Savoring life through servant-leadership
This is the title of Larry Spears’ most recent essay, from which I quote:
New elder servant-leaders care passionately about those who follow in their footsteps. They find deep satisfaction in giving their gifts in new ways that serve others rather than just themselves. And they embrace this as a critical responsibility of their elderhood. Consequently, the new elder spirit is one of “giving it away”.
Larry Spears is not yet old, but he certainly already belongs to this group of “new elder servant leaders”. There is much to say about Larrys accomplishments in promoting servant leadership and encouraging servant leader for more than 20 years all around the globe. To gain abetter understanding of Larrys ministry and to get an overview of Greenleafs and Larrys writings on servant leadership I recommend to visit his excellent website.
When I asked Larry, if he’d like to share a few thoughts on the core of servant leadership and to commend the akomuna.net blog with some personal words, Larry wrote me back:
Robert K. Greenleaf coined the term ’servant-leader’ in 1970. Over the past forty years, servant-leadership has come to be understood and practiced by many people and organizations. Simply put, this idea is founded on the idea that the servant-leader is first a servant, and that his or her leadership grows out of the desire to serve others. I had the great privilege of meeting Robert Greenleaf, and of leading The Greenleaf Center from 1990 to 2007. In 2008 I formed The Spears Center for Servant-Leadership, Inc. (www.spearscenter.org), where I focus on the creation of new resources in servant-leadership.
I also teach graduate courses in servant-leadership for Gonzaga University and serve as Senior Advisory Editor for The International Journal of Servant-Leadership. It is in this capacity that I first encountered Thorsten Grahn in a servant-leadership conference held in Rotterdam in 2008. His presentation of a paper, “Gardening Tips for Servant-Leaders,” was a wonderful highlight of that conference. We are pleased to include that paper as part of our 2009 International Journal. I have great admiration for the servant-leadership work of Thorsten Grahn.
Thank you, Larry! May your passion for servant leadership continue to inspire servants and leaders around the world to become servant leaders.
Author: admin