Excerpts from the booklet The Servant as Leader by Robert K. Greenleaf

I recieved this little booklet from one of my former leadership students. It's always nice to recieve free books and even nicer when they are the books studied by those you have once taught who are now continuing their journey in learning.

“I now embrace the theory of prophecy which holds that prophetic voices of great clarity, and with a quality of insight equal to that of any age, are speaking cogently all of the time. Men and women of a stature equal to the greatest of the past are with us now addressing the problems of the day and pointing to a better way and to a personeity better able to live fully and serenely in these times.” – p. 2

“With education that is preponderantly abstract and analytical it is no wonder that there is a preoccupation with criticism and that not much thought is given to ‘what can I do about it?’” – p. 5

“Great ideas, it has been said, come into the world as gently as doves. Perhaps, then, if we listen attentively, we shall hear, amid the uproar of empires and nations, a faint flutter of wings, the gentle stirring of life and hope. Some will say that this hope lies in a nation, others, in a man. I believe rather that it is awakened, revived, nourished, by millions of solitary individuals whose deeds and works every day negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history. As a result, there shines forth fleetingly the ever-threatened truth that each and every man, on the foundations of his own sufferings and joys, builds for them all.” – p. 5

“The best test of whether we are communicating at this depth is to ask ourselves, first, are we really listening? Are we listening to the one we want to communicate to? Is our basic attitude, as we approach the confrontation, one of wanting to understand? Remember that great line from the prayer of St. Francis, “Lord, grant that I may not seek so much to be understood as to understand.” – p. 10

“As a leader one must have facility in tempting the hearer into that leap of imagination that connects the verbal concept to the hearer’s own experience. The limitation on language, to the communicator, is that the hearer must make that leap of imagination. One of the arts of communicating is to say just enough to facilitate that leap. Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much.” – p. 11

“It is part of the enigma of human nature that the ‘typical’ person – immature, stumbling, inept, lazy – is capable of great dedication and heroism if he is wisely led. Many otherwise able people are disqualified to lead because they cannot work with and through the half-people who are all there are.” – p. 13-14

“Awareness has it’s risks, but it makes life more interesting; certainly it strengthens one’s effectiveness as a leader.” – p. 19

“…I do believe that some of those of today’s privileged who will live into the twenty-first century will find it interesting if they can abandon their present notions of how they can best serve their less favored neighbor and wait and listen until the less favored find their own enlightenment, then define their needs in their own way and, finally , state clearly how they want to be served. The now-privileged who are natural servants may in this process get a fresh perspective on the priority of other’s needs and thus they may again be able to serve by leading. In the meantime, Paulo-Freire has offered the Pedagogy of the Oppressed to ponder while they heed John Milton’s advice, “They also serve who only stand and wait.” – p. 26

“Twelve ministers and theologians of all faiths and twelve psychiatrists of all faiths had convened for a two-day off-the-record seminar on the one-word theme of healing. The Chairman, a psychiatrist, opened the seminar with this question, ‘We are all healers, whether we are ministers or doctors. Why are we in this business? What is our motivation?’ There followed only ten minutes of intense discussion and they were all agreed, doctors and ministers, Catholics, Jews, and Protestants. ‘For our own healing,’ they said. …Whether professional or amateur the motive for the healing is the same, for his own healing.” – p. 27-28

“The servant views any problem in the world as in here, inside himself, not out there. And if a flaw in the world is to be remedied, to the servant the process of change starts in here, in the servant, not out there. This is a difficult concept for that busybody, modern man.” – p. 34