Servant –Leadership

An Introduction to the Power of Leadership Through Service

Mercedes Clement

Senior Professor/Librarian
Chair of Library Services at DSC

1200 W. Int’l Speedway Blvd

Daytona Beach , FL 32114
(386)506-3440
ClemenM@DayttonaState.edu
 About Mercedes
Education

•MS Library Science – Florida State University

•MS Education Foundation – University of Florida
•BS Arts & Science – University of Florida
•Diploma- Bible Studies – Ecole Evangelique de la Bible, Haiti

Experience

•Areas of responsibility include overall management of library operations, supervision of library

personnel, departmental budget management, coordination of planning and assessment for library
areas, administrative contact for College Center for library automation.
•In addition, my responsibilities comprise of management of the library technical services department
and supervision of personnel.
•Furthermore I am one of the 39 Council Member for Florida Virtual Campus. Prior to Daytona State
College, I worked at the University of Florida in acquisitions and cataloging departments
 Topics

• Introduction

• Foundations of Servant Leadership

• Characteristics Servant Leadership

• Paradoxes

• Companies/Organnizations which practice Servant Leadership

• Examples/Case study

• How to become a Servant Leader?

• Are you a Servant Leader?

• Additional Resources
 Robert. K Greenleaf
Largely considered the father of modern Servant-Leadership

Career:
38 Years at AT&T, largely in management training and
development
25 Years consulting on Servant Leadership thereafter
Coined the term Servant-Leader in 1970’s
Founded Center for Applied Ethics (now Greenleaf Center
for Servant-Leadership)
Inspiration:
Hermann Hesse’s short novel Journey to the East in 1960’s
Account of a mythical journey by a group of people on a spiritual quest
True leadership stems first from a desire to serve
Essays:
The Servant as Leader (1970)
The Institution as Servant (1972)
Trustees as Servants (1972)
 Definition
Adapted from “The Servant as Leader”:
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 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?"
 Post –Greenleaf
Following Greenleaf, a wealth of Servant-Leadership experts emerged

Larry Spears:
• President / CEO of Greenleaf center for 25 years
• Author of hundreds of publications on Servant-Leadership
• Founded the Spears Center
James Autry:
• President of magazine group for Meredith Corporation
• Author of 8 Books
• Focus on implementation
James C. Hunter:
• 25 Years in Servant-Leadership
• 2 of the most popular books on Servant-Leadership
• Consulted many of the world’s most admired companies

Others: Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter M. Senge, Jim Collins….

 Greenleaf’s Model of Servant Leadership

• Servant leaders are leaders who put other

people’s needs, aspirations and interest above
their own

• Servant leaders deliberate choice is to serve

others

• Servant leader’s chief motive is to serve first, as

opposed to lead
Word Cloud
The Ten Characteristics of Servant Leadership

 Listening  Conceptualization

 Empathy  Foresight
 Stewardship
 Healing
 Commitment to the
 Awareness growth of the people

 Persuasion  Building community

 Three Groups of Servant Leadership

Relationship-building Actions

Listening – (to self and others)

Empathy – (understanding)
Healing – (search for wholeness of self and others)
Awareness – (of self and of others)

Future-oriented Actions

Persuasion – (building consensus)

Conceptualization – (dreams and of day-to-day operations)
Foresight – (intuitive ability to learn from past and see future consequences
of actions)
Three Groups Continued…

Community – oriented Actions

Stewardship – (holding institution in trust for the good of society)

Commitment to Growth – (personal, professional, spiritual of self and
others)
Building Community – (benevolent, humane, philanthropic, to benefit
others)
Libray
 Stewardship

 “Holding something in trust for another”.

 Making a positive difference in the future
is characteristic of the stewardship
mentality.
Commitment to the growth of the people

 People have intrinsic value

 Building Community

 True community can be created

by connecting and networking…
 Paradoxes
Servant-Leadership, itself a paradox, requires a constant balance…

Great Be Without Pride

Planned Be Spontaneous

Compassionate Discipline

Right Say, “I’m Wrong”

Serious Enough
Enough To
To Laugh

Admit You Don’t Know

Wise

Listen
Busy

Strong Be Open To Change

Leading Serve
 Examples of Balance
Paradoxes are not easy to balance. Here are a few examples…

Great Enough to be Without Pride

• Team gets the credit, you get the blame

Compassionate Enough to Discipline

• Must not be soft – set high expectations and follow through

Right Enough to Say, “I’m Wrong”

• Leaders make mistakes too, admit you are human

Wise Enough to Admit You Don’t Know

• Find out quickly, but do not mislead

Busy Enough to Listen

• Beware the busy manager – they do not lead
Criteria for companies
that practice Servant Leadership

 Openness & fairness

 Camaraderie & friendliness

 Opportunities

 Pride in work & company

 Pay & benefits

 Security
 Companies/Organizations
Some of the well respected companies practice Servant –Leadership…

• Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For: 1/3 of Top 35

• 10 of America’s Most Admired Companies
 Case Study---Starbucks
In 1997, three Starbucks employees were murdered in DC
during a botched robbery. The story was told how Howard
Schultz, CEO, did not call Public Relations or legal counsel.
Instead, Schultz dropped everything, flew to the store and
spent the entire week visiting with the families and
employees in the area.
Dave Olson, Senior Vice President of the Culture and
Leadership Development said: Leadership is largely about
having courage to do the right thing. Or, as Behar, CEO
said: Leading with compassion never stops there is no time
off
 Southwest Airlines

• Perhaps one of the best ways to define

servant leadership is to read about what
Colleen Barrett, President of Southwest
Airlines, said about their leadership
philosophy.
She said:
“We do build our pyramid a
bit different…at the top of
our pyramid in terms of
priority is our employees,
and delivering to them
proactive customer
service”.
 Individuals
Examples of historic Servant –Leaders…

“I suppose leadership at “A genuine leader is not a

one time meant muscles; searcher for consensus but a
but today it means getting molder of consensus.”
along with people”.

Mahatma Gandhi Martin Luther King, Jr.

“For even the Son of “Kind words can be short

Man did not come to be and easy to speak, but their
served, but to serve”. echoes are truly endless”.

Jesus of Nazareth Mother Theresa

How Does One Become A Servant Leader?

• From what we can understand, becoming a

servant leader is more a state of mind than a
set of directions.
• Becoming a servant leader does not follow a
step by step process.
• This style of leadership development is an
on-going, life-long learning process.
Become a Servant Leader Continue…

• Survey shows that 85% of those who become

a leader do so because of the influence of
other leaders.
• Great leaders influence and reproduce
themselves.
• The law of reproduction is to identify, prepare,
and affirm.
“Example is not the main thing,
influencing others, it is the only thing”

Albert Schweitzer
Are you a Servant Leader?
Additional Resources
Recommended texts…

Websites
• Compilation: www.lichtenwalner.net/servantleader
• Greenleaf Center: www.greenleaf.org
• Spears Center: www.spearscenter.org
• Consulting / Development: www.JamesHunter.com

Books
• Servant Leader (Greenleaf, 1977)
• The Servant (Hunter, 1998)
• The Servant Leader (Autry, 2001)
• Practicing Servant Leadership (Spears & Lawrence, 2004)
• World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle (Hunter, 2004)
 References
Publications referenced, paraphrased or extracted from include the following:

Autry, James A.; The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale,
And Improve Bottom-Line Performance. Three Rivers Press, New York, NY 2001.

DeGraaf, Don; Tilley, Colin; Neal, Larry; Servant-Leadership Characteristics in Organizational

Life. Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership. Westfield, Indiana. 2001.

Greenleaf, Robert K.; Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power &
Greatness. Paulist Press, Mawah, NJ. 1977, 1991, 2002.

Hansel, T. ; Holy Sweat. Word. Dallas, TX. 1987.

Hunter, James C.; The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle: How to Become a Servant
Leader. Crown Business, New York, NY. 2004.

Spears, Larry C., Lawrence, Michelle (et al); Practicing Servant Leadership: Succeeding
Through Trust, Bravery, And Forgiveness. Jossey-Bass, San Fransisco, CA . 2004

Spears, Larry C.; Diary of Alpha Kappa Psi (article: Servant-Leadership). Gary L. Epperson,
CAE. Spring 2008.
“If your actions inspire others to dream
more, learn more, do more and become
more, you are a leader.”
John Quincy Adams

Mercedes Clement
Chair of Library Services

Thank you for your time!