A Level 5 Leader by Another Name

Jim Collin's term Level 5 leader is similar to servant-leader, a term coined by Robert Greenleaf to describe someone who encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power. Would your board and organization be more effective if servant-leaders were intentionally recruited?

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. He or she is sharply different from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. For such it will be a later choice to serve - after leadership is established. 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?

Excerpted from Servant as Leader by Robert K. Greenleaf