Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership

1. Servant Leadership: Serving First, Leading Second

The first and most important choice a leader makes is the choice to serve, without which one’s capacity to lead is severely limited.

The core paradox. Servant Leadership begins with the natural feeling and conscious choice to serve first, then to lead. This challenges the traditional heroic view of leadership, emphasizing that true leadership emerges from a deep desire to meet the needs of others. The ultimate test is whether those served grow healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely to become servants themselves.

Beyond traditional models. Unlike leadership models focused primarily on achieving organizational objectives, Servant Leadership prioritizes the growth and well-being of followers. It's not about being a martyr or a slave, but consciously nurturing the mature growth of individuals, institutions, and communities to build a better society. This approach reveals what we believe through our actions, putting on the apron and getting our hands dirty.

A timeless concept. While Robert Greenleaf coined the term and applied it to modern organizations, the principles of leading by serving have existed for millennia across various traditions. It speaks to a deep longing for a way of being that reflects inner truths, inspiring a quiet revolution that is now becoming more widely recognized and sought after.

2. Character is the Foundation: Integrity, Humility, Higher Purpose

All leadership development is character development.

The inner compass. A Servant-Leader is fundamentally a person of character, guided by an inward moral sense of right and wrong, an internal compass oriented to "True North." This requires self-awareness to discern between enduring universal values and the subtle "Magnetic North" of cultural pressures or ego, acting courageously to correct course when deviating. Good character is built through consistently choosing the "Good" in defining moments, transforming values into reliable inner dispositions.

Virtues in action. Character consists of operative values—values in action—like maintaining integrity, demonstrating humility, and serving a higher purpose. Integrity, seen as honesty, trustworthiness, and authenticity, is consistently ranked as the most admired leadership quality, requiring inner work and careful self-revelation. Humility, a balance between grandiosity and false modesty, allows leaders to be open to possibilities beyond their own perspective, make better decisions based on diverse input, and patiently wait for "second thoughts."

Beyond oneself. Serving a higher purpose means dedicating oneself to something beyond personal gain, a "calling" that makes a difference for others and contributes to the greater good. This passionate lure to fulfillment can be discovered by paying attention to what brings joy, what one is good at, and what failures have taught, ultimately leading to a life filled with meaning and adventure.

3. Put People First: Care, Mentoring, and Service

The joy of giving is its own reward.

People over profits. While it may seem counterintuitive in a profit-driven world, Servant-Leaders prioritize people, believing that organizations saying "people are our most important asset" and meaning it gain a significant competitive advantage. This is demonstrated by companies that consistently outperform others by genuinely putting the needs of employees, customers, and other stakeholders first.

A servant's heart. Displaying a servant's heart means expressing genuine care and concern through actions, not just words or sentimentality. This involves providing opportunities for employees to meet their highest priority needs—for safety, security, belonging, esteem, purpose, and fulfillment—and acting intentionally in ways that support their health, wisdom, freedom, and autonomy. Love, in this context, is an active force, holding oneself and others accountable while delighting in their growth.

Mentor-mindedness. Being mentor-minded means helping others grow as persons, not just training them to meet organizational objectives. This requires "unlimited liability"—an attitude of love and deep listening—while giving others responsibility and the freedom to take responsible risks. A true Servant-Leader mentor supports the protégé's growth, even if it means they find their own path different from the mentor's.

4. Master Communication: Listen, Empathize, Persuade

A true natural servant automatically responds to any problem by listening first.

Foundation of relationships. Skillful communication is essential for effective leadership, enabling connection and influence. It involves listening to understand others deeply and expressing oneself with genuineness, respect, and clarity, going beyond mere hearing to active, reflective listening that engages the whole body, mind, and spirit.

Empathy and feedback. Demonstrating empathy means being keenly aware of another's thoughts, feelings, and needs and expressing a deep, caring understanding. This is supported by practices like the ABCs (Act interested, Be encouraging, Clarify) and XYZs ("You feel X, because of Y and you want Z"). Inviting feedback is crucial for self-improvement, requiring openness, responsiveness, and a commitment to understanding others' perspectives as a gift.

Assertiveness and persuasion. Communicating persuasively, the Servant-Leader's preferred mode of power, involves building messages on ethical appeal (ethos), emotional appeal (pathos), and logical appeal (logos), with ethos being the most important. Assertiveness allows for clear expression of thoughts, feelings, and needs ("I feel X, because of Y; I want Z"), while true persuasion, as Greenleaf saw it, helps order logic but ultimately relies on the other person's intuitive sense, untrammeled by coercion or manipulation. Storytelling is a powerful tool for persuasion, encoding values and inspiring action.

5. Collaborate Compassionately: Build Teams, Value Diversity, Navigate Conflict

None of us is perfect by ourselves…

Working together. Compassionate collaboration means working toward common goals by sharing responsibility, authority, and accountability, going beyond mere communication or cooperation. It requires individuals to forego the need for personal glory to create a shared vision and joint strategies, fostering a culture where people are willing to teach and learn from each other, valuing trust, respect, and shared leadership.

Team and community building. Servant-Leaders understand that effective teams have multiple leaders fulfilling different roles (mediator, critic, process watcher, etc.), inviting each member to contribute based on their strengths. Building teams and communities involves nurturing a culture of appreciation, recognizing that continuous positive feedback is highly valued by employees and directly impacts the bottom line.

Navigating conflict. Conflict is an unavoidable fact of life, and compassionate collaboration requires managing disagreements respectfully, fairly, and constructively. Understanding one's conflict style (dove, hawk, ostrich, or goose) is key, as is learning techniques like THE CHILL DRILL® to manage anger and Peace R.U.L.E.S!™ for principled negotiation. Seeing negotiation as a form of collaboration, aiming for mutually agreeable solutions, is the noblest choice.

6. Cultivate Foresight: Vision, Intuition, and Decisive Action

Foresight is the central ethic of leadership.

Seeing ahead. Foresight is the ability to foresee the likely outcome of a situation, understanding lessons from the past, realities of the present, and likely consequences for the future, deeply rooted in the intuitive mind. It goes beyond traditional planning and forecasting, which are often based on analytical models, to embrace a sense for the unknowable and the unforeseeable.

Harnessing intuition. Accessing foresight requires integrating information from the head (analysis), heart (emotions), and gut (enteric nervous system), recognizing that these "brains" communicate and influence decision-making. The process involves analyzing the past, learning everything about the issue, allowing information to incubate, being open to intuitive breakthroughs (hunches, images, impressions), and sharing insights with trusted colleagues for feedback.

Vision and action. Foresight enables a leader to articulate and inspire a shared vision—a compelling picture of a brighter future that appeals to higher ideals, excites with possibilities, and lures people to action. Coupled with creativity (novelty, relevance, spontaneity) and the courage to take decisive action based on informed intuition and collaborative input, foresight becomes a powerful tool for navigating complexity and leading effectively towards a desired future.

7. Think Systemically: Understand Interconnections and the Greater Good

When you look at anything or consider anything, look at it as “a whole” as much as you can before you swing on it.

Seeing the whole. Systems thinking involves zooming out to see problems in the context of underlying patterns, structures, and the whole organization's relationship to its environment and community. It recognizes that everything is interconnected, like pearls in Indra's Net, where looking at one reflects all others. This perspective is crucial because most organizational problems stem from the system, not just individual actions.

Beyond events. The Systems Pyramid illustrates that events are just the tip; deeper levels of strategy, culture, and beliefs hold greater leverage for change. Systems thinkers understand counterintuitive "laws" like "Today's problems come from yesterday's solutions" and "Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space," guiding them to look for less obvious areas of highest leverage.

The greater good. A systems-thinking Servant-Leader extends analysis to include the greater good—the impact of actions on individuals, families, communities, and the natural world. This ethical dimension means taking personal responsibility and acting constructively, even when facing complex challenges, guided by common sense and compassion rather than solely by analytical outcomes or individual wants.

8. Lead with Moral Authority: Earned Trust, Shared Power, Accountability

Moral authority requires sacrifice.

Earning allegiance. Moral authority is not granted by position but is freely and knowingly granted by the led to the leader in proportion to their evident servant stature. It is earned by consistently living the principles of the other six pillars, demonstrating character, putting people first, communicating skillfully, collaborating compassionately, exercising foresight, and thinking systemically.

Sharing power. Leaders with moral authority understand that sharing power and control is not a zero-sum game where giving power away diminishes the leader; rather, it increases the collective power and likelihood of mission success. They avoid paternalism, seeing every person as an important part of the enterprise and empowering individuals and teams to take real responsibility at the highest possible levels.

Culture of accountability. Moral authority fosters a culture of accountability, not through coercion or rigid rules, but through shared moral principles, reinforcing stories, congruent policies, ongoing learning, and celebrations. Setting quality standards for performance means aligning them with the deepest values, trusting employees to use their judgment, and ensuring leaders' actions are congruent with the highest standards.

9. Servant Leadership is Great Business

Servant-led companies produced far superior financial results.

Outperforming the market. Research comparing publicly-traded servant-led companies with "good to great" companies and the S&P 500 shows that servant-led companies achieve significantly higher financial returns. This demonstrates that prioritizing service and people is not just ethically sound but also a powerful driver of economic success.

Firms of Endearment. Servant-led companies often qualify as "Firms of Endearment," endearing themselves to all stakeholders—society, partners, investors, customers, and employees—by strategically aligning their interests. These companies meet tangible and intangible needs in ways that delight stakeholders, fostering affection and loyalty, and resulting in superior returns compared to companies focused solely on investor returns.

Beyond the bottom line. While financial performance is a key metric, the success of servant-led companies is also evident in employee well-being and reputation. Many are consistently listed among the "Top 100 Companies to Work For," indicating high employee morale, trust, and engagement, which are intangible assets contributing to long-term value and resilience.

10. The Journey Requires Patience and Congruence

As a theoretician, I am an idealist; as a practitioner, I am a gradualist.

Not a quick fix. Implementing Servant Leadership is a transformative journey, not a program or a checklist to be adopted overnight. It requires patience, understanding that changing human behavior and organizational culture takes time, reflection, and consistent effort, much like building character through repeated actions.

Congruence is key. Efforts to implement Servant Leadership fail when they are impatient or incongruent—when leaders dictate the change without involving employees or when stated principles don't match observed behaviors and policies. Employees are perceptive and will only embrace the change if they see sincerity and consistency from leadership.

Understanding change dynamics. Successful implementation involves addressing change on individual, relational, and organizational levels. It requires guiding and empowering others to explore positive possibilities, linking changes to widely-held values and beliefs, and fostering commitment to a shared vision rather than coercing compliance.

11. Implement by Asking Questions and Practicing

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Start with self-reflection. The journey begins with the individual, asking oneself probing questions about strengths, areas for growth, willingness to change, incentives, and opportunities for practice. This personal reflection is the necessary foundation before attempting to influence others or the organization.

Engage in dialogue. Implementing Servant Leadership in an organization starts with small-group conversations, asking questions related to each pillar to foster discovery, explore desires and incentives for change, identify learning needs, plan for practice, and establish feedback mechanisms. These dialogues surface issues and build consensus for action.

Practice and accountability. Servant Leadership is learned through consistent practice, feedback, and accountability. It's about integrating principles into daily rhythms and routines, trying out new behaviors, seeking input from others, and holding oneself and the organization accountable to Greenleaf's "Best Test"—ensuring those served are growing and the least privileged benefit.

Last updated: September 6, 2025