Thanks for the comment. I’ve actually been involved in an ongoing debate with several graduate students about whether or not the example of Christ is an example of servant leadership or transformational leadership. Certainly Christ advocated becoming a servant of those you lead, however in practice, he may have been more of a servant leader. For example, his disciples often wanted him to go to certain place and do certain things, yet he proceeded on his own path because he knew it was tied to the mission. He didn’t neglected his followers, he just knew that what was best wasn’t yielding to their immediate needs.

Oh, and I say recent only because Greenleaf’s writings and the theory’s acceptance into formal literature has only happened recently.

Discussing this at our leadership roundtable right now, leadership trainer Erl Morrell-Stinson of http://www.DeepMindDynamics.com had the following statement:

“It is exactly that mis-perception you’ve just articulated that causes ‘Christian’ organizations to become sterile and ineffective. Servant leadership does not call its proponents to become inwardly focused and serve their followers. He called all his followers to focus outward and TOGETHER serve the cause for which they existed – abundant life for all. Serving each other is merely a means towards that end.

The results you point to are those of a concept incorrectly applied. Like any other management theory where the leaders of the organization don’t “Get It” and the theory fails in practice, where it has been shown to work in other places.”

Really?

I thought it was at LEAST a few thousand years old.