Servant Leadership

There is a call that must be answered. We can try to ignore it by overworking, over achievement and self indulgence but the beckoning continues. We can plead that our resources are limited but the summons persists. We can appeal that the physical or emotional barriers in our lives make it impossible but the invitation will not be dismissed. We are called to serve others. We do not have to abandon our lives and lifestyles to answer it but we must respond with direct action. Serving the needs of others connects us to our common bond. It allows us to go beyond the narrow range of daily activities to a place in which we feel fully human. We have the ability to become servant leaders.

Servant leadership is a philosophy of compassion. The phrase was derived from the work of Robert Greenleaf in 1970. Centers from The School of Servant Leadership in Washington, DC to The Greenleaf Center in Indiana and countless other schools around the country have risen to the call of the leader as a servant. It is a philosophy that, when embraced, calls the individual to community. Mercy and justice become overriding concerns. Competition yields to cooperation. Servant leaders not only nurture but embolden others. Their compassionate mission welcomes the poor and the wealthy, the prisoner and the executive, the mourner and the celebrant. They erase the distinctions that divide us and provide a vision of an interconnected human family.

Starting out on a path of servant leadership requires only that we pose the following questions to ourselves:


• How can I spend more time other people?

• How can I bring some joy into the situation that faces me?

• How can I listen with greater intensity?

• How can I share my love?

The behaviors will follow the questions. We will find that we are engaged in the most meaningful and enriching times of our lives. It takes some effort and some courage but it can be done regardless of who we are. This is the way of spiritual living. It is what every religion tells us to do. We have not yet realized what we profess to believe until we rise to follow the call.