In the introduction to Greenleaf’s article, the character of Leo reminded me of how a lot of higher up business people tend to higher assistants or helpers and those people tend to do a lot of the managing and organizing and without them, the life of the boss would be way more complicated and stressful. A lot of times that assistant is just starting out too and can then go to get a job higher up and the cycle may sort of repeat but it still exemplifies the idea of servant first, leader second. Greenleaf also talks about how remembering history and keeping it in context of present and future events is vital because it helps to create these new positions. There is also mention of how if someone has known the past, they are reluctant to change with the present and we see that a lot today, maybe even more than back three decades when the article was written because in some places, a lot of older people are still very set in their ways from precedents of their family or just what they have lived through and people are afraid of change sometimes or they do not want to accept that they may have been wrong or at least not all correct in what they have believed for their whole lives.
The second article when explaining the ten characteristics of a servant leader seems to relate a lot to what we read about humility and charismatic leaders because you have to listen to others and have a goal to put their needs first to better the community as a whole. There is an emphasis on being one with their followers so that you can better help them with their troubles. The beginning talks about how positive character traits can be taught and learned and that takes me back to the very beginning when we talked about if you could learn how to be a leader or if you are just born with those traits and I think it is more obvious after this article to say that leaders arise due to the situation, but of course they have specific qualities that benefit them in leading others.
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