Quotes & Sayings About Servant Leadership

If you start out to solely make money, you will attract the wrong kind of employees. — Guy Kawasaki

If Everything's a Rush, Nothing Is — Miles Anthony Smith

He did wrong. He has acknowledged it before the people. He repents it. How many kings have the humility to do that? — Geraldine Brooks

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

Being others-focused instead of self-focused changes your worldview. Living in a selfless manner and seeking to help others enriches our very existence on a daily basis. Get your hands dirty once in a while by serving in a capacity that is lower than your position or station in life. This keeps you tethered to the real world and grounded to reality, which should make it harder to be prideful and forget where you came from. — Miles Anthony Smith

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

Overoptimism Is More Dangerous Than Overpessimism — Miles Anthony Smith

Servanthood does not nullify leadership; it defines it. Jesus does not cease to be the Lion of Judah when He becomes the lamblike servant of the church. — John Piper

There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. — George H. W. Bush

The sacrifice 'of' self for the greater good is the greatest calling imaginable, and it is the bedrock of the greatest nations. The sacrifice 'for' self is the most pathetic calling imaginable, and it is the quicksand within which nations perish. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

We all have something to offer, and we must choose to focus on what we do have to offer, not what we don't. And remember the dirty little secret is that those who are acting like they have it all together really don't. — Miles Anthony Smith

They possess the self- effacing virtues of people who are inclined to be useful but don't need to prove anything to the world: — David Brooks

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

The idea of waste only comes into our Christianity when we underestimate the worth of our Lord. — Watchman Nee

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

A noble leader answers not to the trumpet calls of self promotion, but to the hushed whispers of necessity. — Mollie Marti

Servant-leadership is more than a concept, it is a fact. Any great leader, by which I also mean an ethical leader of any group, will see herself or himself as a servant of that group and will act accordingly. — M. Scott Peck

Smaller Is Smarter: Hint, Bigger Is Not — Miles Anthony Smith

The companies that are successful, they start out to make meaning, not to make money. — Guy Kawasaki

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

Take care of your people is one of the principle lessons of military leadership. If we take care of our people on deployment, why should that change when we come home? — Eric Greitens

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

Abdication Isn't Empowerment — Miles Anthony Smith

It's been said that everything rises and falls on leadership, and the best type of leader, is a servant leader. For me, my life as a kingmaker includes serving — Cary Hokama

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

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

Serving others prepares you to lead others. — Jim George

Show Us, Don't Tell Us — Miles Anthony Smith

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

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

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

Be Chris LeDoux, Not Garth Brooks — Miles Anthony Smith

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

Programming means your mindset, thought processes and frame of reference must be correctly wired and mapped to enable the incubation of thoughts and ideas that lead to success. Your subconscious mind is key in this process and will always look for ways and means, night and day, to fulfil and implement the thoughts that are always fed into it. It is your faithful servant. I call it the connection between God and man. It is an essential part of the human spirit. — Archibald Marwizi

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

To Christy Wimber:

"Are you even aware of the massive growth of the 'organic' home church movement in the USA??? They are primarily comprised of those Christians who have suffered significant 'spiritual abuse' (Dr. Ken Blue) within the 'organized' churches of which the Vineyard may be sadly included. I know John came down hard on any servant leader who spiritually abused anyone if he was personally aware of it!!! Alas, John is gone and there doesn't seem to be anyone who comes near to filling his spiritual 'shoes' within VCFUSA. Seems to me God is putting those in leadership who abuse the flock in their place...an empty church!!!"

~R. Alan Woods [2013] — R. Alan Woods

Seek the Blame; Give Away the Fame — Miles Anthony Smith

Your real statesman is first of all, and chief of all, a great human being, with an eye for all the great fields on which men likehimself struggle, with unflagging, pathetic hope, toward better things ... He is a guide, a counselor, a mentor, a servant, a friend of mankind. — Woodrow Wilson

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

We all want to be called servants until someone treats us like one. — Albert Baylis

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

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

Finish Well; Anyone Can Start Well — Miles Anthony Smith

Selfish Apologies Aren't Apologies at All — Miles Anthony Smith

Don't believe everything you think. Our minds are thought-creating machines. Most of these thoughts are fear-based. Our authentic self has the power to pick the thoughts that best serve us and those we lead. — Henna Inam

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

Servant Leadership is an oxymoron. All true Leadership is servanthood. — Todd Stocker

Contrary to conventional leadership in which the leader's focus is on himself and what he can accomplish and achieve. Rather, the focus is on those being served. Servant leaders do many of the same things other leaders do - cast vision, build teams, allocate resources, and so on. The big difference is their orientation and their motivation; these make all the difference in the world. They possess an others-first mindset. The servant leader constantly works to help others win. — Mark Miller

Never take your eye off the ball. Always remember that you and everyone on the team is the servant of the cause - in our case, girls' education and young women's leadership in Africa. — Ann Cotton

Christian leadership should include integrity, honesty, compassion, diplomacy, perception, common sense, and forgiveness. Serving as a Christian leader involves servant leadership, which is a radical commitment to their follower's life that requires acting in love no matter what it costs that leader. — Scott S. Haraburda

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 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

Stop Destroying Shareholder Value — Miles Anthony Smith

Public servants in this Europe often do their best when they stop caring about whether they'll be fired. — Ron Suskind

It's fair to characterise me as competitive and determined, but anyone who works with me will attest to the fact I believe very strongly in the notion of servant leadership. — Irene Rosenfeld

Don't Give Someone Responsibility without Requisite Authority — Miles Anthony Smith

Slaves do what others want. Servants do what others need. — James Hunter

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

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

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

Serving is the best kind of Leading. — Todd Stocker

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

She began to notice his servant's heart, his humility, and his leadership. This attraction felt different from her prior experiences of liking guys. "Before it had always been, 'Here's the guy I want!' But this time I thought, 'Here's a man I could follow. — Joshua Harris

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

Build Icebergs, Not Skyscrapers — Miles Anthony Smith

Exercising adaptive leadership is about giving meaning to your life beyond your own ambition. — Ronald A. Heifetz

As a servant leader the way you serve the vision is by developing people so that they can work on that vision even when you're not around. The ultimate sin of an effective servant leader is what happens when you are not there. That was the power of Jesus' leadership-the leaders He trained went on to change the world when He was no longer with them in bodily form. — Ken Blanchard

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

Being a leader is not about finding ways to get others to serve you, but knowing how to serve your followers. — A.J. Darkholme

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

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

From the prophets of Israel Lincoln had learned the note will idea that there can be serving people, with responsibility to the entire "family of man". — Elton Trueblood

It's remarkable how very many things there are that a king may not do. — Geraldine Brooks

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

When do I start? is the most refreshing thing I've heard in this whole war. — Steve Sheinkin

You must be a servant if you want to be great in life — Sunday Adelaja

He wasn't an especially charismatic or commanding individual, but what he lacked in personality he emphatically made up for in diligence. — Dan Jones

Leaders are made not born. They are the results of persistent effort. Thus, leadership involves much more than just shouting. Effective leadership requires a human focus and reflects a servant and transformation mentality. It is about the nuts and bolts of execution. Leadership is an everyday activity. It is a process that begins but never ends. — Vishwas Chavan

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

Be a Strong Leader, Even If You Follow a Weak Leader — Miles Anthony Smith

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

If you can't handle others' disapproval, then leadership isn't for you. — Miles Anthony Smith

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

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

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

APM focuses on team management, from building self-organizing teams to developing a servant leadership style. It is both more difficult, and ultimately more rewarding than managing tasks. — Jim Highsmith

You Either Trust Someone or You Don't — Miles Anthony Smith

Bosses push, Leaders pull. Real leadership is servant leadership. — Dave Ramsey

Macromanage, Not Micromanage — Miles Anthony Smith

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

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

Transforming a team, let alone an entire organisation, from the principles of command and control to those based on servant-leadership, from plans based on prediction to plans based on empirical, evolutionary data requires both patience and tenacity. — Geoff Watts

Adversity Isn't to Be Avoided — Miles Anthony Smith

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

Sometimes servant leaders focus on the servitude part and forget the leader part. Great leadership isn't about abdication of power, it about the benevolent application of that power. — Scott Hammerle

Leaders strengthen credibility by demonstrating that they are not in it for themselves, instead they have the interests of the institution, department, or team and its constituents at heart. Being a servant may not be what many leaders had in mind when they chose to take responsibility for the vision and direction of their organization or team - but serving others is the most glorious and rewarding of all leadership tasks. — James M. Kouzes

The most formidable way to lead is to serve. And while the perplexing oxymoron of such a grinding statement absolutely cripples us, it birthed a Savior. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

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

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