Serve one another in love

Do you feel a calling to serve others, but also lead through compassion and wisdom? Do you want to enrich lives, develop better organizations, and create a more positive world? You may be a servant-leader!

Join us to learn about and share your experiences servant leadership. Each month, in conjunction with Servant-Leader Milwaukee, Concordia University’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) and the Office of Alumni Relations host the Concordia Servant Leader Roundtable. The meetings are held the second Thursday of the month,  from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. in the Lakeshore Room at the Mequon Campus. While the topic changes each month, the enduring theme of the roundtable is "the wisdom is in the room."

Upcoming Servant Leader Roundtables via Zoom

Contact Elizabeth Evans at 262-243-4283 or elizabeth.evans@cuw.edu for the information to join a meeting on Zoom.

Thursday June 8, 2023 from 7:30am to 8:30am on Zoom

Concordia Servant Leader Roundtable
Topic: Servant Leaders Value Diverse Gifts

Servant Leaders not only value differences but seek variety for the greater good of the organization.

“Recognizing diversity gives us a chance to provide meaning, fulfillment, and purpose…In the end, diversity is not only real in our corporate groups…it frequently goes unrecognized. Or as another poet, Thomas Gray, put it, talent may go unnoticed and unused.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

When we think about leaders and the variety of gifts people bring to corporations and institutions, we see that the art of leadership lies in polishing and liberating and enabling those gifts.”

Max De Pree, Leadership is an Art, 2004

Thursday July 13, 2023 from 7:30am to 8:30am on Zoom

Concordia Servant Leader Roundtable
Topic: Servant Leaders Accept Responsibility

Servant leaders take full ownership for failed projects, they do not blame subordinates.

When subordinates aren’t doing what they should, leaders that exercise Extreme Ownership cannot blame the subordinates. They must first look in the mirror at themselves. The leader bears full responsibility for explaining the strategic mission, developing tactics, and securing the training and resources to enable the team to properly and successfully execute.

If an individual on the team is not performing at the level required for the team to succeed, the leader must train and mentor the underperformer. But if the underperformer continually fails to meet standards, then a leader who exercises Extreme Ownership must be loyal to the team and the mission above any individual. If underperformers cannot improve, the leader must make the tough call to terminate them and hire others who can get the job done. It is all on the leader.

Jocko Willink, 2015 Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win. New York, New York: St. Martin’s Press

Thursday August 10, 2023 from 7:30am to 8:30am on Zoom

Concordia Servant Leader Roundtable
Topic: Servant Leaders Connect Listening to Self-awareness

Servant leaders are not only good listeners, but they listen, knowing their own foibles, strengths and communication skills.

Servant Leaders are aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They know they are not perfect, they have their own emotions and biases and yet they make wise and fair decisions.

Servant leaders don’t begin with the answer. They don’t begin with their own knowledge or expertise. Servant leaders watch and listen before they take action. They try hard to identify needs before they meet them.

Kent Keith, The Case for Servant Leadership, 2015.

Thursday September 14, 2023 from 7:30am to 8:30am on Zoom

Concordia Servant Leader Roundtable
Topic: A Servant Leader is Recognized by the Strength of Followers

“The measure of leadership is not the quality of the head, but the tone of the body. The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers. Are the followers reaching their potential? Are they learning? Serving? Do they achieve the required result? Do they change with grace? Manage conflict?”

Max De Pree, Leadership is an Art, 2004

Thursday October 12, 2023 from 7:30am to 8:30am on Zoom

Concordia Servant Leader Roundtable
Topic: Servant Leaders Embrace A New Ethic

In his essay on “Servant leadership in business” Greenleaf proposed a new business ethic. Looking at two major elements, the work and the person, the new ethic, simply but quite completely stated, will be: the work exists for the person as much as the person exists for the work. To put it another way, the business exists as much to provide meaningful work to the person as it exists to produce a product or service to the customer.

Kent Keith, The Case for Servant Leadership, 2015.

Thursday November 9, 2023 from 7:30am to 8:30am on Zoom

Concordia Servant Leader Roundtable
Topic: Servant Leaders Move Beyond Compliance

Compliance is not commitment. Compliance does not lead to creativity, flexibility, differentiation, and speed. Compliance does not create meaning and purpose. Compliance does not breed freedom.

Kent Keith, The Case for Servant Leadership, 2015.

Thursday December 14, 2023 from 7:30am to 8:30am on Zoom

Concordia Servant Leader Roundtable
Topic: Empowerment Arises out of High-trust Cultures

Stephen Covey said in Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, you’ve got to produce more for less, and with greater speed than you ever had to before. The only way you can do that in a sustained way is through the empowerment of people. The only way you get empowerment is through high-trust cultures and empowerment philosophy which turns bosses into servants and coaches.

Kent Keith, The Case for Servant Leadership, 2015.

What is servant leadership?

Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations, and ultimately creates a more just and caring world.

“The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The best test 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?”  

Greenleaf, R. K. (1977/2002, p. 27). Servant-leadership: "A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness". Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.

Ten Principles of Servant Leadership

by Robert Greenleaf
  1. Listening - Traditionally, leaders have been valued for their communication and decision making skills. Servant-leaders must reinforce these important skills by making a deep commitment to listening intently to others. Servant-leaders seek to identify and clarify the will of a group. They seek to listen receptively to what is being said (and not said). Listening also encompasses getting in touch with one's inner voice, and seeking to understand what one's body, spirit, and mind are communicating.
  1. Empathy - Servant-leaders strive to understand and empathize with others. People need to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique spirit. One must assume the good intentions of coworkers and not reject them as people, even when forced to reject their behavior or performance.
  1. Healing - Learning to heal is a powerful force for transformation and integration. One of the great strengths of servant-leadership is the potential for healing one's self and others. In "The Servant as Leader", Greenleaf writes, "There is something subtle communicated to one who is being served and led if, implicit in the compact between the servant-leader and led is the understanding that the search for wholeness is something that they have."
  1. Awareness - General awareness, and especially self-awareness, strengthens the servant-leader. Making a commitment to foster awareness can be scary--one never knows that one may discover! As Greenleaf observed, "Awareness is not a giver of solace - it's just the opposite. It disturbed. They are not seekers of solace. They have their own inner security."
  1. Persuasion - Servant-leaders rely on persuasion, rather than positional authority in making decisions. Servant-leaders seek to convince others, rather than coerce compliance. This particular element offers one of the clearest distinctions between the traditional authoritarian model and that of servant-leadership. The servant-leader is effective at building consensus within groups.
  1. Conceptualization - Servant-leaders seek to nurture their abilities to "dream great dreams." The ability to look at a problem (or an organization) from a conceptualizing perspective means that one must think beyond day-to-day realities. Servant-leaders must seek a delicate balance between conceptualization and day-to-day focus.
  1. Foresight - Foresight is a characteristic that enables servant-leaders to understand lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely consequence of a decision in the future. It is deeply rooted in the intuitive mind.
  1. Stewardship - Robert Greenleaf's view of all institutions was one in which CEO's, staff, directors, and trustees all play significance roles in holding their institutions in trust for the great good of society.
  1. Commitment to the Growth of People - Servant-leaders believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contributions as workers. As such, servant-leaders are deeply committed to a personal, professional, and spiritual growth of each and every individual within the organization.
  2. Building Community - Servant-leaders are aware that the shift from local communities to large institutions as the primary shaper of human lives has changed our perceptions and has caused a feeling of loss. Servant-leaders seek to identify a means for building community among those who work within a given institution.

Learn more

If you have questions about servant leadership, or would like to register for an upcoming roundtable at CUW, please contact Elizabeth Evans.