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