Download Robert K. Greenleaf

Servant Leadership
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Robert K. Greenleaf (1904-1990): servant leadership
Influences on the life of RKG
◦ Father, George Washington Greenleaf: a civil servant who bettered others
◦ Dr. Oscar C. Helming, professor at Carlton College in MN: “Some of you
folks ought to make your careers inside these institutions and become the
ones who respond to the idea that they could do better.”
◦ Religion: Methodism and Quakerism
◦ American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T)
 Worked for the Ohio Bell Company (a subsidiary owned by AT&T); promoted
to trainer and spent over three decades of putting his theories into practice
in various positions in AT&T
 AT&T: “an extraordinary company with an unusual determination to serve”
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Career
◦ Ohio Bell Company/AT&T: nearly 40 years
◦ 1964: early retirement; founded the Center for Applied Ethics (renamed
the Robert K. Greenleaf Center in 1985); consultant for colleges,
businesses, and non-profit organizations
◦ Coined the term “servant leadership” in 1970. “Servant as Leader” was the
foundational essay that gained ground over time, leading to further essays
and books
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RKG wrote several essays and a handful of books that
develop the theory of servant leadership and apply as
much to specific leadership roles or institutions. His
writings have prodded others to further develop his
ideas, and his writings continue to be printed today.
Summary of Key Components for Servant Leadership
◦ Servant-Leader: “The servant-leader is servant first. . . . It begins with the
natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious
choice brings one to aspire to lead” (emphasis original).
◦ Institution: “a gathering of persons who have accepted a common
purpose, and a common discipline to guide the pursuit of that purpose, to
the end that each involved person reaches higher fulfillment as a person,
through serving and being served by the common venture, than would be
achieved alone or in a less committed relationship”
◦ Institutional Leadership
 Principle for both groups: primus inter pares, the first among equals, the one
who is most able to bring the group to a consensus.
 Trustees: ultimate authority; not involved in administration
 Administrators: conceptualizers and operators
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Servant-Leader
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Institution as Servant
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Institutional Leadership
◦ A biblical concept: Jesus Christ as the example, pastors as
servant-leaders
◦ Difference in foundations: secular vs. biblical authority
◦ Church as helpful for members
◦ Church as helpful for nonmembers as well
◦ Primus inter pares: disciples; pastors (arguably)
 Opposed hierarchy (i.e., episcopalian and presbyterian)
 Opposed nongovernmentalism (i.e., Quakers)
◦ Trustees: does not follow the biblical model, assuming a
church’s leaders must come from within the church and be
actively involved in its affairs
◦ Administrators: helpful comments on conceptualizers and
operators
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Trustees: be involved in a denomination or larger network
of churches while retaining some measure of autonomy
Administators: include both conceptualizers and operators
in their pastoral leadership; find men who are a mix of the
two
Read RKG’s writings in order to glean from his practical
advice and implement as much into their pastoral theology
as guided by Scripture.
Conclusion: For all his religion, RKG unfortunately lacks
the theology to speak in depth to Christian leaders today,
as he himself would admit. However, considering the
common grace that his writings show and the common
applications that he thus has with Christians, pastors
would do well to seek practical advice from a man who
knew in his own right what it was to be a servant-leader.