Servant-leadership is now part of the vocabulary of enlightened leadership. Bob Greenleaf, along with other notables such as McGregor, Drucker, and Follett, have created a new thought-world of leadership that contains such virtues as growth, responsibility, and love.
—Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California; author of On Leadership
I truly believe that servant-leadership has never been more applicable to the world of leadership than it is today.
—Ken Blanchard, author, The Heart of Leadership
We are each indebted to Greenleaf for bringing spirit and values into the workplace. His ideas will have enduring value for every generation of leaders.
—Peter Block, author, Stewardship
Anyone can be a servant-leader. Any one of us can take initiative; it doesn’t require that we be appointed a leader; but it does require that we operate from moral authority. The spirit of servant-leadership is the spirit of moral authority… . I congratulate the Greenleaf Center for its invaluable service to society, and for carrying the torch of servant-leadership over the years.
—Stephen R. Covey, author, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
The servant-leader is servant first. Becoming a servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.
—Robert K. Greenleaf, author, The Servant as Leader
With its deeper resonances in our spiritual traditions, Greenleaf reminds us that the essence of leadership is service, and therefore the welfare of people. Anchored in this way, we can distinguish the tools of influence, persuasion, and power from the orienting values defining leadership to which these tools are applied.
—Ronald Heifetz, author, Leadership Without Easy Answers
The most difficult step, Greenleaf has written, that any developing servant-leader must take, is to begin the personal journey toward wholeness and self-discovery.
—Joseph Jaworski, author, Synchronicity
After thirty years Robert K. Greenleaf’s work has struck a resonant chord in the minds and hearts of scholars and practitioners alike. His message lives through others, the true legacy of a servant-leader.
—Jim Kouzes, coauthor, The Leadership Challenge
Robert Greenleaf takes us beyond cynicism and cheap tricks and simplified techniques into the heart of the matter, into the spiritual lives of those who lead.
—Parker Palmer, author, The Courage to Teach
Servant-leadership is more than a concept. As far as I’m concerned, it is a fact. I would simply define it by saying that any great leader, by which I also mean an ethical leader of any group, will see herself or himself primarily as a servant of that group and will act accordingly.
—M. Scott Peck, author, The Road Less Traveled
No one in the past thirty years has had a more profound impact on thinking about leadership than Robert Greenleaf. If we sought an objective measure of the quality of leadership available to society, there would be none better than the number of people reading and studying his writings.
—Peter M. Senge, author, The Fifth Discipline
Servant-leadership offers hope and wisdom for a new era in human development, and for the creation of better, more caring institutions.
—Larry C. Spears, President and CEO, The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership; editor and contributing author, Insights on Leadership
I believe that Greenleaf knew so much when he said the criterion of successful servant-leadership is that those we serve are healthier and wiser and freer and more autonomous, and perhaps they even loved our leadership so much that they also want to serve others.
—Margaret Wheatley, author, Leadership and the New Science
Despite all the buzz about modern leadership techniques, no one knows better than Greenleaf what really matters.
—Working Woman Magazine
Servant-leadership is being practiced today by many individuals and organizations. For more information about servant-leadership and The Greenleaf Center, contact
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership
921 East 86th Street, Suite 200
Indianapolis IN 46240
Phone: 317-259-1241; Fax: 317-259-0560
Web site: www.greenleaf.org
Practicing Servant-Leadership: Succeeding Through Trust, Bravery, and Forgiveness (with Michele Lawrence), 2004
The Servant-Leader Within: A Transformative Path (with Hamilton Beazley and Julie Beggs), 2003
Servant-Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (25th Anniversary Edition), 2002
Focus on Leadership: Servant-Leadership for the 21st Century (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. Greenleaf’s Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Today’s Top Management Thinkers, 1995
As Contributing Author
Cutting Edge: Leadership 2000, edited by Barbara Kellerman and Larraine Matusak, 2000
Stone Soup for the World, edited by Marianne Larned, 1998
Leadership in a New Era, edited by John Renesch, 1994
Editors
Larry C. Spears
Michele Lawrence
Foreword by
Warren Bennis
Copyright © 2004 by The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership, 921 E. 86th Street, Suite 200, Indianapolis, IN 46240. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Practicing servant-leadership : succeeding through trust, bravery, and forgiveness / editors, Larry C. Spears, Michele Lawrence ; foreword by Warren Bennis.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7879-7455-2 (alk. paper)
1. Leadership. 2. Associations, institutions, etc. 3. Organizational effectiveness. 4. Management. I. Spears, Larry C., date. II. Lawrence, Michele.
HM1261.P7 2004
303.3’4—dc22
2004015679
FIRST EDITION
The Foreword is an original essay created for this collection by Warren Bennis. Copyright © 2004 by Warren Bennis and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the author and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 1, “Who Is the Servant-Leader?” is an excerpt from the essay “The Servant as Leader” by Robert K. Greenleaf, copyright © 1991 by The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 2, “The Understanding and Practice of Servant-Leadership,” is adapted from several writings by Larry C. Spears, copyright © 2004 by Larry C. Spears and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the author and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 3, “The Unique Double Servant-Leadership Role of the Board Chairperson,” appeared as Essay #2 in the Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, published by The Greenleaf Center. Copyright © 1999 by John Carver and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the author and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 4, “Love and Work,” appeared as Essay #5 in the Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, published by The Greenleaf Center. Copyright © 2001 by James Autry and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the author and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 5, “Servant-Leadership and Philanthropic Institutions,” appeared as Essay #4 in the Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, published by The Greenleaf Center. Copyright © 2000 by John C. Burkhardt, Larry C. Spears, and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the authors and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 6, “On the Right Side of History,” appeared as Essay #1 in the Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, published by The Greenleaf Center. Copyright © 1999 by John C. Bogle and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the author and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 7, “Anatomy of a Collaboration: An Act of Servant-Leadership,” appeared as Essay #3 in the Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, published by The Greenleaf Center. Copyright © 2000 by Wendell J. Walls and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the author and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 8, “Servant-Leadership Characteristics in Organizational Life,” appeared as Essay #6 in the Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, published by The Greenleaf Center. Copyright © 2001 by Don DeGraaf, Colin Tilley, Larry Neal, and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the authors and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 9, “Toward a Theology of Institutions,” appeared as Essay #10 in the Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, published by The Greenleaf Center. Copyright © 2003 by David Specht, Richard Broholm, and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the authors and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 10, “Foresight as the Central Ethic of Leadership,” appeared as Essay #8 in the Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, published by The Greenleaf Center. Copyright © 2002 by Daniel H. Kim and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the author and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 11, “Servant-Leadership, Forgiveness, and Social Justice,” appeared as Essay #9 in the Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, published by The Greenleaf Center. Copyright © 2003 by Shann R. Ferch and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the author and The Greenleaf Center.
Chapter 12, “The Servant-Leader: From Hero to Host,” appeared as Essay #7 in the Voices of Servant-Leadership Series, published by The Greenleaf Center. Copyright © 2002 by Margaret Wheatley and The Greenleaf Center. Printed with permission of the author and The Greenleaf Center.
Warren Bennis
Leadership studies haven’t paid enough attention to the range of leaders, particularly the area of bad leadership. In the last twenty years of business leadership writings, certain exemplary leaders have been lionized, even deified. Unfortunately, though, it has been ignored that some of these leaders are destructive narcissists who put themselves first. In these days—and for good reason—the world is more and more concerned about leadership that is evil and destructive—leadership in which the leaders try to win at any cost, leadership where the leaders act primarily for themselves.
One of the things that Robert K. Greenleaf’s work on servant-leadership does very well is that it keeps reminding us what’s really important. It is so easy for an organization to get completely consumed with the bottom line; with pleasing only the financial stakeholder, not the community, not the workers, not the entire cartography of people whose lives are affected by that organization. Servant-leadership is akin to a superego conscience prod: it keeps in view the very thing we should not lose sight of. We’re there primarily to serve the people who have a connection to and are affected by the institution. It is very easy to forget that.
But there’s another factor to the importance of servant-leadership. The whole idea of value-based leadership is central to Green-leaf’s work. We recognize more and more that servant-leadership serves as a check; a counterbalance to the glorification, deification, and lionization of leaders who have actually neglected or forgotten why they’re there: to serve the people who are affected by the organization. That’s why servant-leadership matters.
The entire field of leadership practice and leadership studies has grown tremendously over the years. I think it is of critical importance that we recognize those who have come before us, those upon whose seminal ideas so much of what we practice today has been built. I’d like to briefly trace this intellectual thread through mention of four people: Mary Parker Follett, Douglas MacGregor, Peter Drucker, and Robert K. Greenleaf.
Mary Parker Follett was a remarkable woman. She was prescient, before anybody’s time, of the value of constructive, creative conflict. Her writings had an absurd lucidity to them that hasn’t been fully acknowledged, even to this day. She influenced—without our knowing it—almost everyone in the field of leadership. Much of what is written in leadership today was first written by Mary Parker Follett.
Doug MacGregor was my mentor, my role model, someone I tried very much to emulate. He wrote very little, yet his influence is widely acknowledged. I think that’s because of his incredible personal touch. He had an amazing empathy with the reflective manager, speaking his language, as it were. And in that language he could ask, “What is your view of human nature?” and get people to look at themselves for the answer. That was Doug’s real contribution—what he wrote about in “Theory X, Theory Y”—that your leadership behavior, style, and character are determined by how you view people. If you view people as being intrinsically lazy and requiring coercion to get the job done, then you’ll lead a certain way. But if you think of people as having the capacity to learn and the desire to bring out their best selves in doing their jobs, then your style of leadership is going to be totally different.
Peter Drucker, thank goodness, continues to teach and write. Peter really made the study of leadership, the discipline of leadership, respectable. He made it possible for us to continue to work with a degree of legitimacy. Drucker also made the study of management a legitimate pursuit.
Bob Greenleaf’s work on servant-leadership was unique. His great contribution was in making us aware that the role of the leader, to a great extent, is value based. And the main value is that the leader is not simply someone who is in it for the recognition, but someone who works to create the social architecture that benefits the cartography of the people for whom that organization is responsible.
Doug MacGregor brought Bob Greenleaf to MIT in the early 1960s, when Bob was in the higher echelons at AT&T. I remember Bob as a guy who had a deep intellectual curiosity, a marvelous sense of optimism and hope. He was a radiant human being, a very open, positive man, very eager to learn. I think that period of time was formative for him in gestating the ideas that became The Servant as Leader. I also think it’s interesting that he and MacGregor were drawn to each other’s methods. The world of management education, and of schools like MIT, had little connection to the real world of practice, and Doug’s bringing Bob to MIT was a clear example of their courage and bravery in doing something quite new. Kurt Lewin made a famous statement that “There’s nothing so practical as a good theory,” and I think that influenced Greenleaf’s vision.
I wish there were some kind of a blood test for the thing we call a moral compass, that powerful discernment of right and wrong. I’m not a cultural relativist or contingency theorist; in fact I’m opposed to them. I think that leaders have to have a strong ethical basis and a clear and explicit basis for their leadership. This is another key factor of Bob Greenleaf’s work: You have to be clear and explicit about how you lead and what the value is of what you believe. I think that one aspect of effective and moral—let me call it just leadership—is a sense of moral compass, and not just authenticity. Some of the most evil people in the world are authentic. Adolph Hitler was authentic. Osama Bin Laden is authentic. Both, certain of doing “the right thing.” Yes, authentic, but in terms of a moral compass, both evil.
The major attributes of effective leadership today are integrity, trustworthiness, and authenticity. That is what people most want from their leaders, and that moral compass is, of course, what Bob Greenleaf would focus on. The most important thing to keep in mind is this: never let your ambition surpass your moral compass.
I think we in business schools, and in education in general, have sometimes played down the value basis of leadership because it has to do with faith and personal values and belief systems. That threatens us. They should be the key attributes of leadership. Yes, you have to have adaptive capacity and you must set a direction. You must have business literacy—don’t get me wrong. You can’t lead any organization or any corporation without knowing a fair amount about corporate finance, marketing, and any number of other things that have to do with business. But those things are easy. Those things are perishable. I know that business systems will change, but character, values, and belief—those are not perishable. And it is your character, values, and belief systems that form the basis of how you lead, however aware or unaware you are.
I can’t help but think of our current crisis in Iraq. A lot of what goes into resolving conflict has to do with trust. You can communicate to warring elements that you’re interested in the welfare of both, whoever the competing, conflicting elements are; that you as a peace and bridge builder are interested in an agenda that would benefit both, that has the self-interest of all sides, including yourself, involved.
Let me give you an example that would be quite important at the moment. George Herbert Walker Bush, the first President Bush, made fourteen separate trips to Europe and Asia before the Gulf invasion of 1991—fourteen separate trips. The current President Bush did not even start to go abroad until our potential allies were thoroughly dyspeptic and totally distrustful of U.S. motives and behavior. War is the most destructive event that can occur between nations. The only way you can bring sides together is to show that you have a profound belief in the continuing welfare of all, that there will be a winning situation for all parties as much as possible, or at least some compromise that you all can accept. That is the basic factor. If people suspect your motive, you don’t have a chance.
I’m not any kind of expert on conflict resolution. But I do know that you cannot resolve any conflict with threats or by playing a bluffing game of poker. Servant-leadership teaches us that you have to lay your cards on the table. I think you’ve got to show that you’re interested in resolving things to the benefit of all sides, which means that all sides have to give up something. The important thing that I’ve discovered personally, about conflict and about resolving conflict, is to try as much as you can to not make anybody wrong.
That sounds too simple, doesn’t it? It sounds like a banal, very superficial thing to say: “to not make anybody wrong.” And yet, just look at what the U.S. relationship is right now with North Korea. If I were the paramount leader of North Korea, I’d be quite frightened. I would do the very best I could to get as much defensive stuff going as I could, because of the way the United States has been playing its cards, refusing to go there and talk with the people. (There is some hope that China and Japan can rescue us all from the current impasse.)
Moving from the cosmic level of foreign relations to the business level of organizations, we always find turf battles and competition for resources. To resolve these conflicts, I think that leaders have to put the overarching goal of the organization before the interests of either party and get both parties to understand that. Clark Kerr, former president of the University of California, once said that a university is a loose collection of departments, schools, divisions, centers, institutes, and so on, held together only by a central heating system. How do you as a servant-leader create the central heating system, the overarching point of view that will bring people together? That’s one of the chief challenges for those servants who aspire to lead.
Let me close with one question, and an encouraging word, for aspiring servant-leaders. Do you really want to lead? That is a very big question. Do you really want to do this? Who said it was easy? It is tough. But what more challenging, more responsible, more life-giving, more important thing can you do, than to be able to create a life for others that can bring about joy and creativity, that can elicit learning and the opportunity to be your best self, that can ultimately bring about human betterment, than being a servant-leader? But you have to ask yourself, is that what you want to do? Do you want to abandon your ego to the talents of others to create that kind of community that will bring out the very best in people? That’s a big question—why?
In the end, if you choose to lead others as a servant-leader, then my best advice is this:
Be brave. Be kind.
Practicing Servant-Leadership owes much to the growing body of literature that has emerged around the art and practice of servant-leadership by both individuals and organizations. The idea for this book was initially born of the realization that The Greenleaf Center had recently received a great many essays on servant-leadership—many of them focused on organizational practices and written by some of today’s leading practitioners and writers on servant-leadership—and that each of them deserved to be shared with as wide an audience as possible.
The unifying thread throughout the twelve essays that form the chapters of this book is to be found in the wisdom and insights provided as to best practices of servant-leadership by organizations and by individuals. Within these chapters you will find that a broad range of organizations are addressed—businesses, nonprofits, churches, schools, foundations, and leadership organizations are among them.
As an aid to the reader, the following provides a brief thumbnail description of each of the chapters contained in this volume.
This short excerpt from Robert K. Greenleaf’s seminal essay “The Servant as Leader” contains an essential understanding of the origin and definition of servant-leadership. He starts by asking, “Servant and leader—can these two roles be fused in one real person, in all levels of status or calling? If so, can that person live and be productive in the real world of the present?” Greenleaf said the answer is yes, and in this chapter he explains why and suggests how.
In countless for-profit and nonprofit organizations today we are witnessing traditional autocratic and hierarchical modes of leadership yielding to a different way of working—one based on teamwork and community, one that seeks to involve others in decision making, one strongly based in ethical and caring behavior, and one that is attempting to enhance the personal growth of workers while improving the caring and quality of our many institutions. This emerging approach to leadership and service is called servant-leadership. The idea of servant-leadership, now in its fourth decade as a concept bearing that name, continues to create a quiet but powerful revolution in workplaces around the world. This chapter, by Greenleaf Center President and CEO Larry C. Spears, is intended to provide a broad overview of the growing influence this inspiring idea is having on people and their workplaces.
John Carver asserts that boards control most group undertakings in the world—whether governmental, nonprofit, or business. They are our most ubiquitous, visible, powerful instance of group servant-leadership—or lack of it. With respect to legal and moral ownership, the board is a kind of group servant-leader. With respect to the board, the chair is a servant-leader. The chair, therefore, holds a “double servant-leader” role. The proper exercise of this twofold servant-leader function is crucial to resolving the problem of agency, particularly as embodied in honoring owner prerogatives and achieving organizational effectiveness. And because of that unique double leverage, the role of board chairperson properly construed is the most pervasive instance of institutional servant-leadership in our culture.
What questions would you pose to a man who ran a magazine publishing empire, was a jet fighter pilot, and writes best-selling business and poetry books, including Love and Profit? Larry Spears and John Noble asked these and others in their wide-ranging interview with James Autry: What does servant-leadership mean to you? How do you talk about it to others? What are some of the cultural changes that have made it more acceptable? How do you develop a servant’s heart? What are some of the traits of the effective leader? What is the key to being able to say “I did it well today”? What are your thoughts on poetry, on editing, on the creative process? James Autry answers these and other questions candidly and warmly, sharing his astute observations and recommendations from a lifetime of leading and serving.
John C. Burkhardt (director of The Kellogg Forum) and Larry C. Spears (president and CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership) outline ten key characteristics identified with the servant-leader, and explore the applicability of these characteristics to the special role and practices of foundations in our society. They pose challenging questions and offer helpful insights for all who would pursue philanthropy as servants first—for example: Can foundations view their work as an investment in the growth of people rather than as the solution to a problem? Can they have a healing role in society? Should they listen to the voices of those they serve? Answers to these and other issues are addressed in this penetrating look at servant-leadership and philanthropy.
In 1974, John C. Bogle founded the Vanguard Group, one of the two largest mutual fund organizations in the world, with current assets totaling more than $550 billion. Here, he outlines the impact of the servant-as-leader concept on the competitive world of U.S. business. He notes that in the mutual fund industry, and throughout the business world, the central idea of first serving others is being proven in the marketplace. He contends that servant-leadership is on the “right side” of history, and that its power and influence continue to grow.
Wendell J. Walls, former CEO of the National Association for Community Leadership, chronicles and analyzes a two-year collaboration between The Greenleaf Center and COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP, which culminated in the 1999 joint conference Navigating the Future: Servant-Leadership and Community Leadership in the 21st Century. In this insightful essay, Walls examines the many facets of practicing servant-leadership that went into the process of interorganizational collaboration, and maintains that effective collaboration requires an attitude embodied by Robert Greenleaf’s test of servant-leadership.
Don DeGraaf, Colin Tilley, and Larry Neal bring their organizational and university experience to this chapter, which expands our understanding of ten important characteristics of servant-leadership: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. The authors examine each of these characteristics in the context of organizational life, demonstrating how each characteristic can be applied to management and service delivery. The chapter is full of examples, suggestions for workplace servant-leadership practices, reflections, questions, and encouragement. A great aid in making the leap from personal servant-leadership to organizational servant-leadership.
David Specht and Richard Broholm carefully explore Greenleaf’s call for a “theology of institutions” and his conviction about the important role that religious congregations and seminaries might play in developing organizational trust around the exercise of their power and prerogative. The authors identify key dimensions of Greenleaf’s thinking about how faith-based communities might mobilize resources around this task, reflect on key learnings emerging from a ten-year effort to develop a working theology of institutions (Seeing Things Whole), and suggest some next steps for continuing this exploration.
In this rigorous, clear, and concise chapter, Daniel H. Kim lays solid groundwork for understanding foresight as the central ethic of leadership. Kim, a founding member of the Society for Organizational Learning, brings to this work his deep understanding of system dynamics as he guides us through the differences between forecasting, predicting, and foresight; helping actions versus meddling actions; the relation between levels of perspective and action modes; understanding how vision and choices relate to foresight; and calling us to a deeper level of service to others and to self.
Shann R. Ferch maintains that one of the defining characteristics of human nature is the ability to discern one’s own faults, to be broken as the result of such faults, and in response, to seek meaningful change. Forgiveness and reconciliation draw us into a crucible from which we can emerge more refined, more willing to see the heart of another, and more able to create just and lasting relationships. The will to seek forgiveness, the will to forgive, and the will to pursue reconciliation (instead of retribution) is a significant part of developing the kind of wisdom, health, autonomy, and freedom espoused by Greenleaf in his idea of the servant-leader, for ourselves, for our families, and for our communities.
In this chapter Margaret Wheatley, renowned author of the groundbreaking book Leadership and the New Science, issues a clarion call to move from the idea of “leader-as-hero” to one of “leader-as-host.” Wheatley encourages servant-leaders to become convenors of people, and to work to develop a “fundamental and unshakeable faith in people.” Why? Because, she believes, “the only way to lead when you don’t have control is to lead through the power of your relationships.” With clarity and empathy, Wheatley addresses servant-leadership in relation to spirit, science, organizational development, and love.
The richness of this collection has been further deepened by the addition of Warren Bennis’s Foreword. Warren Bennis is widely known as the author of dozens of articles and more than thirty books on leadership, including the classic On Becoming a Leader, and his words help place Greenleaf’s articulation of the “servant as leader” principle into a larger historical context, while calling us to be servant-leaders of character, integrity, and courage.
We view the growing trend toward servant-leadership as a reflection of the slow but ongoing maturation of humankind. It reflects a deep yearning in the hearts and minds of many people to find a better, more caring way of working together. This sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious seeking of wisdom owes much to the original writings of Robert K. Greenleaf, and to the countless practitioners, teachers, and writers who continue to carry forward and to expand upon his crucial idea of “the servant as leader.”
If you are intrigued or inspired by what you discover herein and wish to learn more, or if you would like to get involved with other servant-leaders around the world, we invite you to contact us through The Greenleaf Center’s Web site (www.greenleaf.org). In the meantime, we thank you for your interest in servant-leadership, and in this book.
Indianapolis, Indiana
July 2004
Larry C. Spears
Michele Lawrence
We are particularly indebted to the staff and board of The Greenleaf Center, past and present. Through them we have grown in our own understanding and practice of servant-leadership. Thanks, too, to the tens of thousands of members, customers, program participants, donors, and other supporters of The Greenleaf Center worldwide.
Larry Spears would like to offer his special thanks to his family, friends, and colleagues around the world who have enriched his life, and especially his wife, Beth Lafferty; their sons, James and Matthew Spears; and his mother, Bertha Spears. Special thanks also go to Michele Lawrence for her good spirit, hard work, and personal encouragement over the past ten years and around this book.
Michele Lawrence would like to offer her special thanks to her husband, Joe Lawrence, and their daughter, Alexandra Lawrence, who bring such joy and meaning to her life. She would also like to acknowledge the love and influence of her late father, A. L. Richmond (Dad, this one’s for you). Thank you also to Larry Spears, who is a continual inspiration and a pleasure to work with; and to my colleague Geneva Loudd, whose wisdom enriches my life in ways she doesn’t dream of.
Larry and Michele want to especially thank Beth Lafferty, whose delightful company and countless hours spent on this manuscript are both very much appreciated!
We are grateful to our good friend and colleague, John Noble, for his deepening of the initial conversations that led to the two chapters by James Autry and Margaret Wheatley.
Finally, we would like to express our deepest appreciation for the many servant-leaders working within countless organizations around the world. Your efforts in growing servant-leadership point the way to the future of humankind.
—L.C.S. and M.L.
Larry C. Spears is president and CEO of The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership. He is also a writer and editor and has published the following books: The Servant-Leader Within (with Hamilton Beazley and Julie Beggs), 2003; Servant Leadership (25th Anniversary Edition), 2002; Focus on Leadership (with Michele Lawrence), 2002; The Power of Servant-Leadership, 1998; Insights on Leadership, 1998; On Becoming a Servant-Leader (with Don Frick), 1996; Seeker and Servant (with Anne Fraker), 1996; and Reflections on Leadership, 1995. His essays are also included in the following books: Cutting Edge: Leadership 2000, 2000; Stone Soup for the Soul, 1998; and Leadership in a New Era, 1994. He is series editor for the Voices of Servant-Leadership Essay Series (published by The Greenleaf Center); and he is the founder and senior editor of The Greenleaf Center’s periodic newsletter, The Servant-Leader. Spears has also published more than three hundred articles, essays, and book reviews.
Spears was named president and CEO of The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership in 1990. Under his leadership The Green-leaf Center has grown dramatically in size and influence. Larry Spears shared several experiences in common with Robert Green-leaf: In addition to their mutual interests in servant-leadership and writing, both men grew up in Indiana and migrated to major cities after college (Greenleaf to New York City, Spears to Philadelphia); they were deeply influenced by their experiences within the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers); and they shared an abiding interest in how things get done within organizations.
A frequent traveler, Spears has spoken on servant-leadership to groups in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. He is a long-time member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and has written many successful grant proposals, and he is a Fellow of the World Business Academy. His personal interests include spending time with his family, reading, writing, and vacations in his beloved Cape May, New Jersey.
Michele Lawrence has been with The Greenleaf Center since 1993. She currently directs the annual international conference; acts as editor of The Greenleaf Center’s quarterly newsletter, The Servant-Leader; is involved in design and marketing of the Center’s catalog of resources; and performs the functions of finance director of The Greenleaf Center. She was the original webmaster of the Center’s Web site, bringing it online in May 1996. She was coeditor, with Larry Spears, of the 2002 anthology Focus on Leadership.
Her personal interests include spending time with her family, reading, watching basketball (as played by the Purdue Boilermakers and the Indiana Pacers), and occasional vacations by the ocean.
The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is an international nonprofit educational organization that seeks to encourage the understanding and practice of servant-leadership. It has offices in Australia–New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The Center’s mission is to improve the caring and quality of all institutions through servant-leadership.
The Greenleaf Center’s programs and resources include the worldwide sale of books, essays, and videotapes on servant-leadership; research and publications; an annual International Conference on Servant-Leadership, held each June in Indianapolis; a speakers bureau; as well as a membership program, institutes and consultative services, and other activities around servant-leadership.