Servant Leadership Quotes

Leadership without servanthood is like an ocean without water. ~ Farshad Asl

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 ... ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

Who then is the greatest leader? The one who has served the most. ~ James Hunter

I believe in servant leadership, and the servant always asks, 'Where am I needed most?' ~ Mike Pence

If virtue does not equal powers, powers will be misused. ~ John Howard Griffin

Are you serving others or your are being served by others? ~ Saji Ijiyemi

You can win in business by playing checkers until someone sneaks in one night after you've closed for the day and flips the board. ~ Mark Miller

It's up to you, not about you ~ Sonya Withrow

Headship is the divine calling of a husband to take primary responsibility for Christlike, servant leadership, protection, and provision in the home. ~ John Piper

Dave Stark has taken the best of recent marketplace management concepts and married them to timeless biblical principles of leadership, translating business jargon into ministry language. The combination is an encouraging and practical guide to Christ-centered ministry leadership. This book will be helpful to anyone involved in leading a church or serious about modeling servant leadership. ~ Jonathan Reckford

The arts and soldiering took time to acquire – time and discipline and desire. No, he was up against bullies. And bullies were cowards. These were mercenaries who acted for money. Shot as, on the other hand, took great pride that he performed his DUTIES for love of country and, though he didn't quite think of it in those terms, for love of his fellow soldiers. ~ Tom Clancy

Serving is the best kind of Leading. ~ Todd Stocker

What can we do? It's not dismissive or resigned. He really wants to know. ~ Ron Suskind

Servant leadership teaches us that you have to lay your cards on the table. ~ Warren G. Bennis

Recalling his mother's endless drudgery, (Senator) Richard (Russell) Jr. was to say that he was ten years old before he saw his mother asleep; previously, he had thought that mothers never had to sleep. ~ Robert A. Caro

Servant Leadership is the only #leadership that ultimately works. ~ Dave Ramsey

The king should be the servant of his people, and seek to uplift them and their lives. ~ Aleksandra Layland

If I put others first, I will never find myself being last. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

The theory of servant leadership is vital, but it's the active Serving Leader that makes the critical difference. ~ Ken Jennings

Coaching is the most important servant/leadership element in helping people accomplish their goals. ~ Bill Hybels

Servant leadership is the foundation and the secret of Sam Walton's ability to achieve team synergy. ~ Michael Bergdahl

Mostly we think of people with great authority as higher up, far away, hard to reach. But spiritual authority comes from compassion and emerges from deep inner solidarity with those who are 'subject' to authority. The one who is fully like us, who deeply understands our joys and pains or hopes and desires, and who is willing and able to walk with us, that is the one to whom we gladly give authority and whose 'subjects' we are willing to be.
It is the compassionate authority that empowers, encourages, calls forth hidden gifts, and enables great things to happen. True spiritual authorities are located in the point of an upside-down triangle, supporting and holding into the light everyone they offer their leadership to. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

A wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. ~ Mike Huckabee

To serve the many, you first serve the few. ~ Ken Jennings

The pulpit is never to be the ladder by which ambition is to climb ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Moral authority is another way to define servant leadership because it represents a reciprocal choice between leader and follower. If the leader is principle centered, he or she will develop moral authority. If the follower is principle centered, he or she will follow the leader. In this sense, both leaders and followers are followers. Why? They follow truth. They follow natural law. They follow principles. They follow a common, agreed-upon vision. They share values. They grow to trust one another. ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

Idealism is frequently another word for self-righteousness, a disease that can only be corrected by a profound understanding power in its complete sense. ~ George Friedman

There's no better way to serve and nourish the magnificence in another person than to simply listen to them openheartedly and without judgment. ~ Henry Kimsey-House

No time for anything, little time for everything ~ Sonya Withrow

He was learning to curse his newly acquired status as resident genius. ~ Tom Clancy

The Lance Corporal [a junior enlisted rank] at the back of your platoon may not know every detail of your operation. He may not have read every piece of intelligence about your enemy, or every nuance of your larger strategy, but he'll always know one thing: he'll know whether or not you care about him. ~ Eric Greitens

The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it. ~ Mother Teresa

It's easy to judge, but much more difficult to serve. ~ Orrin Woodward

David would wear no purple cloth, no symbols of his kingship, when he went to greet the ark. In its presence, we were all of us servants. ~ Geraldine Brooks

The president notices that when he takes off his coat to dig, people take more notice of the visual than they did his preceding remarks. ~ Paul C. Nagel

Servant leadership always empathizes, always accepts the person, but sometimes refuses to accept some of the person's effort or performance as good enough. ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

Christianity enhanced the notion of political and social accountability by providing a new model: that of servant leadership. In ancient Greece and Rome no one would have dreamed of considering political leaders anyone's servants. The job of the leader was to lead. But Christ invented the notion that the way to lead is by serving the needs of others, especially those who are the most needy. ~ Dinesh D'Souza

What originally led us to serve others by leading them seldom remains our North Star. ~ Dan B. Allender

In a servant leadership culture we learn by choice or example that if we want to be great, we have to serve others respectfully. ~ Vern Dosch

The best leaders are servant leaders - they serve those they lead. ~ Tony Hsieh

God ultimately raises up leaders for one primary reason: His glory. He shows His power in our weakness. He demonstrates His wisdom in our folly. We are all like a turtle on a fence post. If you walk by a fence post and see a turtle on top of it, then you know someone came by and put it there. In the same way, God gives leadership according to His good pleasure. ~ Matt Chandler

Teddy Roosevelt "had relished "every hour" of every day as president. Indeed, (he was) fearing the "dull thud" he would experience upon returning to private life. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Leadership is first and foremost bout character, one who is in power but not subordinate to it, one has control of money but is not lured by it, one whose position opens all doors but prefers the simplicity of lifestyle, and one who is followed by many but takes the heart of a servant. ~ Wilfrido V. Villacorta

Author says that, while Eisenhower had other intellectual mentors, he learned how to lead men from Gen. Walter Krueger. Krueger was the first American enlisted man to rise to four-star general, and he so identified with those he led that he once invited a sentry out of the rain and gave him his own dry uniform. ~ Jean Edward Smith

The strategic center of the rebellion was not a place – not New York, Philadelphia, not the Hudson corridor – but the Continental Army itself. ~ Joseph J. Ellis

The principles of stewardship and servant leadership challenge you to look at leadership differently. Consider these values. ~ Archibald Marwizi

DevOps and its resulting technical, architectural, and cultural practices represent a convergence of many philosophical and management movements (including): Lean, Theory of Constraints, Toyota production system, resilience engineering, learning organizations, safety culture, Human factors, high-trust management cultures, servant leadership, organizational change management, and Agile methods. ~ Gene Kim

This is a service station, we offer service. There is no higher purpose. ~ Nick Nolte

We have absolute trust in our employees. In fact, we are partners with them. ~ Ricardo Semler

I saw the figure of 178 Billion wasted/stolen from the people of a country by its corrupt and inept government. Such a figure could truly transform the entire country; education, health, roads, schooling, entrepreneurial environment ... of millions of people, rather than be secreted away as a few more 0000's in global bank accounts for the greeders.
We need to Rethink Public Service, Values, Ethics and Leadership. ~ Tony Dovale

(On being in a position of leadership) Even if it's your dog, you've got authority over somebody. Start treating him better. ~ Joyce Meyer

We conceive the function of Tribune to be the expression in popular form, and to as large a public as possible, of the views of the Left and Marxist wing of social democracy in this country. Its policy must be that of those who believe that the present leadership of the Labour Party is not sufficiently Socialist. ~ Anthony Crosland

A bee that makes honey is great, but a bee that makes other bees that make honey is extraordinary. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Life is a game - sometimes serious, sometimes fun - but a game that must be played with true team spirit. ~ Shelagh Delaney

I'll practice as good as I can, but I know that I play even better, with the qualities I have - leadership, my ability to make something happen in games, winning. ~ Tim Tebow

When we really need to work hard to make sure that these ideas about constructive social change culturally, ecologically and politically, come to pass. And that's only going to happen if people support the leadership, because the same power structures are still in place, and it's not in their best interests to change. ~ Terry Tempest Williams

A true leader is not meant to be greeted with unanimous praise by his people. A leader is meant to be questioned, to be suspect, to be hated. If he is not, then one can easily assume that either he has not challenged his abilities as a leader by making a decision that creates a split between the people, or he is forcing his subjects to bow before him. ~ Evan Meekins

There is no morality without temptation; otherwise it is just lack of opportunity. ~ Andy Hargreaves

Vivacity, leadership, must be had, and we are not allowed to be nice in choosing. We must fetch the pump with dirty water, if clean cannot be had. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent. If you hire brilliant people, they will make work feel more like play. ~ Richard Branson

Dear God, please take care of your servant John Fitzgerald Kennedy. ~ Jackie Kennedy

Recovering from failure is often easier than building from success. ~ Michael Eisner

I would love to meet Martin Luther King. His fearless attitude, leadership, and self-awareness changed our world. ~ Zulay Henao

The American girl makes a servant of her husband and then finds him contemptible for being a servant ~ John Steinbeck

Gloria was sure she wanted but to read and dream and be fed tomato sandwiches and lemonades by some angelic servant ~ F Scott Fitzgerald

The Meaning of Mature Femininity: At the heart of mature felinity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive, and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman's differing relationships. ~ John Piper

Without the vision of a goal, a man cannot manage his own life, much less the lives of others. ~ Jack Weatherford

I think the way to understand Teach for America is as a leadership development program. ~ Wendy Kopp

Al Qaeda is not the organization now that it was before. It is under stress organizationally. Its leadership spends more time trying to figure out how to keep from getting caught than they do trying to launch operations. ~ Cofer Black

Men who find themselves late are never sure. They are all the things the civics books tell us the good citizen should be: partisans but never zealots, respectors of the facts which attend each situation but never benders of those facts, uncomfortable in positions of leadership but rarely unable to turn down a responsibility once it has been offered ... or thrust upon them. They make the best leaders in a democracy because they are unlikely to fall in love with power. ~ Stephen King

Leadership responsibility: If you own a biz, you're the head of the org. Good or bad, your company will LOOK and ACT like you do. ~ Dave Ramsey

Pastors spend a good bit of time helping people with their sin. Who helps them with their sin? ~ Johnny Hunt

You may not see it, but even the lowliest servant has value, purpose, worth. Everyone has a place and none of those places should be diminished. ~ Lorraine Heath

There are several explanations offered as to why women have lower aspirations than men, including that women feel there is a lack of fit between themselves (their personal characteristics) and senior leadership positions, which are often characterized in highly masculine terms; women feel there are too many obstacles to overcome; women do not want to prioritize career over family; women place less important than do men on job characteristics common to senior roles, such as high pay, power, and prestige; gender role socialization influences girls' and women's attitudes and choices about occupational achievement; and women are more often located in jobs that lack opportunities for advancement and they lower their aspirations in response to this disadvantageous structural position. (p.191) ~ Sheryl Sandberg

You do not lead by hitting people over the head
that's assault, not leadership. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Anger should be your servant, not your master ~ Alok Jagawat

In being able to learn from his mistakes and grow, Eisenhower "was transformed from a mere person into a personage. ~ Lynne Olson

My compliments," Alek said slowly and evenly. "Your contempt was most convincing."
"I am your servant. ~ Scott Westerfeld

You have a nicety of awareness of the difference between a blade's edge and its tip. ~ Frank Herbert

His [brother in law Jim Hampson] appointment to the Episcopal parish in Wenham, near Gordon College brought them in close touch with leading evangelical faculty members in their pews and church leadership, including Elizabeth Elliot and Addison Leitch. They were instrumental in drawing Jim and and Sarah into the cutting edge of evangelical intellectual leadership, with friendships with Tom Howard and J.I. Packer. My ongoing relationship with Jim Packer, FitzSimons Allison and many other brilliant Anglican evangelicals would not have happened without Jim Hampson. His early influence on me in my transition from modern to classic Christian teaching was immense. While I was trying to demythologize Scripture, he was taking its plain meaning seriously. His strong preaching led him to become one of the founding sponsors and supporters of Trinity School of Ministry in Abridge, Pennsylvania ... ~ Thomas C. Oden

A good manager focuses on managing impediments, process, team's health, protects the boundaries of self-organizing teams, promotes a healthy culture, and helps eliminate waste. ~ Salil Jha