It's Monday already! Another great week behind me. How time flys! Last week I visited our Chicago MSU Alumni for a couple of days. Talk about energy - wow! They are doing great things celebrating MSU.
From Chicago I flew to Dallas to attend the 21st Annual Greenleaf Servant Leadership Conference. Over 650 leaders attended this great program. Greenleaf really speaks to the true meaning of a servant leader. The phrase “Servant Leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, he said:
"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?"
I challenge you to think about yourself. Are you a servant leader? Can you respond to the questions above? Spend some time checking out the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. I think you'll enjoy the website, greenleaf.org.
After the conference, I visited with my brother John and my niece Lauren who live in the Dallas area. They went with me as I visited the DFW Alumni club. The club hosted a "SParty on the Club Fred". A couple of hours on a double decker boat with friends and a water slide! Great fun!
Home now to catch up on some office work and do some house cleaning. What's up this week? A visit to alumni in Berrien Springs and Midland and a presentation to the Colonial Plymouth Kiwanis Club. The spirit continues! See ya' next week!
