When was servant leadership created

The travelers fell into disarray and could go no farther. The journey was over. Years later, one of the travelers saw Leo again—as the revered head of the Order that sponsored the journey. Leo, who had been their servant, was the titular head of the Order, a great and noble leader. In The Servant as Leader , Greenleaf said:. If there is a single characteristic of the servant-leader that stands out in Greenleaf's essay, it is the desire to serve.

A walk through The Servant as Leader provides a fairly long list of additional characteristics that Greenleaf considered important. They include listening and understanding; acceptance and empathy; foresight; awareness and perception; persuasion; conceptualization; self-healing; and rebuilding community. Greenleaf describes servant-leaders as people who initiate action, are goal-oriented, are dreamers of great dreams, are good communicators, are able to withdraw and re-orient themselves, and are dependable, trusted, creative, intuitive, and situational.

Scholars are identifying characteristics of servant leadership in order to develop and test theories about the impact of servant leadership. For example, Robert C. Liden and his colleagues identified nine dimensions of servant leadership that they used in their research: emotional healing, creating value for the community, conceptual skills, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first, behaving ethically, relationships, and servanthood.

Dirk van Dierendonck reviewed the scholarly literature and identified six key characteristics of servant-leader behavior: empowering and developing people, humility, authenticity, interpersonal acceptance, providing direction, and stewardship. In practice, Southwest Airlines, under the guidance of founder Herb Kelleher, is frequently cited as the model servant leadership corporation.

Kelleher's philosophy of putting employees first resulted in a highly engaged, low-turnover workforce and plus consecutive years of profitability, an unheard-of record in the turbulent airline industry. Barter, who now leads the California-based Servant Leadership Institute, came to the concept by a circuitous path—working for companies that did not follow its practices. He then became acquainted with the work of management expert and servant leader advocate Ken Blanchard.

In , when Barter became the CEO of Datron, a tactical communications equipment supplier, he was determined to head the firm as a servant leader. The results were dramatic. Experts offer a range of best practice suggestions for top executives who aspire to become successful servant leaders. Most experts agree, however, on one bedrock principle: successful servant leadership starts with a leader's desire to serve his or her staff, which in turn serves and benefits the organization at large.

This serve-first mindset can be put into practice from the beginning, during an employee's onboarding phase, says Michael Timmes, a leadership expert and consultant and coach with the national human resources provider Insperity.

During onboarding, after the initial introductions, getting-acquainted conversations, and explanations about how operations work, the servant leader should solicit the new hire's observations, impressions and opinions, Timmes says. This conveys the message, from the onset, that the employee's thoughts are valued. And from that point, the servant leader keeps a continual focus on talent development.

He approvingly cites one expert's view that if a manager is not spending at least 25 percent of his or her time developing future leaders, then "you're really not fulfilling your responsibilities as a leader. The servant leader can enhance this talent development process in several ways. For Barter, one of the keys is to leverage the employees' strengths. Often, an employee's highest performance is on tasks they are most passionate about, yet some managers never find this out.

What really excites you? Another way to enhance the talent development process is to selectively relinquish power, so that employees can lead certain projects and take ownership of initiatives.

This can be tricky for some leaders because they equate leadership with control and they feel they should be responsible for everything. But therein lies a paradox—leaders that are able to let go often find that they are actually in more control, because they have harnessed the resources and talents of their staff, which collectively can guide operations more effectively than one person can, he explains.

This is a crucial requirement for effective servant leadership, says Falotico. She tells leaders to "get over yourself" and realize that business objectives, whatever they are, will not be reached without sharing the load and responsibility.

That's your work. If serving staff is the bedrock principle of servant leadership, two core practices toward achieving that goal are close listening and searching questions.

Darryl Spivey, a senior faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership CCL who coaches executives on servant leadership, says that asking the right questions is the "secret sauce" of great coaching, and is crucial for servant leaders. Servant leaders build relationships with staff primarily by listening closely and by asking many questions—on anything from the employee's background to detailed queries about their assessment of the firm's business environment, Spivey explains.

If an employee is struggling, leaders should ask questions about what might be impeding his or her progress. Even questions about smaller aspects of operations, such as the best use of time during meetings, are helpful.

And the emphasis on questions works both ways. Employees should feel comfortable asking the servant leader questions without worrying that the leader will feel badgered, threatened or implicitly criticized, Spivey says. Such questions help drive the development and growth of the employee.

Carefully asking questions is related to another crucial practice—listening to understand. This means listening to the employee silently and making an active effort to understand his or her point of view. Even if the leader feels the need to disagree or interject, they will wait until the person is finished speaking. If need be, the leader can briefly summarize what the employee has just expressed, as a way to communicate understanding.

While this may strike some as merely common courtesy, listening to understand is becoming harder with the rise of technology and the decrease of attention spans, experts say. For example, a leader who keeps the iPhone on the desk, and glances at it repeatedly during conversations, is not listening to understand. Servant leaders can do more than listen to staff: they can encourage them. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in In that essay, Greenleaf said:.

Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?

And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?