Mercedes Clement

Senior Professor/Librarian

Chair of Library Services at DSC

1200 W. Int’l Speedway Blvd

Daytona Beach , FL 32114

(386)506-3440

ClemenM@DayttonaState.edu

Servant –Leadership An Introduction to the Power of Leadership Through Service

About Mercedes

Education

• MS Library Science – Florida State University

• MS Education Foundation – University of Florida

• BS Arts & Science – University of Florida

• Diploma- Bible Studies – Ecole Evangelique de la Bible, Haiti

Experience

• Areas of responsibility include overall management of library operations, supervision of library

personnel, departmental budget management, coordination of planning and assessment for library

areas, administrative contact for College Center for library automation.

• In addition, my responsibilities comprise of management of the library technical services

department and supervision of personnel.

• Furthermore I am one of the 39 Council Member for Florida Virtual Campus. Prior to Daytona

State College, I worked at the University of Florida in acquisitions and cataloging departments

Topics

• Introduction

• Foundations of Servant Leadership

• Characteristics Servant Leadership

• Paradoxes

• Companies/Organnizations which practice Servant Leadership

• Examples/Case study

• How to become a Servant Leader?

• Are you a Servant Leader?

• Additional Resources

Robert. K Greenleaf Largely considered the father of modern Servant-Leadership

Career: 38 Years at AT&T, largely in management training and

development

25 Years consulting on Servant Leadership thereafter

Coined the term Servant-Leader in 1970’s

Founded Center for Applied Ethics (now Greenleaf Center

for Servant-Leadership)

Inspiration: Hermann Hesse’s short novel Journey to the East in 1960’s

Account of a mythical journey by a group of people on a spiritual quest

True leadership stems first from a desire to serve

Essays: The Servant as Leader (1970)

The Institution as Servant (1972)

Trustees as Servants (1972)

Definition

Adapted from “The Servant as Leader”:

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…

…The best test, and difficult to administer, is: 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?"

Post –Greenleaf Following Greenleaf, a wealth of Servant-Leadership experts emerged

Larry Spears: • President / CEO of Greenleaf center for 25 years

• Author of hundreds of publications on Servant-Leadership

• Founded the Spears Center

James Autry: • President of magazine group for Meredith Corporation

• Author of 8 Books

• Focus on implementation

James C. Hunter: • 25 Years in Servant-Leadership

• 2 of the most popular books on Servant-Leadership

• Consulted many of the world’s most admired companies

Others: Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter M. Senge, Jim Collins….

Greenleaf’s Model of Servant Leadership

• Servant leaders are leaders who put other

people’s needs, aspirations and interest

above their own

• Servant leaders deliberate choice is to serve

others

• Servant leader’s chief motive is to serve first,

as opposed to lead

Word Cloud

The Ten Characteristics of Servant Leadership

Listening

Empathy

Healing

Awareness

Persuasion

Conceptualization

Foresight

Stewardship

Commitment to the

growth of the people

Building community

Three Groups of Servant Leadership

Relationship-building Actions

Listening – (to self and others)

Empathy – (understanding)

Healing – (search for wholeness of self and others)

Awareness – (of self and of others)

Future-oriented Actions

Persuasion – (building consensus)

Conceptualization – (dreams and of day-to-day operations)

Foresight – (intuitive ability to learn from past and see future

consequences of actions)

Three Groups Continued…

Community – oriented Actions

Stewardship – (holding institution in trust for the good of society)

Commitment to Growth – (personal, professional, spiritual of self

and others)

Building Community – (benevolent, humane, philanthropic, to

benefit others)

Libray

Stewardship

“Holding something in trust for another”.

Making a positive difference in the future

is characteristic of the stewardship

mentality.

Commitment to the growth of the people

People have intrinsic value

Building Community

True community can be created

by connecting and networking…

Paradoxes

Servant-Leadership, itself a paradox, requires a constant balance…

Great

Planned

Compassionate

Be Without Pride

Be Spontaneous

Discipline

Right Say, “I’m Wrong”

Serious Laugh

Wise Admit You Don’t Know

Busy Listen

Strong Be Open To Change

Leading Serve

Enough To

Examples of Balance Paradoxes are not easy to balance. Here are a few examples…

Great Enough to be Without Pride

• Team gets the credit, you get the blame

Compassionate Enough to Discipline

• Must not be soft – set high expectations and follow through

Right Enough to Say, “I’m Wrong”

• Leaders make mistakes too, admit you are human

Wise Enough to Admit You Don’t Know

• Find out quickly, but do not mislead

Busy Enough to Listen

• Beware the busy manager – they do not lead

Criteria for companies

that practice Servant Leadership

Openness & fairness

Camaraderie & friendliness

Opportunities

Pride in work & company

Pay & benefits

Security

Companies/Organizations Some of the well respected companies practice Servant –Leadership…

• Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For: 1/3 of Top 35

• 10 of America’s Most Admired Companies

Case Study---Starbucks

In 1997, three Starbucks employees were murdered in DC

during a botched robbery. The story was told how Howard

Schultz, CEO, did not call Public Relations or legal counsel.

Instead, Schultz dropped everything, flew to the store and

spent the entire week visiting with the families and

employees in the area.

Dave Olson, Senior Vice President of the Culture and

Leadership Development said: Leadership is largely about

having courage to do the right thing. Or, as Behar, CEO

said: Leading with compassion never stops there is no time

off

Southwest Airlines

• Perhaps one of the best ways to define

servant leadership is to read about what

Colleen Barrett, President of Southwest

Airlines, said about their leadership

philosophy.

She said:

“We do build our pyramid a

bit different…at the top of

our pyramid in terms of

priority is our employees,

and delivering to them

proactive customer

service”.

Individuals Examples of historic Servant –Leaders…

Mahatma Gandhi

Jesus of Nazareth

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mother Theresa

“A genuine leader is not a

searcher for consensus but a

molder of consensus.”

“I suppose leadership at

one time meant muscles;

but today it means getting

along with people”.

“Kind words can be short

and easy to speak, but their

echoes are truly endless”.

“For even the Son of

Man did not come to be

served, but to serve”.

How Does One Become A Servant Leader?

• From what we can understand, becoming a

servant leader is more a state of mind than a

set of directions.

• Becoming a servant leader does not follow a

step by step process.

• This style of leadership development is an

on-going, life-long learning process.

Become a Servant Leader Continue…

• Survey shows that 85% of those who become

a leader do so because of the influence of

other leaders.

• Great leaders influence and reproduce

themselves.

• The law of reproduction is to identify,

prepare, and affirm.

“Example is not the main thing,

influencing others, it is the only thing”

Albert Schweitzer

Are you a Servant Leader?

Additional Resources

Recommended texts…

Websites

• Compilation: www.lichtenwalner.net/servantleader

• Greenleaf Center: www.greenleaf.org

• Spears Center: www.spearscenter.org

• Consulting / Development: www.JamesHunter.com

Books

• Servant Leader (Greenleaf, 1977)

• The Servant (Hunter, 1998)

• The Servant Leader (Autry, 2001)

• Practicing Servant Leadership (Spears & Lawrence, 2004)

• World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle (Hunter, 2004)

References Publications referenced, paraphrased or extracted from include the following:

Autry, James A.; The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale,

And Improve Bottom-Line Performance. Three Rivers Press, New York, NY 2001.

DeGraaf, Don; Tilley, Colin; Neal, Larry; Servant-Leadership Characteristics in Organizational

Life. Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership. Westfield, Indiana. 2001.

Greenleaf, Robert K.; Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power &

Greatness. Paulist Press, Mawah, NJ. 1977, 1991, 2002.

Hansel, T. ; Holy Sweat. Word. Dallas, TX. 1987.

Hunter, James C.; The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle: How to Become a Servant

Leader. Crown Business, New York, NY. 2004.

Spears, Larry C., Lawrence, Michelle (et al); Practicing Servant Leadership: Succeeding

Through Trust, Bravery, And Forgiveness. Jossey-Bass, San Fransisco, CA . 2004

Spears, Larry C.; Diary of Alpha Kappa Psi (article: Servant-Leadership). Gary L. Epperson,

CAE. Spring 2008.

Thank you for your time!

Mercedes Clement Chair of Library Services

“If your actions inspire others to dream

more, learn more, do more and become

more, you are a leader.”

John Quincy Adams