Robert K. Greenleaf
Sergio Caredda
Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as leader. The Greenleaf Center For Servant Leadership, Cop.
Description:
The concept of Servant Leadership was originally developed by was first coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said: “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. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first…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” (Greenleaf, 1970)
The concept reverts the assumption of a leader that develops based on authority and power, and rather sees it as a source of support for their teams and organisation. Today the word “servant” is sometime disputed, but the principle outlined are used in many models listed here.
The model was later elaborated with the help of Larry Spears, who has identified a number of characteristics for the Servant Leader in the book Servant Leadership. Today, the Center for Servant Leadership maintains the legacy of Greenleaf’s work and advocates for the further development of this concept across the organisation. Many other authors have added to the concept, therefore the image that I put here is somehow a very good synthesis of the themes applied to the concept.
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