Insights on Servant-Leaderhip

Part Four of Insights on Leadership is titled “Servant-Leadership.” The essays in the final section of the book discuss the authors’ understanding of servant-leadership and its relevance to modern society.

The introduction to Part Four includes a quote from Robert Greenleaf’s essay Servant-Leadership. “The servant-leader is servant first – as Leo was portrayed. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.”

For me the key to this idea is determining what the highest priority needs are. Too often it seems leaders focus on the followers wants, with the belief that this will keep them in power. Following Greenleaf’s best test of servant-leadership: “Do those served grow as persons?”, keeps the leader on the right path to servant-leadership.