In Greenleaf’s seminal essay addressed to college/university student leaders [The Servant as Leader, circa 1969], he offers us the critical question: What distinguishes the servant of others from the self-serving person?
He responds as follows: Great injustice and destruction have been wrought by so-called ‘good’ people who presumed to be serving others. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those being served grow as persons; do they become healthier, wiser, freer, and more autonomous while being served? Since so many people seem afraid to grow, the true servant-leader who brings it about is an extraordinary person.
Greenleaf’s question, in 1969, was truly counter-cultural. Today, I continue to find his critical question to be counter-cultural. He does not focus on ‘leader’—an obsessive focus we still hold today – but continues with his theme of ‘servant.’
At this point he is not interested in what sets leaders apart; he asks a more fundamental question. It does not lead us to ‘what do leaders do or even to, what do servants do;’ it leads us to another question, for me a deeper more challenging question: ‘do those served grow as persons?’
This type of serving is not just any type of serving; it is the serving that directly promotes the growth of the one being served. In what ways have you grown as a result of my serving you? In what ways have I grown as a result of you serving me? Greenleaf continues with more questions: ‘do they become healthier, wiser, freer, and more autonomous while being served?’ Do they become physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually healthier? Do they become wiser – more informed, showing more good judgment, for example? Do they become freer? What could this mean? Do they become more autonomous – ‘individuation’ was a popular psychological concept in the mid-late 60s. And all of this is to occur during the process, during the while being served.
This ‘best test’ is not only difficult to administer it is truly a challenge to live out. How will I know? How will you know? Perhaps only by looking back; yet he says that we should know in the ‘present’ while the serving is occurring. I don’t know. I have found that on-going, depth conversations with others helps me to understand, if not to know the effect and affect of my serving upon you, NOW, in the PRESENT.
Gentle Reader: What comes to you as you reflect upon yourself as one who seeks to serve or as one who believes that you are serving? What is the ‘best test’ you would use for yourself?
Another question I hold: To what extent am I afraid to grow? I have held this question for myself for decades; at times I am clear as to my fear and at other times I can sense, if not feel, the fear that resides within; a fear that is hidden in the mist of surety or denial or complacency.
Gentle Reader: Are there other questions that you hold – questions that challenge and perhaps disturb you?
Servant As Leader 