Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, USA
Miðstöð um þjónandi forystu í Indiana, Bandaríkjunum
Árið 1964 setti Robert K. Greenleaf á fót miðstöð um þjónandi forystu. Fyrsta heiti miðstöðvarinnar var Center for Allplied Ethics en árið 1985 fékk miðstöðin nafnið The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. Markmið miðstöðvarinnar er að efla þekkingu og skilning á þjónandi forystu og stuðla að hagnýtingu hugmyndarinnar.
The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership er staðsett í Indianapolis. Á heimasíðu miðstöðvarinnar má finna ýmsar upplýsingar um þjónandi forystu. Meðal annars er þar fræðileg umfjöllun um þjónandi forystu, upplýsingar um þróun hugmyndarinnar og umfjöllun um notagildi hugmyndarinnar í daglegu lífi fólks.
Miðstöðin stendur árlega fyrir ráðstefnu um þjónandi forystu. Ráðstefnan höfðar til stjórnenda og forystufólks sem og fræðimanna víða um heim. Meðal þeirra sem flutt hafa erindi og stýrt málstofum á ráðstefnunum má nefna James. A. Autry, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge og Margaret Wheatey. Árið 2007 kynnti íslenskur fræðimaður niðurstöður rannsókna sinna á ráðstefnu miðstöðvarinnar sem þá var haldin i Dallas Texas.
Miðstöðin hefur gefið út fjölda bóka um þjónandi forystu auk fréttabréfs sem sent er til meðlima. Auk þess rekur miðstöðin umboðsskrifstofu og útvegar fyrirlesara á ráðstefnur og vinnusmiðjur um þjónandi forystu. Miðstöðin stendur fyrir árlegum námskeiðum fyrir stjórnendur og leiðtoga um þjónandi forystu: Leadership Institute for Education (LIFE).
Þeir sem vilja gerast meðlimir í samtökunum eða óska eftir upplýsingum um starf miðstöðvarinnar geta sent fyrirspurn þar um til: The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. 770 Pawtucket Drive, Westfield, IN, 46074.
Þekkingarsetur um þjónandi forystu starfar hér á landi samkvæmt samningi við Greenleaf Center Indianapolis. Um er að ræða samstarfssamning til að kynna þjónandi forystu í gegnum formlegt starf þekkingarsetursins (Greenleaf Center Iceland). Samningurinn felur meðal annars felur í sér aðgang að efni sem gefið er út á vegum bandaríska setursins sem og samstarf um ráðstefnur, námskeið og þekkingarþróun um þjónandi forystu.
Af vefsíður Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership – 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.
While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf inThe Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf 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?“
A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.
Robert Greenleaf recognized that organizations as well as individuals could be servant-leaders. Indeed, he had great faith that servant-leader organizations could change the world. In his second major essay, The Institution as Servant, Greenleaf articulated what is often called the “credo.” There he said:
“This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions – often large, complex, powerful, impersonal; not always competent; sometimes corrupt. If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”
The servant leadership philosophy and practices have been expressed in many ways and applied in many contexts. Some of the most well-known advocates of servant leadership include Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, M. Scott Peck, Margaret Wheatley, Ann McGee-Cooper & Duane Trammell, Larry Spears, and Kent Keith.
You can read more about servant leadership, in the words of Robert K. Greenleaf and others, in a variety of books available in our online bookstore.
Vefsíða Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership
» Þekkingarsetur um þjónandi forystu – Greenleaf Center Iceland