Our Leaders are but trusted Servants.

My first introduction to the practice of servant leadership occurred while attending “Twelve Step” meetings. It was in these meetings where I learned about Tradition Two from Alcoholics Anonymous, which in part states “Our Leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern.” The Twelve Traditions are a set of guidelines for how AA groups and the organization as a whole operate. After seeing how successful these Twelve Step organizations were in helping the individual members to grow, I was intrigued to learn more about Servant Leadership.

Through the Servant-Leadership Blog, I learned about Don Frick’s amazing biography on Robert Greenleaf. Among the many fascinating insights on the life of Greenleaf, one connection I found interesting was his friendship with Bill Wilson, better known as “Bill W” one of the founders of AA.

It is through my experience in seeing the true power of servant leadership in the “meetings” that I continue to have hope that trying to practice servant leadership “in all my affairs”, per the Twelfth Step, does make life much more interesting.

And those are my thoughts on servant leadership for the day.