Servant Leadership: The Ripples of Service

INTRODUCTION

I remember when I first encountered the concept of servant leadership. Like many terms we hear in management circles, I initially wondered if this was just another buzzword passing through the corporate landscape. But as I’ve reflected on it over the years, I’ve come to see that it touches something much deeper in our human experience – something that perhaps has always been there, waiting for us to recognize it.

Many of us have spent decades in leadership positions—navigating the currents of business, community organizations, and our families. We’ve seen management theories rise and fall like tides. We’ve weathered economic storms. We’ve adapted to technological transformations that changed how we connect and create.

But today, I’d like us to consider something that isn’t merely a trend or a temporary fashion. It’s a timeless approach to leadership that operates in that liminal space between authority and humility. It’s called “Servant Leadership.”

The question I invite us to sit with today is this: Aren’t all true leaders actually servants?

Think about the leaders who have most influenced your journey. Were they the ones who demanded respect through position and authority? Or were they those rare individuals who, like dolphins moving through water, found their path within the current rather than fighting against it? Those who earned your respect not through title but through how they empowered others and advanced something greater than themselves?

THE SPACE BETWEEN LEADING AND SERVING

The term “Servant Leadership” was coined by Robert Greenleaf in 1970, though the concept has existed for thousands of years across many spiritual traditions and cultures. It occupies that fascinating threshold between conventional leadership and something more profound.

Greenleaf was inspired by Hermann Hesse’s novel “Journey to the East,” where the central character is a servant who disappears from a group of travelers. Without him, the group falls into disarray, and they eventually discover he was actually the head of the great order that sponsored their journey.

The insight is simple yet transformative: true leadership begins with the desire to serve others, not with the desire to lead or gain power. Like the mystics who found God not despite suffering but through it, true leaders find their authority not despite service but through it.

RECOGNIZING THE SERVANT IN OURSELVES

I suspect every one of us has practiced servant leadership at some point in our lives, perhaps without having language for it.

Consider Molly (and I’m borrowing from a story I often share). She sits at her kitchen table early one morning, the weight of yesterday’s harsh words with her daughter feeling like a stone in her heart. Her leadership in that moment isn’t about asserting authority, but about finding a path toward healing and connection. The harmony she seeks isn’t about erasing feelings but about weaving them into the bigger tapestry of their relationship.

Many of us who are parents and supporters of children, have lived this paradox. We’ve put our children’s needs ahead of our own. We’ve surrendered sleep, comfort, money and sometimes our own ambitions to create spaces where they could flourish. We’ve held both our sadness and our hope in a delicate balance.

In our careers, the best among us mentored younger colleagues without seeking recognition. We shared knowledge instead of hoarding it for advantage. When things went wrong, we stepped forward. When things went right, we stepped back.

Let me ask you: When in your life have you felt most fulfilled as a leader? Was it when you received accolades, or was it when you witnessed others succeed because of the space you helped create for them? When you saw the ripples of your small acts of service moving outward in ways you could never have anticipated?

THE MIND, HEART, AND WILL OF SERVICE

One of the hardest lessons of leadership—one that I’m still learning myself—is managing what Theory U (developed by Otto Scharmer at MIT) would call the three gates: the open mind, the open heart, and the open will.

If I’m being honest, there have been times in my career when I’ve listened with my ears but not with my heart, when I’ve observed situations through the lens of judgment rather than empathy, when I’ve acted from past patterns rather than present possibilities.

For those of my (older) generation especially, we were often taught that leadership meant having all the answers, being visible, making unilateral decisions. Servant leadership invites us into a different space – what spiritual traditions might call a liminal space – where we’re not sure what happens next, where we don’t appear to have control over next steps and direction.

As Lao Tzu said: “The best leader is the one when the job is done, the people say ‘we did it ourselves.'”

That’s both a humbling and a liberating standard, isn’t it?

THE PARADOX OF PRESENCE

Here’s the paradox we need to wrestle with: True leadership often means becoming less visible while becoming more present. Your greatest impact may come when your title and authority fade into the background.

In Theory U, Scharmer describes this as “presencing” – connecting to the deepest source of yourself and acting from the emerging whole rather than from isolated parts. The question becomes: What mission in your life matters enough that you’d be willing to step out of the spotlight? What cause is important enough that you’d let go of credit and control?

KEY PRINCIPLES OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP

Let me share some key principles that define servant leadership in practice. You might notice how they resemble the steps in both spiritual journeys and organizational transformation:

Holding Space – Creating environments where people can speak truth without fear. Where mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities. Where questions and challenges are welcomed. This isn’t passive listening but active creation of safety.

Observing – Suspending judgment and seeing with fresh eyes. How many problems in our organizations could have been avoided if leaders had just looked with an open mind rather than through the filters of past experience?

Sensing – Connecting with empathy and seeing things as interconnected wholes. In our careers, we’ve all worked with difficult people, but the best leaders find ways to connect with and bring out the best in everyone by seeing the whole person, not just their behavior in isolated moments.

Presencing – Being fully present and connected to purpose. This gets easier with age, doesn’t it? We’ve had enough failures to know we’re not infallible, enough successes to know what matters.

Crystallizing – Clarifying vision and intention. This is about balancing the urgent with the important, the immediate with the eternal.

Prototyping – Learning by doing, avoiding paralysis by analysis. Servant leadership means having the courage to act imperfectly rather than waiting for perfect conditions.

Performing – Bringing it all together in service of the greater whole. How many of us have experienced toxic work environments? Servant leadership is the antidote.

CREATING CULTURES WHERE PEOPLE THRIVE

In my experience, the most successful organizations are those where people thrive, not just survive. They’re like the dolphins describes – moving with grace in their environment and behavior toward each other.

Think about the difference:

In a survival environment, people operate from fear. They compete for recognition. They hoard information. They play politics. They do the minimum necessary.

In a thriving environment, people operate from trust. They collaborate. They share information freely. They take the initiative without being asked. They go above and beyond because they want to, not because they have to.

As someone who has spent decades in management, I’ve seen both types of organizations. I suspect we’ve all contributed to both types at different points in our careers.

The question is: Which kind of environment did we create? Did people leave our teams better than they arrived? Did they grow in capabilities and confidence under our leadership? Were our organizations more like the barista who carried a moment of grace home to her son, or more like the traffic that hums beyond the window, unaware of the life happening within?

A thriving culture built on servant leadership principles includes:

Psychological Safety – Creating spaces where truth can be spoken without fear.

Justice and Fairness – With transparent decision-making and consistent accountability at all levels.

Non-Judgmental Acceptance – Valuing people for who they are, not just what they produce.

Nurturing Growth – Aligning development with individual strengths and purpose.

And yes, Love – Not a word we’ve often used in business vocabulary, but perhaps should have. Genuine care for the whole person, not just their productive capacity.

VULNERABILITY AND SURRENDER

Now, I know that words like “vulnerability” and “surrender” might make some of us uncomfortable. They certainly weren’t part of the leadership vocabulary when many of us started our careers. But then again, neither were words like “agile” or “disruption.”

But I’ve learned that vulnerability—acknowledging limits, admitting mistakes, expressing uncertainty—isn’t weakness. It’s actually strength. It builds trust. It creates space for others to be authentic too. Like the mystics who knew that emptiness teems with possibility, leaders who embrace vulnerability create space for new ideas and approaches to emerge.

And surrender doesn’t mean giving up. It means letting go of rigid control. It means trusting others enough to carry the mission forward, perhaps in ways different than we would. In Theory U terms, it’s about “letting go and letting come.”

I’ll be the first to admit that these are still challenging for me.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

So where do we go from here? Let me suggest a few practices that might help us move towards servant leadership:

Begin each day with intention – Not a to-do list, but a being list. Who do you want to be today as a leader? How might you serve the mission, not personal ambition?

Practice redirecting attention – Make it a habit to highlight what others are doing well. Be the mirror that reflects their light back to them.

Create regular reflection time – Ask yourself honestly whose needs you’re serving in your decisions. Are you listening to what life is calling you to do?

Find companions for the journey – At our stage of life, we need people who will speak truth to us with love. Who will help us see our blind spots.

Celebrate the ripples – Notice and honor the moments when your small acts of service create changes you never anticipated. When the work continues without your involvement. This is the ultimate success of a servant leader.

CONCLUSION

As we enter what some might call the contemplative stage of our lives, many of us find ourselves thinking about legacy. What will we leave behind? How will we be remembered?

The servant leadership approach suggests that our greatest achievement may be in the ripples we never see – the lives touched by those we’ve served, the changes that began with our small acts of kindness and attention.

As Robert Greenleaf put it: “The true test of a servant-leader is this: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”

That’s a standard worth aspiring to, isn’t it? Even if, like the mystics seeking union with the divine, we never fully reach it in this lifetime.

Look closely at your hands. Really look at them. These are the instruments of your leadership, the tools of your service. Divine love wearing human skin, though we forget this most days, caught up in quarterly reports and strategic plans.

What ripples might you create today? What spaces might you hold open? What growth might you nurture?

Thank you for your presence and attention.

LET ME BE YOUR SERVER TODAY

Each step is an active part of my love.

Moving towards the table needing clearing,

Responding to an empty cup,

Smiling to a face far from home.


Reponses vary,

According to mood and pressure.

Sometimes I am invisible,

No one sees me,

Only what I deliver,

And if it’s on time.

However, there is always one,

One who sees me and what I do,

For what it really is,

Loving and giving,

Supporting and consistent.

There when others need me,

No asking for gifts or rewards from them.

Just a smile and greeting,

To show they love me.

Just as I love them.

Copyright Reflection, Poem and Image 2025 Michael J. Cunningham