Legacy Issue

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42 I NonprofitPerformanceMagazine
Since 1970, more than a half-million copies
of his books and essays have been sold
worldwide. Greenleaf ’s servant-leadership
writings have left a deep and lasting legacy
for leaders, educators, and many others who
are concerned with serving and leading.
Servant-leadership emphasizes increased
service to others, a holistic approach to work,
promoting a sense of community, and the
sharing of power in decision-making.
Characteristics of the Servant-Leader
In 1992, I conducted a careful analysis of
Greenleaf ’s original writings, from which I
extracted ten characteristics of the servant-
leader that Greenleaf viewed as being of
critical importance in the development of
servant-leaders.
1. Listening
2. Empathy
3. Healing
4. Awareness
5. Persuasion
6. Conceptualization
7. Foresight
8. Stewardship
9. Commitment to the growth of
people
10. Building community
While these characteristics of servant-
leadership are by no means exhaustive, I
believe that they serve to communicate the
power and promise that this concept offers
to those who are open to its invitation
and challenge. In addition, each of these
characteristics is one that we can learn
to improve within ourselves, through
practice and study, in order to improve our
effectiveness as servant-leaders.
The Servant as Leader
Servant-leadership operates at both the per-
sonal and institutional level. For individuals,
it offers a means to personal growth—spiri-
tually, professionally, emotionally, and intel-
lectually. It has ties to the ideas of M. Scott
Peck (The Road Less Traveled), Parker
Palmer (The Active Life), and others who
have written on expanding human potential.
A particular strength of servant-leadership is
that it encourages everyone to seek opportu-
nities to both serve and lead others, thereby
setting up the potential for raising the quality
of life throughout society.
Servant-leadership has influenced many
noted writers, thinkers, and leaders. Max
De Pree, former chairperson of the Herman
Miller Company and author of Leadership
Is an Art and Leadership Jazz has said,
“The servanthood of leadership needs to be
felt, understood, believed, and practiced.” In
addition, Peter Senge, author of The Fifth
Discipline, has said that he tells people not
to bother reading any other book about
leadership until they first read Robert
Greenleaf ’s book, Servant-Leadership,
believing it to be the most singular and useful
statement on leadership he’s seen.
The Institution as Servant
Today, servant-leadership crosses all bound-
aries and is utilized by people working with
for-profit businesses, nonprofit corporations,
churches, universities, healthcare organiza-
tions, and foundations. Servant-leadership
emphasizes the power of persuasion and
seeking consensus over the old top-down
form of leadership. Some people have likened
this to turning the hierarchical pyramid up-
side down.
In 1972, Greenleaf published a second es-
say titled “The Institution as Servant.” Since
then, many individuals within institutions
have adopted servant-leadership as a guid-
ing philosophy, and an increasing number of
companies have adopted servant-leadership
as a key part of their corporate philosophy.
Among these are The Toro Company, Syno-
vus Financial Corporation, ServiceMaster
Company, The Men’s Wearhouse, South-
west Airlines, Starbucks, Popeyes Louisiana
Kitchen, and TDIndustries.
TDlndustries (TD), one of the earliest prac-
titioners of servant-leadership in the corpo-
rate setting, is a Dallas-based heating and
plumbing contracting firm that has consis-
tently appeared in Fortune magazine’s listing
of The 100 Best Companies to Work for in
America. TD’s founder, Jack Lowe, Sr., came
upon “The Servant as Leader” in the early
1970s and began to distribute copies of it to
his employees. They were invited to read the
essay and then to gather in small groups to
discuss its meaning. The belief that organi-
zational leaders should serve their employees
(called TD partners) became an important
value for TDlndustries. Forty-five years later,
TDIndustries continues to embrace servant-
leadership as a guiding belief.
Trustees as Servants
Athirdmajorapplicationofservant-leadership
is its pivotal role as the philosophical and
ethical basis for trustee education. Greenleaf
wrote extensively on servant-leadership as it
applies to the roles of boards of directors and
trustees within nonprofit institutions. In his
1974 essay, “Trustees as Servants,” Greenleaf
urged trustees to ask themselves two central
questions:
Whom do you serve?
For what purpose?
Servant-leadership suggests that boards of
trustees need to undergo a radical shift in
how they approach their roles. Trustees who
seek to act as servant-leaders can help to
create institutions of great depth and quality.
The seeds that Robert Greenleaf planted have
begun to sprout inside many institutions and
in the hearts of those who long to improve
the human condition. His legacy of servant-
leadership is profound. Servant-leadership
truly offers hope and guidance for a new era
in human development, and for the creation
of better, more caring, institutions. I leave
you with this closing thought from Robert
Greenleaf: “The work exists for the person as
much as the person exists for the work.”
Larry C. Spears is an editor and contributing author to
25 books on servant-leadership including Insights on
Leadership, The Spirit of Servant-Leadership, and
Conversations on Servant-Leadership. Larry served
as President and CEO of the Robert K. Greenleaf
Center. Since 2008, he has served as President and
CEO of The Spears Center for Servant-Leadership, and
as Servant-Leadership Scholar at Gonzaga University
(Spokane) where he teaches graduate courses in
servant-leadership, and is Senior Advisory Editor of The
International Journal of Servant-Leadership.
Adapted from Conversations on Servant-Leadership
(SUNY Press, 2015).