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What is Servant Leadership?

"The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature."

"The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"
This is the context and measure we use in working toward becoming servant lewaders within their organization. Action Research becomes a very valuable strategy to "test" for Servant Leadership. I believe that a real dialogue can foster this connection.
Regards,
Alan
 
Dr. Alan Markowitz
Director, Graduate Programs in Education
(973) 290-4328


On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 7:45 PM, Margaret Riel <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
We also encourage students to think about the characteristics of servant-leaders.  I think what is most important is that an effective leader is only as good as his or her organization.  So the most effective every member of the team is, the more effective the organization is.  So a good leader is the person who inspires, coaches, or otherwise helps others to be more effective.  The leader is not at the top pulling up the next rung who are pulling up those behind them... but rather is working the group finding out what each division needs to be more effective and to work at their potential.   

It is the difference between (a)  sending out an order than every person will work at their potential or be fired and  each group will be tested each period to determine their success.... vs (b)  getting groups together to determine what would improve their practice and then providing the resources and rewards to stimulate this change and engage everyone in a process of self evaluation to see if goals are being accomplished.  

In a the leader is determining the problems and effecting a solution, in b the leader is asking the community to find the problems and find the solutions. 

The tie I see to action research is that the servant leader tries to create a workpace where everyone is engaged in action research.

Margaret




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Margaret Riel <[log in to unmask]>
Sr. Researcher, Center for Technology in Learning SRI-International
Co-Chair M. A in Learning Technologies Pepperdine University
   Phone: (760) 618-1314 
   http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/mriel/office
   BLOG: http://mindmaps.typepad.com/
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