An Introduction to the Power of Leadership Through Service
Mercedes Clement
Senior Professor/Librarian
Chair of Library Services at DSC
1200 W. Int’l Speedway Blvd
Daytona Beach , FL 32114
(386)506-3440
ClemenM@DayttonaState.edu

Education
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MS Library Science – Florida State University
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MS Education Foundation – University of Florida
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BS Arts & Science – University of Florida
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Diploma- Bible Studies – Ecole Evangelique de la Bible, Haiti
Experience
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Areas of responsibility include overall management of library operations, supervision of library personnel, departmental budget management, coordination of planning and assessment for library areas, administrative contact for College Center for library automation.
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In addition, my responsibilities comprise of management of the library technical services department and supervision of personnel.
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Furthermore I am one of the 39 Council Member for Florida Virtual Campus. Prior to Daytona
State College, I worked at the University of Florida in acquisitions and cataloging departments

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Introduction
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Foundations of Servant Leadership
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Characteristics Servant Leadership
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Paradoxes
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Companies/Organnizations which practice Servant Leadership
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Examples/Case study
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How to become a Servant Leader?
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Are you a Servant Leader?
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Additional Resources

Largely considered the father of modern Servant-Leadership
Career:
38 Years at AT&T, largely in management training and development
25 Years consulting on Servant Leadership thereafter
Coined the term ServantLeader in 1970’s
Founded Center for Applied Ethics (now Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership)
Inspiration:
Hermann Hesse’s short novel Journey to the East in 1960’s
Account of a mythical journey by a group of people on a spiritual quest
True leadership stems first from a desire to serve
Essays:
The Servant as Leader (1970)
The Institution as Servant (1972)
Trustees as Servants (1972)

Adapted from “The Servant as Leader”:
The servantleader 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. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first…
…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 not be further deprived?"

Following Greenleaf, a wealth of Servant-Leadership experts emerged
Larry Spears:
• President / CEO of Greenleaf center for 25 years
• Author of hundreds of publications on Servant-Leadership
• Founded the Spears Center
James Autry:
• President of magazine group for Meredith Corporation
• Author of 8 Books
• Focus on implementation
James C. Hunter:
• 25 Years in Servant-Leadership
• 2 of the most popular books on Servant-Leadership
• Consulted many of the world’s most admired companies
Others: Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter M. Senge
, Jim Collins….

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Servant leaders are leaders who put other people’s needs, aspirations and interest above their own
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Servant leaders deliberate choice is to serve others
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Servant leader’s chief motive is to serve first, as opposed to lead

The Ten Characteristics of Servant Leadership
 Listening
 Empathy
 Healing
 Awareness
 Persuasion
 Conceptualization
 Foresight
 Stewardship
 Commitment to the growth of the people
 Building community

Three Groups of Servant Leadership
Relationship-building Actions

Listening – (to self and others)

Empathy – (understanding)

Healing – (search for wholeness of self and others)
 Awareness – (of self and of others)
Future-oriented Actions

Persuasion – (building consensus)
 Conceptualization – (dreams and of day-to-day operations)

Foresight – (intuitive ability to learn from past and see future consequences of actions)

Community – oriented Actions

Stewardship – (holding institution in trust for the good of society)

Commitment to Growth – (personal, professional, spiritual of self and others)

Building Community – (benevolent, humane, philanthropic, to benefit others)

Libray

 “Holding something in trust for another”.
 Making a positive difference in the future is characteristic of the stewardship mentality.

 People have intrinsic value

 True community can be created by connecting and networking…

ServantLeadership, itself a paradox, requires a constant balance…
Great
Planned
Compassionate
Right
Serious
Wise
Busy
Strong
Leading
Enough To
Be Without Pride
Be Spontaneous
Discipline
Say, “I’m Wrong”
Laugh
Admit You Don’t Know
Listen
Be Open To Change
Serve

Paradoxes are not easy to balance. Here are a few examples…
Great Enough to be Without Pride
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Team gets the credit, you get the blame
Compassionate Enough to Discipline
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Must not be soft – set high expectations and follow through
Right Enough to Say, “I’m Wrong”
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Leaders make mistakes too, admit you are human
Wise Enough to Admit You Don’t Know
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Find out quickly, but do not mislead
Busy Enough to Listen
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Beware the busy manager – they do not lead

 Openness & fairness
 Camaraderie & friendliness
 Opportunities
 Pride in work & company
 Pay & benefits
 Security

Some of the well respected companies practice Servant –Leadership…
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Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For: 1/3 of Top 35
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10 of America’s Most Admired Companies

In 1997, three Starbucks employees were murdered in DC during a botched robbery. The story was told how Howard
Schultz, CEO, did not call Public Relations or legal counsel.
Instead, Schultz dropped everything, flew to the store and spent the entire week visiting with the families and employees in the area.
Dave Olson, Senior Vice President of the Culture and
Leadership Development said: Leadership is largely about having courage to do the right thing . Or, as Behar, CEO said: Leading with compassion never stops there is no time off

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Perhaps one of the best ways to define servant leadership is to read about what
Colleen Barrett, President of Southwest
Airlines, said about their leadership philosophy.

She said:
“We do build our pyramid a bit different…at the top of our pyramid in terms of priority is our employees, and delivering to them proactive customer service”.

Examples of historic Servant –Leaders…
“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people”.
Mahatma Gandhi
“For even the Son of
Man did not come to be served, but to serve”.
Jesus of Nazareth
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless”.
Mother Theresa
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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From what we can understand, becoming a servant leader is more a state of mind than a set of directions.
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Becoming a servant leader does not follow a step by step process.
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This style of leadership development is an on-going, life-long learning process.

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Survey shows that 85% of those who become a leader do so because of the influence of other leaders.
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Great leaders influence and reproduce themselves.
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The law of reproduction is to identify, prepare, and affirm.

“Example is not the main thing, influencing others, it is the only thing”
Albert Schweitzer

Recommended texts…
Websites
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Compilation: www.lichtenwalner.net/servantleader
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Greenleaf Center: www.greenleaf.org
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Spears Center: www.spearscenter.org
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Consulting / Development: www.JamesHunter.com
Books
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Servant Leader (Greenleaf, 1977)
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The Servant (Hunter, 1998)
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The Servant Leader (Autry, 2001)
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Practicing Servant Leadership (Spears & Lawrence, 2004)
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World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle (Hunter, 2004)

Publications referenced, paraphrased or extracted from include the following:
Autry, James A.; The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, And
Improve Bottom-Line Performance. Three Rivers Press, New York, NY 2001.
DeGraaf, Don; Tilley, Colin; Neal, Larry; Servant-Leadership Characteristics in Organizational
Life. Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership. Westfield, Indiana. 2001.
Greenleaf, Robert K.; Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power &
Greatness. Paulist Press, Mawah, NJ. 1977, 1991, 2002.
Hansel, T. ; Holy Sweat. Word. Dallas, TX. 1987.
Hunter, James C.; The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle: How to Become a Servant
Leader. Crown Business, New York, NY. 2004.
Spears, Larry C., Lawrence, Michelle (et al); Practicing Servant Leadership: Succeeding
Through Trust, Bravery, And Forgiveness. Jossey-Bass, San Fransisco, CA . 2004
Spears, Larry C.; Diary of Alpha Kappa Psi (article: Servant-Leadership). Gary L. Epperson,
CAE. Spring 2008.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader .”
John Quincy Adams
Thank you for your time!
Mercedes Clement
Chair of Library Services