Robert Greenleaf: The Father of a Movement transcript

Robert Greenleaf was the founder of the modern servant leadership movement and the Greenleaf Center for Servant leadership Greenleaf was born in terot Indiana in 1904 after graduating from Carlton College in Minnesota he went to work for AT&T then the American Telephone and Telegraph company for the next 40 years he researched management development and education all along he felt a growing suspicion that the power centered authoritarian leadership style so prominent in US institutions was not working and in 1964 he took an early retirement to found the green leaf Center for Servant leadership which was first called the Center for Applied ethics according to to his essay Essentials of servant leadership green Leaf's philosophy had its roots from reading a work of fiction in 1958 the idea of the servant as leader came out of reading Herman hess's Journey to the east a conceptual framework that is helpful for understanding servant leadership is found in the 10 characteristics of a servant leader described by Larry Spears in 1998 Spears distills green green Leaf's instrumental means into 10 characteristics listening empathy healing awareness persuasion conceptualization foresight stewardship commitment to growth of people and building Community Green Leaf influenced a whole generation in 1985 the Center for Applied ethics was renamed the green leaf Center for Servant leadership today there are scores of colleges and universities that that include servant leadership in their teachings and hundreds of companies that Embrace green Leaf's philosophy as Green Leaf strived to serve through education he became the leader of a movement