A decade ago, I became involved in leadership development within my denomination. I soon learned, however, the mental models, language, and metaphors I acquired, as an Air Force officer and corporate CEO were inadequate. An aggressive reading program focused on church leadership was disappointing; most materials spoke to a culture like my own. The good resources I found were little known and not readily available to most church leaders. I opened a "bookstore" to pull together resources available on leadership and offer them at a discount. My quest touched a need of many. Today, the market place is both rich and saturated; demand is strong, and church leaders have good access. Good books abound, but there are also a lot of "Ho-hummers." A lot of books promise "how to" answers. While potentially useful in the short term, such books tend to reinforce dependence on "authority", diminish the deeper learning that results from the hard work of personal discovery and experience, and postpone or cover over the real change that needs to occur. My denomination is littered with congregations that have sought to embrace any number of dynamic church leaders' materials and failed because their situation, personality, gifts, and call are not the same. Kurt Lewin said, "There is nothing quite as practical as a good theory." I believe that. In this series I will share with you the books that have provided me "good theory" and concepts, models, language and metaphor, and practical guidance and those who have simply spoken to my soul. Robert Greenleaf wrote Servant Leadership, A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness or see Seeker and Servant, Reflections on Religious Leadership, the Private Writings of Robert K. Greenleaf, by Fraker and Spears. I believe every church leader should read one or both of these books. Neither are religious both are spiritual. But both bring the Biblical image of servant as leader into our contemporary world. The transformative power of Greenleaf's thought is in the premise that leadership is best understood and evaluated by looking at the served and asking the question: "Are the served becoming healthier, freer, wiser, more autonomous and more likely themselves to become servant leaders." and the paradox of "servant" and "leader". Like many words in the leadership lexicon of today, "servant" is misused and over used. In Greenleaf's view a "servant" is not weak or powerless but power-filled. Control and conformity give way to growth and development. To understand Greenleaf I believe that you must also understand the Situational Leadership model Paul Hersey, and Ken Blanchard offer in Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources (5th Ed) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988. Servant leadership is not a style; it is a commitment to growth and development of people recognizing that people, their social context, their task at hand, and their "leadership" all differ. What works in one place will likely not work in another. Control and conformity may be appropriate but always as a means and never as an end. The key is continually asking the Greenleaf question and involving all the gifts present in responding to the answer. To me this is the essence of the model Jesus offered us. In The Name of Jesus by the late Henri Nouwen has been equally important because it helped me spiritualize Greenleaf in ways that spoke to my soul. Greenleaf's writings have also encouraged me to see the corporation, which is so fundamental to the social and economic fabric of our society, as a legitimate and necessary goal for Christian outreach. Historically, we in the church have defined ourselves against the state and society, yet today it is the corporate form that dominates our lives. Most churches seem uncomfortable dealing with corporations because it does not fit into the domains of private faith or public faith. Few writers have ventured into this arena (I will have more to say later on the need for churches to see themselves with new eyes). Greenleaf suggests that if we as a society are to care for people in such a way that they are becoming healthier, freer, wiser, more autonomous and more likely themselves to become servant leaders then we will have to do so through the various corporate (institutional) forms in our society. If such changes are to become reality, then we must begin somewhere. Greenleaf singles out colleges and universities, foundations, and churches as the places to start. Seminaries have an especially important role to play. One of my greatest challenges is to find the language and metaphors to clarify, assimilate, and communicate the ideas and concepts that fill my life. Models help me make associations and organize my thinking in coherent ways. The Hersey-Blanchard model for situational leadership has been foundational. Another important model is the Technical- Adaptive Work model Dr. Ronald Heifetz offers in Leadership Without Easy Answers, Harvard University Press 1994. Heifetz writes of senior government leaders and ordinary people facing major decisions. Sometimes their work is "Technical" where the problem is understood, the solution and implementation clear, and the responsibility to often; however, "Adaptive Work" is required. "Adaptive Work" is undefined work where continuous learning is required to understand what is happening, solutions and implementation strategies are unknown, and is it not clear who is responsible. "Adaptive" work is hard work. It requires leadership, it requires a commitment to seeing the potential in people and seeking to develop it, it requires creativity, and it requires a willingness to honor difference in how we think and the commitment to enter into dialogue. The leadership challenge is to connect the source of meaning in people's lives with the challenge they face. While leadership is not limited to people with authority, authority is an invaluable asset in helping an organization work adaptively. Authority enables you to manage the environment, direct attention, define reality, manage information, frame issues, choose the decision making process, and influence the presence and essence of conflict and whether and how to unleash it. The absence of authority allows you to deviate from the norms of authoritative decision-making and focus on specific issues. People who exercise leadership from the "foot of the table" lead across the boundaries of formal organization in networks. Without authority you can shape the stimulus but not the responses, spark debate but not orchestrate it, have a front-line feel but not the broad sense of the multiplicity of challenges. Leadership must draw attention to an issue not embody it. Just as leading with authority requires protecting the voices of dissent; the leader without authority needs to listen. Over the years I have worked from both the head of the table and the foot and along the sides. Heifetz's discussion of leadership with and without authority has been a powerful insight for establishing expectations and boundaries. I find the root of the difficulty many organizations have in responding to change is that they do not differentiate among the type challenges they face and wind up attempting to apply technical solutions to adaptive work and vice versa. Click here for the books mentioned in this article: Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness by Robert K. Greenleaf http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809125277/leadershipnetworA Seeker and Servant: Reflections on Religious Leadership: The Private Writings of Robert K. Greenleaf Robert K. Greenleaf,Larry C. Spears (Editor),Anne T. Fraker (Editor) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787902292/leadershipnetworA In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri J. M. Nouwen http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0824512596/leadershipnetworA Leadership Without Easy Answers by Ronald A. Heifetz http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674518586/leadershipnetworA