work For in America 123
Nancy Larner Ruschman
11 From Hero-as-Leader to Servant-as-Leader 141Ann McGee-Cooper and Duane Trammell
12 The Business Case for Servant-Leadership 153James D Showkeir
13 On the Right Side of History 167John C Bogle
Part Three
Servant-Leadership in the Community
14 The Unique Double Servant-Leadership Role of theBoard Chair 189
John Carver
15 Servant-Leadership in Community Colleges 211Ruth Mercedes Smith and Kent A Farnsworth
16 Servant-Leadership and Philanthropic Institutions 223John Burkhardt and Larry C Spears
17 Foresight The Lead That the Leader Has 245David S Young
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vi
CONTENTS vii
18 Servant-Leadership and Creativity 257Tamyra L Freeman Scott G Isaksen andK Brian Dorval
19 Table for Six Billion Please 269Judy Wicks
Part Four
Servant-Leadership for the World
20 Synchronicity and Servant-Leadership 287Joseph Jaworski
21 Servant-Leadership Leading in Todayrsquos Military 295Rubye Howard Braye
22 Leadership and the Chaordic Age 305Dee Hock
23 Servant-Leadership Public LeadershipWrestling with an American Paradox 321
Scott W Webster
24 Servant-Leadership and the New Economy 333John P Schuster
25 The Work of the Servant-Leader 349Margaret Wheatley
Afterword A Remembrance of Robert K Greenleaf 363Larry C Spears
Acknowledgments 367
About the Editors and the Greenleaf Center forServant-Leadership 369
Permissions and Copyrights 373
Recommended Reading 377
Index 381
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vii
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page viii
ix
FOR E WOR D
THE HEART OF SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
Ken Blanchard
I AM EXCITED ABOUT this book Why Because I am a fan of RobertGreenleaf and think that servant-leadership is the foundation for ef-fective leadership
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Greenleaf in the late 1960swhen I was at Ohio University in Athens Ohio I was attracted tothe school because Vernon Alden had come as president of the uni-versity with the vision of creating the ldquoHarvard of the MidwestrdquoHe had recruited all kinds of exciting people and resources to makethis vision a reality
I went to Ohio University in 1966 as an administrative assistant tothe dean of the School of Business Administration to help developa graduate program in administration In this role I participated inthe activities of the Ohio Fellows Groupmdasha special undergraduateleadership program designed by Les Rollins a longtime friend ofRobert Greenleaf Alden and Rollins were two of the first boardmembers for The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership (thencalled The Center for Applied Ethics)
When Greenleaf spent a weekend with the students I was en-thralled with his thinking In fact when I got a chance to teach Itried to put his servant-leadership concepts into practice At thattime I began my practice of always giving the students the finalexam during the first day of class When I started doing that otherfaculty members would ask ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page ix
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
Copyright copy 2002 by The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc New York
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmittedin any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording scanningor otherwise except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United StatesCopyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Publisher orauthorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright ClearanceCenter 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax (978) 750-4744Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the PermissionsDepartment John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY 10158-0012(212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 E-Mail PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard tothe subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is notengaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-41162-0 Some content that appears inthe print version of this book may not be available in this electronic edition
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
fcopyebkqxd 102501 908 AM Page iv
v
C ON T E N T S
Foreword The Heart of Servant-Leadership ixKen Blanchard
Preface xiii
Introduction Tracing the Past Present andFuture of Servant-Leadership 1
Larry C Spears
Part One
Servant-Leadership and the Individual
1 Essentials of Servant-Leadership 19Robert K Greenleaf
2 Servant-Leadership and Community Leadershipin the Twenty-First Century 27
Stephen R Covey
3 Servant-Leadership and the Imaginative Life 35Michael Jones
4 Leadership as Partnership 47Russ S Moxley
5 Teaching Servant-Leadership 53Hamilton Beazley and Julie Beggs
6 Fannie Lou Hamer Servant of the People 65Lea E Williams
7 Servant-Leadership Three Things Necessary 89Max DePree
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page v
vi CONTENTS
Part Two
Servant-Leadership in the Workplace
8 Become a Tomorrow Leader 101Warren Bennis
9 Servant-Leadership and Rewiring theCorporate Brain 111
Danah Zohar
10 Servant-Leadership and the Best Companiesto Work For in America 123
Nancy Larner Ruschman
11 From Hero-as-Leader to Servant-as-Leader 141Ann McGee-Cooper and Duane Trammell
12 The Business Case for Servant-Leadership 153James D Showkeir
13 On the Right Side of History 167John C Bogle
Part Three
Servant-Leadership in the Community
14 The Unique Double Servant-Leadership Role of theBoard Chair 189
John Carver
15 Servant-Leadership in Community Colleges 211Ruth Mercedes Smith and Kent A Farnsworth
16 Servant-Leadership and Philanthropic Institutions 223John Burkhardt and Larry C Spears
17 Foresight The Lead That the Leader Has 245David S Young
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vi
CONTENTS vii
18 Servant-Leadership and Creativity 257Tamyra L Freeman Scott G Isaksen andK Brian Dorval
19 Table for Six Billion Please 269Judy Wicks
Part Four
Servant-Leadership for the World
20 Synchronicity and Servant-Leadership 287Joseph Jaworski
21 Servant-Leadership Leading in Todayrsquos Military 295Rubye Howard Braye
22 Leadership and the Chaordic Age 305Dee Hock
23 Servant-Leadership Public LeadershipWrestling with an American Paradox 321
Scott W Webster
24 Servant-Leadership and the New Economy 333John P Schuster
25 The Work of the Servant-Leader 349Margaret Wheatley
Afterword A Remembrance of Robert K Greenleaf 363Larry C Spears
Acknowledgments 367
About the Editors and the Greenleaf Center forServant-Leadership 369
Permissions and Copyrights 373
Recommended Reading 377
Index 381
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vii
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page viii
ix
FOR E WOR D
THE HEART OF SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
Ken Blanchard
I AM EXCITED ABOUT this book Why Because I am a fan of RobertGreenleaf and think that servant-leadership is the foundation for ef-fective leadership
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Greenleaf in the late 1960swhen I was at Ohio University in Athens Ohio I was attracted tothe school because Vernon Alden had come as president of the uni-versity with the vision of creating the ldquoHarvard of the MidwestrdquoHe had recruited all kinds of exciting people and resources to makethis vision a reality
I went to Ohio University in 1966 as an administrative assistant tothe dean of the School of Business Administration to help developa graduate program in administration In this role I participated inthe activities of the Ohio Fellows Groupmdasha special undergraduateleadership program designed by Les Rollins a longtime friend ofRobert Greenleaf Alden and Rollins were two of the first boardmembers for The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership (thencalled The Center for Applied Ethics)
When Greenleaf spent a weekend with the students I was en-thralled with his thinking In fact when I got a chance to teach Itried to put his servant-leadership concepts into practice At thattime I began my practice of always giving the students the finalexam during the first day of class When I started doing that otherfaculty members would ask ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page ix
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
v
C ON T E N T S
Foreword The Heart of Servant-Leadership ixKen Blanchard
Preface xiii
Introduction Tracing the Past Present andFuture of Servant-Leadership 1
Larry C Spears
Part One
Servant-Leadership and the Individual
1 Essentials of Servant-Leadership 19Robert K Greenleaf
2 Servant-Leadership and Community Leadershipin the Twenty-First Century 27
Stephen R Covey
3 Servant-Leadership and the Imaginative Life 35Michael Jones
4 Leadership as Partnership 47Russ S Moxley
5 Teaching Servant-Leadership 53Hamilton Beazley and Julie Beggs
6 Fannie Lou Hamer Servant of the People 65Lea E Williams
7 Servant-Leadership Three Things Necessary 89Max DePree
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page v
vi CONTENTS
Part Two
Servant-Leadership in the Workplace
8 Become a Tomorrow Leader 101Warren Bennis
9 Servant-Leadership and Rewiring theCorporate Brain 111
Danah Zohar
10 Servant-Leadership and the Best Companiesto Work For in America 123
Nancy Larner Ruschman
11 From Hero-as-Leader to Servant-as-Leader 141Ann McGee-Cooper and Duane Trammell
12 The Business Case for Servant-Leadership 153James D Showkeir
13 On the Right Side of History 167John C Bogle
Part Three
Servant-Leadership in the Community
14 The Unique Double Servant-Leadership Role of theBoard Chair 189
John Carver
15 Servant-Leadership in Community Colleges 211Ruth Mercedes Smith and Kent A Farnsworth
16 Servant-Leadership and Philanthropic Institutions 223John Burkhardt and Larry C Spears
17 Foresight The Lead That the Leader Has 245David S Young
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vi
CONTENTS vii
18 Servant-Leadership and Creativity 257Tamyra L Freeman Scott G Isaksen andK Brian Dorval
19 Table for Six Billion Please 269Judy Wicks
Part Four
Servant-Leadership for the World
20 Synchronicity and Servant-Leadership 287Joseph Jaworski
21 Servant-Leadership Leading in Todayrsquos Military 295Rubye Howard Braye
22 Leadership and the Chaordic Age 305Dee Hock
23 Servant-Leadership Public LeadershipWrestling with an American Paradox 321
Scott W Webster
24 Servant-Leadership and the New Economy 333John P Schuster
25 The Work of the Servant-Leader 349Margaret Wheatley
Afterword A Remembrance of Robert K Greenleaf 363Larry C Spears
Acknowledgments 367
About the Editors and the Greenleaf Center forServant-Leadership 369
Permissions and Copyrights 373
Recommended Reading 377
Index 381
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vii
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page viii
ix
FOR E WOR D
THE HEART OF SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
Ken Blanchard
I AM EXCITED ABOUT this book Why Because I am a fan of RobertGreenleaf and think that servant-leadership is the foundation for ef-fective leadership
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Greenleaf in the late 1960swhen I was at Ohio University in Athens Ohio I was attracted tothe school because Vernon Alden had come as president of the uni-versity with the vision of creating the ldquoHarvard of the MidwestrdquoHe had recruited all kinds of exciting people and resources to makethis vision a reality
I went to Ohio University in 1966 as an administrative assistant tothe dean of the School of Business Administration to help developa graduate program in administration In this role I participated inthe activities of the Ohio Fellows Groupmdasha special undergraduateleadership program designed by Les Rollins a longtime friend ofRobert Greenleaf Alden and Rollins were two of the first boardmembers for The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership (thencalled The Center for Applied Ethics)
When Greenleaf spent a weekend with the students I was en-thralled with his thinking In fact when I got a chance to teach Itried to put his servant-leadership concepts into practice At thattime I began my practice of always giving the students the finalexam during the first day of class When I started doing that otherfaculty members would ask ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page ix
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
vi CONTENTS
Part Two
Servant-Leadership in the Workplace
8 Become a Tomorrow Leader 101Warren Bennis
9 Servant-Leadership and Rewiring theCorporate Brain 111
Danah Zohar
10 Servant-Leadership and the Best Companiesto Work For in America 123
Nancy Larner Ruschman
11 From Hero-as-Leader to Servant-as-Leader 141Ann McGee-Cooper and Duane Trammell
12 The Business Case for Servant-Leadership 153James D Showkeir
13 On the Right Side of History 167John C Bogle
Part Three
Servant-Leadership in the Community
14 The Unique Double Servant-Leadership Role of theBoard Chair 189
John Carver
15 Servant-Leadership in Community Colleges 211Ruth Mercedes Smith and Kent A Farnsworth
16 Servant-Leadership and Philanthropic Institutions 223John Burkhardt and Larry C Spears
17 Foresight The Lead That the Leader Has 245David S Young
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vi
CONTENTS vii
18 Servant-Leadership and Creativity 257Tamyra L Freeman Scott G Isaksen andK Brian Dorval
19 Table for Six Billion Please 269Judy Wicks
Part Four
Servant-Leadership for the World
20 Synchronicity and Servant-Leadership 287Joseph Jaworski
21 Servant-Leadership Leading in Todayrsquos Military 295Rubye Howard Braye
22 Leadership and the Chaordic Age 305Dee Hock
23 Servant-Leadership Public LeadershipWrestling with an American Paradox 321
Scott W Webster
24 Servant-Leadership and the New Economy 333John P Schuster
25 The Work of the Servant-Leader 349Margaret Wheatley
Afterword A Remembrance of Robert K Greenleaf 363Larry C Spears
Acknowledgments 367
About the Editors and the Greenleaf Center forServant-Leadership 369
Permissions and Copyrights 373
Recommended Reading 377
Index 381
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vii
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page viii
ix
FOR E WOR D
THE HEART OF SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
Ken Blanchard
I AM EXCITED ABOUT this book Why Because I am a fan of RobertGreenleaf and think that servant-leadership is the foundation for ef-fective leadership
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Greenleaf in the late 1960swhen I was at Ohio University in Athens Ohio I was attracted tothe school because Vernon Alden had come as president of the uni-versity with the vision of creating the ldquoHarvard of the MidwestrdquoHe had recruited all kinds of exciting people and resources to makethis vision a reality
I went to Ohio University in 1966 as an administrative assistant tothe dean of the School of Business Administration to help developa graduate program in administration In this role I participated inthe activities of the Ohio Fellows Groupmdasha special undergraduateleadership program designed by Les Rollins a longtime friend ofRobert Greenleaf Alden and Rollins were two of the first boardmembers for The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership (thencalled The Center for Applied Ethics)
When Greenleaf spent a weekend with the students I was en-thralled with his thinking In fact when I got a chance to teach Itried to put his servant-leadership concepts into practice At thattime I began my practice of always giving the students the finalexam during the first day of class When I started doing that otherfaculty members would ask ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page ix
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
CONTENTS vii
18 Servant-Leadership and Creativity 257Tamyra L Freeman Scott G Isaksen andK Brian Dorval
19 Table for Six Billion Please 269Judy Wicks
Part Four
Servant-Leadership for the World
20 Synchronicity and Servant-Leadership 287Joseph Jaworski
21 Servant-Leadership Leading in Todayrsquos Military 295Rubye Howard Braye
22 Leadership and the Chaordic Age 305Dee Hock
23 Servant-Leadership Public LeadershipWrestling with an American Paradox 321
Scott W Webster
24 Servant-Leadership and the New Economy 333John P Schuster
25 The Work of the Servant-Leader 349Margaret Wheatley
Afterword A Remembrance of Robert K Greenleaf 363Larry C Spears
Acknowledgments 367
About the Editors and the Greenleaf Center forServant-Leadership 369
Permissions and Copyrights 373
Recommended Reading 377
Index 381
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page vii
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page viii
ix
FOR E WOR D
THE HEART OF SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
Ken Blanchard
I AM EXCITED ABOUT this book Why Because I am a fan of RobertGreenleaf and think that servant-leadership is the foundation for ef-fective leadership
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Greenleaf in the late 1960swhen I was at Ohio University in Athens Ohio I was attracted tothe school because Vernon Alden had come as president of the uni-versity with the vision of creating the ldquoHarvard of the MidwestrdquoHe had recruited all kinds of exciting people and resources to makethis vision a reality
I went to Ohio University in 1966 as an administrative assistant tothe dean of the School of Business Administration to help developa graduate program in administration In this role I participated inthe activities of the Ohio Fellows Groupmdasha special undergraduateleadership program designed by Les Rollins a longtime friend ofRobert Greenleaf Alden and Rollins were two of the first boardmembers for The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership (thencalled The Center for Applied Ethics)
When Greenleaf spent a weekend with the students I was en-thralled with his thinking In fact when I got a chance to teach Itried to put his servant-leadership concepts into practice At thattime I began my practice of always giving the students the finalexam during the first day of class When I started doing that otherfaculty members would ask ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page ix
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
spea_ftocqxd 92601 114 PM Page viii
ix
FOR E WOR D
THE HEART OF SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
Ken Blanchard
I AM EXCITED ABOUT this book Why Because I am a fan of RobertGreenleaf and think that servant-leadership is the foundation for ef-fective leadership
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Greenleaf in the late 1960swhen I was at Ohio University in Athens Ohio I was attracted tothe school because Vernon Alden had come as president of the uni-versity with the vision of creating the ldquoHarvard of the MidwestrdquoHe had recruited all kinds of exciting people and resources to makethis vision a reality
I went to Ohio University in 1966 as an administrative assistant tothe dean of the School of Business Administration to help developa graduate program in administration In this role I participated inthe activities of the Ohio Fellows Groupmdasha special undergraduateleadership program designed by Les Rollins a longtime friend ofRobert Greenleaf Alden and Rollins were two of the first boardmembers for The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership (thencalled The Center for Applied Ethics)
When Greenleaf spent a weekend with the students I was en-thralled with his thinking In fact when I got a chance to teach Itried to put his servant-leadership concepts into practice At thattime I began my practice of always giving the students the finalexam during the first day of class When I started doing that otherfaculty members would ask ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page ix
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
ix
FOR E WOR D
THE HEART OF SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
Ken Blanchard
I AM EXCITED ABOUT this book Why Because I am a fan of RobertGreenleaf and think that servant-leadership is the foundation for ef-fective leadership
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Greenleaf in the late 1960swhen I was at Ohio University in Athens Ohio I was attracted tothe school because Vernon Alden had come as president of the uni-versity with the vision of creating the ldquoHarvard of the MidwestrdquoHe had recruited all kinds of exciting people and resources to makethis vision a reality
I went to Ohio University in 1966 as an administrative assistant tothe dean of the School of Business Administration to help developa graduate program in administration In this role I participated inthe activities of the Ohio Fellows Groupmdasha special undergraduateleadership program designed by Les Rollins a longtime friend ofRobert Greenleaf Alden and Rollins were two of the first boardmembers for The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership (thencalled The Center for Applied Ethics)
When Greenleaf spent a weekend with the students I was en-thralled with his thinking In fact when I got a chance to teach Itried to put his servant-leadership concepts into practice At thattime I began my practice of always giving the students the finalexam during the first day of class When I started doing that otherfaculty members would ask ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page ix
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
x FOREWORD
I would say ldquoIrsquom confusedrdquoTheyrsquod say ldquoYou act itrdquoTroubled I would respond ldquoI thought we were supposed to
teach these young peoplerdquoldquoYou arerdquo they would be quick to reply ldquoBut donrsquot give them the
final exam ahead of timerdquoMy servant-leadership response was ldquoNot only am I going to
give them the final exam during the first day of class but what doyou think Irsquom going to do all semester Irsquom going to teach them theanswers You better believe it so when they get to the final examtheyrsquoll get Arsquosrdquo To me life is all about getting Arsquos not about fol-lowing the normal grade distribution curve
During this period Paul Hersey had come to Ohio Universityas chairman of the Management Department In 1967 we startedto write our textbook Management of Organizational Behavior(now in its eighth edition) and to work on the development of Sit-uational Leadershipreg I knew Situational Leadership was a ser-vant-leadership model but the concepts I had learned fromGreenleaf did not return to center stage in my work until the mid-1990s when I began studying Jesus of Nazareth as a clear ex-ample of enlightened leadership During this period I was writingLeadership by the Book with Bill Hybels Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and Phil Hodges a longtimecolleague
I was first motivated to study Jesus as a leader when I was inter-viewed by Robert Schuller on The Hour of Power in 1983 as part ofthe publicity for The One Minute Managerreg In my interview Rev-erend Schuller suggested that Jesus was a classic One Minute Man-ager Once he had made his goals clear he visited village after villageidentifying people who were doing things right and then praising orhealing those gathered around him If people were off base he wouldreprimand them or redirect them
My response was ldquoInterestingrdquo Those behaviors certainly ex-emplified the three secrets of the One Minute Manager One MinuteGoal Setting One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands
After that exchange on The Hour of Power my spiritual jour-ney began to intensify When I started to read the Bible I began
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page x
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
FOREWORD xi
to realize that everything Irsquod ever taught about leadership over theyears Jesus had already modeled Jesus is not the only spiritualmodel but his leadership style is often regarded as one of the mostinfluential and effective the world has ever known And he did itwith twelve inexperienced people The only person who had mucheducation was Judas who turned out to be his only turnover prob-lem Yet with this ragtag group Jesus was able to create a lastingimpact And central to Jesusrsquo philosophy was servant-leadership Ibelieve Jesus exemplified the fully committed and effective servant-leader He sent a clear message on the primary importance of ser-vant-leadership when James and John seemed to be vying for aspecial leadership role among the disciples
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them andtheir high officials exercise authority over them Not so withyou Instead whoever wants to be great among you must beyour servant (Matthew 2025ndash27)
The key phrase here is ldquoNot so with yourdquo Jesus was talkingabout a form of leadership very different from the model familiarto the disciples a leader who is primarily a servant He did notoffer them a Plan B Servant-leadership was to be their mode of op-eration And so it should be for all leaders
With that new insight servant-leadership and what I had learnedfrom Robert Greenleaf came center stage in my work again I trulybelieve that servant-leadership has never been more applicable tothe world of leadership than it is today Not only are people look-ing for a deeper purpose and meaning when they must meet thechallenges of todayrsquos changing world they are also looking for prin-ciples and philosophies that actually work Servant-leadershipworks Servant-leadership is about getting people to a higher levelby leading people at a higher level
Absorb the teachings from this bookrsquos wonderful authors Unlesswe begin to lead at a higher level our future is in danger Servant-leadership can make a difference in our life and in the lives of thosewe touch But it takes heart My hat is off to Robert Greenleaf andto the efforts of Larry Spears Michele Lawrence and all the good
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xi
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
xii FOREWORD
folks at The Greenleaf Center for keeping Greenleafrsquos work aliveand for leading the servant-leadership charge
KEN BLANCHARD
Dr Ken Blanchard cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The KenBlanchard Companies a full-service human resource development groupis characterized by friends colleagues and clients as one of the mostinsightful and compassionate men in business today Few people haveimpacted the day-to-day management of people and companies morethan Ken Blanchard He is a prominent and sought-after author speakerand business consultant His impact as a writer is far-reaching His best-selling book The One Minute Manager coauthored with SpencerJohnson has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide has beentranslated into more than 25 languages and is still on best-seller lists Hehas established The Center for FaithWalk Leadership to help leaders offaith walk their faith in the marketplace and follow the servant-leadershipmodel of Jesus of Nazareth
spea_fbetwqxd 92601 116 PM Page xii
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
xiii
P R E FAC E
FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-FirstCentury owes much to the favorable public response to two earlierbooks in this series Reflections on Leadership How Robert KGreenleafrsquos Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Todayrsquos TopManagement Thinkers (John Wiley amp Sons 1995) and Insightson Leadership Service Stewardship Spirit and Servant-Leadership(John Wiley amp Sons 1998) Both books have gone into multipleprintings and have piqued the interest of tens of thousands of read-ers who are now exploring and implementing servant-leadershipThe Power of Servant-Leadership also published in 1998 offeredreaders a complementary sourcebook for how servant-leadershipcan be applied to personal and business endeavors
Since the publication of the two servant-leadership anthologiesmany new articles and essays have been written about servant-leadership This volume brings together some of the most currentand significant pieces on servant-leadership and on the growinginfluence of Robert K Greenleafrsquos writings Among them are sev-eral essays written especially for this comprehensive collection bysome of todayrsquos leading thinkers writers and practitioners
If you are intrigued inspired or moved by what you discoverherein and wish to have more information concerning the
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiii
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
xiv PREFACE
wide array of servant-leadership programs and resources contactus at
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership921 East 86th Street Suite 200Indianapolis IN 46240(317) 259-1241 (phone)(317) 259-0560 (fax)wwwgreenleaforg (Web site)
LARRY C SPEARS
MICHELE LAWRENCE
spea_fprefqxd 92601 118 PM Page xiv
Recommended