Servant-Leadership is a concept developed by Robert Greenleaf based on his years of experience in management development at AT&T, and on his wide consultancy and teaching practice. Servant-Leadership is a process, a way of being rather than an activity. It is primarily about the “field” of leadership.

It was Robert Greenleaf who perhaps gave us the clearest definition of the servant-leader when he wrote: -

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.

The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priorities 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 servant? And what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or at least not be further deprived?
Robert Greenleaf: The Servant as Leader 1970.

The UK Centre runs conferences and workshops, shares resources, consults and shares Greenleaf's ideas with individuals and organisations that are interested in understanding and acting on these ideas « less