History of Servant Leadership
The general concept has existed since ancient times. Chanakya wrote, in the 4th century B.C., in his book Arthashastra:
"the king shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what pleases his subjects " "the king is a paid servant and enjoys the resources of the state together with the people."
There are passages that relate to servant leadership in the Tao Te Ching, attributed to Lao-Tzu, who is believed to have lived in China sometime between 570 B.C. and 490 B.C.:
The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware. Next comes one whom they love and praise. Next comes one whom they fear. Next comes one whom they despise and defy. When you are lacking in faith, Others will be unfaithful to you. The Sage is self-effacing and scanty of words. When his task is accomplished and things have been completed, All the people say, ‘We ourselves have achieved it!’
The concept has been included in many religious text such as this quote from the Christian New Testament (Authorized King James): "But ye not so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve" or this quote from Islam's texts: "the leader of a people is their servant".
"But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:42-45
The term of modern Servant Leadership and servant leader were coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970. He coined this phrase in his essay "The Servant as Leader" . Greenleaf worked a long time at AT&T Corporation and spent most of his career on management studies, management development and management training. After working at AT&T he started a career as visiting lecturer and management consultant for many companies, universities, churches and non-profit organisations, for example at the Harvard Business School, University of Virginia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or Ford Foundation. In 1964 he founded the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (first called the "Center for Applied Ethics").
The idea for his essay, "The Servant as Leader," came out of reading Hermann Hesse`s Journey to the East. The story is about a travel group on an exceptional mythical journey. The main character of this story is Leo. Leo is the companion and servant of the group, but he also sustains them with his charisma and spirit, and gives them well-being. Everything was going well until Leo disappeared; the group fall apart and the journey had to be prematurely interrupted. The group cannot exist longer without their servant Leo. After reading this story Greenleaf comes to the knowledge that a good leader is primarily a servant. A good leader must first be a good servant. Therefore he wrote down his essay The servant as leader, which has sold over 500 000 copies.
Read more about this topic: Servant Leadership
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, servant and/or leadership:
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“He who doesn’t know how to be a servant should never be allowed to be a master; the interests of public life are alien to anyone who is unable to enjoy others’ successes, and such a person should never be entrusted with public affairs.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“A woman who occupies the same realm of thought with man, who can explore with him the depths of science, comprehend the steps of progress through the long past and prophesy those of the momentous future, must ever be surprised and aggravated with his assumptions of leadership and superiority, a superiority she never concedes, an authority she utterly repudiates.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)