Robert Greenleaf, former director of management research at AT&T, is credited with coining the term “servant leader.” He published an essay in 1970 with the title “The Servant as a Leader” and the book, Servant Leadership, seven years later. Since 1970, many leadership theorists, consultants, and authors have emphasized the effectiveness of servant leadership, but Greenleaf was the first, and he focused on identity, not merely activity. He noted a stark difference between someone who is a servant first and someone who is a leader first. Someone who is a leader first may embrace acts of service after becoming a leader, but someone who is a servant first is serving because of their identity, not their role. Their service is less forced, more authentic, and more inspiring. They are willing to step outside their job profiles, even outside their giftings, to serve people and to serve the mission.
According to Greenleaf, serving as an identity, not as an activity, is what makes a leader great. Christians exhibit this, embracing servant leadership as an identity, not merely something we do.
While Greenleaf is known as pioneering the leadership writings about leaders seeing themselves as servants first, he was over 1,900 years behind Jesus. When Jesus entered our world, He took on the nature of a servant. He served us by offering Himself for our sin on the cross and has now commanded His followers to serve others. Because Jesus served them, the early followers of Jesus saw themselves as servants. They served not merely as an activity but as their identity. When you read the New Testament, you find that the title the authors claimed for themselves was servant:
- “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus…” (Romans 1:1)
- “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 1:1)
- “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…” (James 1:1)
- “Simeon Peter a servant…of Jesus Christ…” (2 Peter 1:1)
- “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ…” (Jude 1:1)
Christians who lead are uniquely qualified to understand that by their purest definitions, a “Christian leader” and a “servant leader” are synonymous. In my new book, The Rooted Leader, there is a whole chapter designed to help you develop servant leadership based on Nehemiah’s example and the intermingling roots of thinking big and acting small.
