The following contains excerpts from the book, Servant Leadership (Robert Greenleaf).
At our music school in Midland, Texas we believe that music is more than sound, it is relationships. At the forefront of understanding relationships is the subject of Leadership.
Greenleaf’s thesis, “Early on I made a distinction between wisdom and scholarship; and the former, what works well in practice, has long been my central interest…There is a new problem in our country. We are becoming a nation that is dominated by large institutions – churches, businesses, governments, labor unions, universities – and these big institutions are not serving us well…wish that leaders will bend their efforts to serve with skill, understanding, and spirit, and that followers will be responsive only to able servants who would lead them – but that they will respond. Discriminating and determined servants as followers are important as servant-leaders, and everyone, from time to time may be in both roles…schools of administration give scant attention to servant leadership.”
We believe, at our music school in Midland, Texas that having an attitude that seeks to serve the student, their families, and our community is foundational to the success of our teaching.
This book, published in 1977, after two decades of research and discovery, by the author’s own admission, became the bedrock for many other leadership authors and teachers. The concepts, well ahead of their time, are still as important to today’s leader as they were when first written. Among authors who highly regard this book and its author are Ken Blanchard and Steven Covey.
Following are points and excepts from the book:
- “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 personality better able to live fully and serenely in these times…But if one is servant, either leader or follower, one is always searching, listening, expecting that a better wheel for these times is in the making.”
It is our goal at our music school in Midland, Texas to help students have the resources to take their own journey, becoming autonomous in their learning and ultimately becoming teachers themselves.
- “The only authority deserving one’s allegiance is that which is freely and knowingly granted by the led to the leader in response to, and in proportion to, the clearly evident servant stature of the leader. Those who choose to follow this principle will not casually accept the authority of existing institutions. Rather, they will freely respond only to individuals who are chosen as leaders because they are proven and trusted as servants. To the extent that this principle prevails in the future, the only truly viable institutions will be those that are predominantly servant led.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we cannot imagine a situation in which a successful teacher/student relationship can be beneficial without the teacher having an attitude to serve the student’s progress.
- “By extending education for so many so far into the adult years, normal participation in society is effectively denied when young people are ready for it. 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?’ Criticism has its place, but as a total preoccupation it is sterile…the danger, perhaps, is to hear the analyst too much and the artist too little.”
The preceding statement gives credence to our belief, at our music school in Midland, Texas, that music education is much more valuable that an ‘elective’ and provides the student with far more cognitive value than is currently assessed.
- “One is asked, then, to accept the human condition, its sufferings and its joys, and to work with its imperfections as the foundation upon which the individual will build wholeness through adventurous creative achievement. For the person with creative potential there is no wholeness except in using it.”
- “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, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions.”
- “The best test, and difficult to administer, is this: 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?”
- “The natural servant, the person who is servant-first, is more likely to persevere and refine a particular hypothesis on what serves another’s highest priority needs than is the person who is leader-first and who later serves out of promptings of conscience or in conformity with normative expectations.”
- “Why would anybody accept the leadership of another except that the other sees more clearly where it is best to go?…A leader initiates, provides the ideas and the structure, and takes the risk of failure along with the chance of success. A leader says, ‘I will go; follow me!’ while knowing that the path is uncertain, even dangerous…Paul Goodman, speaking through a character in Making Do, has said, “If there is no community for you, young man, young man, make it yourself.”
- “The one who states the goal must elicit trust, especially if it is a high risk or visionary goal, because those who follow are asked to accept the risk along with the leader. Leaders do not elicit trust unless one has confidence in their values and competence (including judgment) and unless they have a sustaining spirit (entheos) that will support the tenacious pursuit of a goal…Behind every great achievement is a dreamer of great dreams.”
Our goal at our music school in Midland, Texas is to help the student become aware of the dreams they have within. Once they discover their unique direction, they will pursue it with passion and discipline.
- “I have a bias about this which suggests that only a true natural servant automatically responds to any problem by listening first…The best test of whether we are communicating at this depth is to ask ourselves first: Are we really listening?”
- “Nothing is meaningful until it is related to the hearer’s own experience…the meaning, a growth in experience as a result of receiving the communication, requires that the hearer supply the imaginative link from the hearer’s fund of experience to the abstract language symbols the speaker has used…the hearer must make that leap of imagination. One of the arts of communicating is to say just enough to facilitate that leap.”
- “Pacing oneself by appropriate withdrawal is one of the best approaches to making optimal use of one’s resources. The servant-leader must constantly ask: How can I use myself to serve best?”
- “The servant always accepts and empathizes, never rejects…A college president once said, ‘An educator may be rejected by students and must not object to this. But one may never, under any circumstances, regardless of what they do, reject a single student.
Robert Frost in his poem “The Death of the Hired Man” states the problem in a conversation…between the farmer and his wife…they are then drawn into a discussion of what a home is. The husband gives his view:
Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.
The wife sees it differently. What is a home? She says,
I should have called it
Something you somehow haven’t to deserve.
The interest in and affection for one’s followers that a leader has – and it is a mark of true greatness when it is genuine – is clearly something the followers ‘haven’t to deserve.’
Deep down inside the great ones have empathy and an unqualified acceptance of the persons of those who go with their leadership.
Acceptance of the person, though, requires a tolerance of imperfection. Anybody could lead perfect people – if there were any. But there aren’t any perfect people. And the parents who try to raise perfect children are certain to raise neurotics.
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 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. The secret of institution building is to be able to weld a team of such people by lifting them up to grow taller than they would otherwise be.
People grow taller when those who lead them empathize and when they are accepted for what they are, even though their performance may be judged critically in terms of what they are capable of doing. Leaders who empathize and who fully accept those who go with them on this basis are more likely to be trusted.