Building Relational Bridges: The Inclusive Spirit of Servant-Leadership

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to investigate how servant-leadership’s lexicon can serve as a dialogic bridge across diverse intellectual, philosophical, theological, and wisdom traditions. This narrative unfolds in three movements. First, we revisit the historical and theoretical foundations of servant-leadership, primarily focusing on the vision of Robert Greenleaf (Greenleaf. Servant-leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness (25th Anniversary ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. (Original work published 1977), 2002) and insights of Larry Spears (Reflections on leadership: How Robert K. Greenleaf’s theory of servant-leadership influenced today’s top management thinkers. New York, NY: Wiley, 1995). Second, relying on the work of Kent Keith (The case for servant-leadership. Westfield, IN: Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, 2008), Fons Trompenaars and Ed Voerman (Servant-leadership across cultures: Harnessing the strength of the world’s most powerful management philosophy. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2009), and Larry Spears (Servant-leadership as an ecumenical bridge. Unpublished manuscript, 2019), we synthesize servant-leadership’s resonance with the world’s various intellectual and spiritual worldviews. Third and finally, our chapter concludes with a brief reflection about how servant leadership can inspire positive leadership and change as well as workplace transformation in nonprofit and corporate settings such as a gang intervention and rehabilitation program, and a closely held, diversified transportation services company.