Robert Greenleaf\u2019s \u201cThe Servant as Leader\u201d focuses on whether someone who occupies a traditional servant role then ascends to a leadership position is the best leader. Our latest discussion focused on humility in the context of American politics, so when reading this article, I thought of the premise of servant leadership in that same context. The US President, or any elected official, is technically a servant of their country. However, they are also a servant of their constituents, the people who got them elected; because a large part of being an elected official is being re-elected, I think that politicians feel more loyalty to their constituents specifically over the nation as a whole. Regardless, they are technically still filling a servant role. But are they servant leaders? According to Greanleaf\u2019s definition, no. He claims that a \u201cgreat leader is seen as servant first,\u201d but when reflecting on both past and present presidents, the first term I think of is not \u201cservant.\u201d However, I still think of presidents as fulfilling the position of great leader, which is why I disagree with Greenleaf\u2019s point.<\/p>\n
Before the quote mentioned above, he used Hermann Hesse\u2019s Journey to the East<\/em> as an example. In the story, the main character poses as a servant but is later revealed to be the head of the organization sponsoring the journey. He may have been seen by the characters on the journey with him as a servant prior to being seen as a leader, but he was the leader at heart the entire time. Greenleaf later says that this is who Leo actually<\/em> was from the beginning, but how can you know if he was a leader or servant first? It feels the chicken-before-the-egg debate. Does the order in which your seen actually matter because wouldn\u2019t you fundamentally be the same? Please discuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Robert Greenleaf\u2019s \u201cThe Servant as Leader\u201d focuses on whether someone who occupies a traditional servant role then ascends to a leadership position is the best…<\/p>\n