1. The sun had just set in the old city of Jerusalem, a
small group comprising of a dozen men were having
their evening meal with their Rabbi(Teacher).
As the meal progressed, the teacher took off his
outer clothing, wrapped a towel around his waist
and started washing the feet of the dozen men
present in the room. They were astonished and one
among them even resisted him from doing so, but
their teacher set an example of servant leadership in
that upper room 2000 years ago by telling them that
when he, being their teacher washed their feet, they
also must wash one another’s feet.
Also he went on to explain that no servant is greater
than his master. This teacher from Nazareth became
one of the greatest leaders in the world.
Robert K Greenleaf in his essay titled The Servant
as Leader, coined the phrase Servant leadership,
which he describes as a philosophy and set of
practices that enriches the lives of individuals, build
better organizations and ultimately creates a more
just and caring world.
While this concept can’t be equated to a select few
people or organizations, this term certainly gives us
food for thought. The word by itself is a paradox
that poses questions as to how a servant can be a
leader and vice versa. Hence the beauty of the word
is realized if we can delve into the qualities and
characteristics of each word separately, and then
fuse them together to reveal its splendor.
The striking characteristics of a servant leader as
identified by Larry from Greenleaf’s work were
listening, empathy, building community, healing,
awareness, commitment to people foresight,
persuasion, stewardship, and conceptualization.
Leaders of the past embodied these common
characteristics which made them servant leaders.
As organizations tend to crop up every day, we have
different types of leadership style that is followed.
For example the authoritarian leadership comprises
of well-defined tasks, set of procedures and rules to
monitor the results where the decision making lies in
the hands of the executives.
On the other hand is the participative leadership
style that includes the employees in decision
making, research has shown that employees are
happier when this kind of style is followed. The
model of servant leadership is closely associated to
the participative leadership style.
Servant leadership goes much beyond the
traditional leadership styles, it places the employees
at the top of the pyramid.
Organization’s that have embraced servant
leadership led them to achieve the extraordinary.
They adopted the concept of institutional servant
leadership in all levels of the organization.
SERVANT LEADER
I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people
-Nelson Mandela
.

2. Excerpts from Chanakya's Arthashastra which was
written in the period 375 B.C voices the elements of
servant leadership in the following manner "The
leader shall consider as good, not what pleases
himself but what pleases his subjects".
Great leaders have been obvious to the fact that their
subjects/subordinates were their greatest assets and
empowered them.
Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther,
Mother Teresa, are great examples of servant
leaders.
Technology has changed almost everything, we are
living in a digital era where our neighbor is a friend
on Facebook but not in real life. Advances in social
media networking is bridging distances virtually
helping us stay connected all the time, but in the
process we have lost the essence of life.
We are living in an extremely competitive society
and have bequeathed future generation with
enormous problems. We need servant leaders more
than ever now.
So, take a while to ponder and think Why do I lead?
How do I lead?
References
Robert K. Greenleaf, The Servant as
Leader (Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for
Servant Leadership, 2008)
Hubbard, C.M. (May 31, 2011). Lincoln as a
servant leader
Max De Pree, Leadership is an Art (East Lansing,
MI: Michigan State University Press, 1987)
Jimmy Brown (July 11, 2013) Who are these
servant leaders. Retrieved from
http://online.ben.edu/blog/leadership/who-are-these-
servant-leaders
Jim Heskett (May 01, 2013) Why Isn’t servant
leadership more prevalent. Retrieved from
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7207.html