LEADERSHIP
FORMULA: The SSA uses the Servant-Leadership method which is a practical philosophy
which supports people who choose to serve first, and then lead as a way of expanding
service to individuals and institutions. Servant-leaders may or may not hold formal
leadership positions. Servant-leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight,
listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment. Robert Greenleaf, the man who
coined the phrase, described servant-leadership in this way. “The servant-leader is
servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve
first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. He or she is sharply different
from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual
power drive or to acquire material possessions. For such it will be a later choice to
serve – after leadership is established. The leader-first and the servant-first are
two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the
infinite variety of human nature. The difference manifest itself in the care taken by the
servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being
served. The best test, and difficult to administer , is: do those served grow as persons;
do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely
themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society;
will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived?”
Other organizations who operate this way include AT&T, Harvard Business School,
Herman Miller, Toro Company, Southwest Airlines, TDIndustries, Starbucks Coffee, Men's
Warehouse, ServiceMaster, and others.
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