Synodality and Servant Leadership
Servant Leadership:
A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
In bookstores, Greenleaf's masterpiece can be found in the business management and/or the inspirational books collections. Servant Leadership promotes both organizational and personal development. Greenleaf maintains that service to others is the heart of personal and organizational leadership. As a social psychologist, I particularly value his understanding of the interdependence of organizations and persons. As he put it: "The organization exists for the person as much as the person exists for the organization".
Synodality promotes both an organizational culture and a personal spirituality of walking together. Greenleaf's insights about servant leadership are very helpful in developing both organizational cultures of walking together and personal spiritualities of walking together.
During college Greenleaf was inspired by a sociology professor to tackle the problems of large organizations from the inside. He joined AT&T one of the largest organizations at that time.
Greenleaf did not see himself as a scholar but was a student of practical wisdom, i.e., how do organizations get things done. He regarded his "training sessions" with line supervisors as his graduate education. Greenleaf was given great freedom to serve AT@T in job positions which he designed for himself.
Greenleaf retired in 1964 at age sixty and began a second career of writing, consulting and teaching. His first essay, The Servant as Leader, was published in 1970. He was shocked by the inability of higher education institutions to respond to the student unrest of the sixties. He was concerned that student activists were attempting to solve problems by means of ideologies and movements outside of existing institutions rather than working within institutions.
His next essay The Institution as Leader advocated the care and reform of institutions. His third essay The Trustee as Servant emphasized the important role of persons such boards of trustees who hold organizations accountable to the people and society whom they serve.
Links Between Synodality and Servant Leadership
“The organization exists for the person as much as the person exists for the organization".