Reading Summary: Servant Leadership
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Reading Summary: Servant Leadership
by Robert Greenleaf
1. The Servant as Leader
▪ A new principle is emerging that the only authority that deserves loyalty is one where the
leader shows a wiliness to serve the people they are leading.
▪ Many are now looking at power and authority, preferring to relate to one another in less
forceful and more supporting ways.
▪ People who follow this principle will not easily accept the authority of leaders in
organizations. Instead, they will only respond to individuals who are chosen as leaders
because they are proven and trusted as servants.
2. Who Is the Servant-leader?
▪ The servant-leader is always a servant first. It starts with the person wanting to serve
people first. This choice then creates a desire to lead and support people to success.
▪ The servant-leader is very different from one who is a leader first who wants to manage
power and will only serve the team after control is established. A leader first serves the
people because of personal benefits or due to organizational expectations.
▪ The difference lies in the servant leader valuing other people’s needs more and
prioritizing their success more than the person who is leader first.
▪ The best test is – Do those people being led grow as persons? Do they become wiser,
more autonomous and eventually be great leaders themselves? The natural servant, the
person who is servant first, is more likely to succeed.
▪ The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types so there will be many mix of
types in between.
3. What Are You as Servant Leaders Trying to Do?
▪ A great leader always has a goal. Leaders are put in a position to show the way for others
and are better than most at pointing the direction to anyone who is unsure.
▪ Leaders set goals to give purpose to others. It challenges people to work for something
they have not achieved and something they can be proud of as they move towards it.
▪ Every successful journey starts with a goal and the leader must be trusted, because those
who follow are accepting the risks and uncertainty along the way.
▪ As a servant-leader, the people know you have their best interests in mind as you set the
direction and goal. Therefore the trust and belief that people have in you will enable you
to more successful.
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4. Listening and Understanding
▪ The usual leader in the face of a difficulty tends to react by first finding out who caused
the problem, what is the problem and make their own decision on how to solve the
problem.
▪ Great leaders will probably react first by listening to others and consult them on the best
way forward for the team. This approach enables a leader to be seen as servant first.
▪ As a leader-first who wants to become a trusted servant leader, this will require them to
adopt a servant mindset through a long difficult discipline of learning to listen first and
putting the people’s interest as a priority.
▪ The best way to test if we are communicating at this level is to ask ourselves. Are we
really listening? Are we asking enough questions to really want to understand? Or are we
telling or ordering too much? Great servant leaders know that true listening builds
strength and trust in the team.
5. Acceptance and Empathy
▪ Acceptance is receiving what is offered. Empathy is the ability to out oneself into another
person’s position. The opposite of both is to reject – a refusal to listen or accept.
▪ The servant as leader always empathizes, always accepts the person but also knowing
when to refuse to accept some of the person's effort or performance as good enough.
▪ Acceptance of the person, though, requires a tolerance of imperfection. Many leaders fail
because because they cannot work with people who are not all top performers.
▪ People grow when those who lead them empathize and accept them for what they are. If
their performance does not meet expectations, servant leaders will prioritize to coach
instead of just demanding for their people to work harder.
▪ Servant leaders unlike traditional leaders choose to lead not because it gives them power
and control. They choose to do so because they want to make a positive difference to
people’s lives.
6. Power
▪ In complex organisations, power by authority is used to control and manipulate people to
get things done. Most of us are more forced to do things than we know. However, such
power only strengthens resistance and its controlling effect only lasts as long as the
person is present. Many misuse this power because they do not know of other ways.
▪ Servant-leaders use a different power coming from persuasion and leading by example. It
is used to create opportunity and options so people have autonomy and choice.
▪ Such power used by servant leaders are superior because they are closer to the ground
and they hear things, see things, know things. Because of this, they are dependable and
trusted by people. The power continues to exist even when the person is not present.
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