Building Success with Business Ethics: Advice from Business Leaders (Collection)

What Makes Servant Leadership Work?

K: Amen! Now let’s see if we can put this all together. As we said, vision and direction are the leadership part of Servant Leadership. In establishing where you are going, the traditional pyramidal hierarchy is alive and well. That doesn’t mean that top managers—I mean leaders—don’t involve others in crafting this direction, but the responsibility for vision and direction falls to the hierarchical leadership. Kids look to their parents, players look to their coaches, and people look to their organizational leaders for direction. Max De Pree, legendary former chairman of Herman Miller and author of Leadership Is an Art, compared this strategic role to that of a third-grade teacher who keeps repeating the basics: ...