Robert K. Greenleaf a leadership crisis and that I should do what I could about it.” In 1970 Greenleaf published his first essay, entitled "The Servant As Leader", which introduced the term "servant leadership." Later, the essay was expanded into a book, which is perhaps one of the most influential management texts yet written. The Servant Leadership movement was born. Of his philosophy, Robert Greenleaf wrote in "Essentials", "The servant-leader is servant first... Becoming a servant-leader 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
Robert K. Greenleaf on leadership that identifies key moral behaviors that leaders must continuously demonstrate in order to make progress on Greenleaf’s (1977/2002) “best test.” The “best test,” which gives us the ethical ends for action, combined with Spears’ distillation of traits that identified the means, create a powerful framework for a review of the literature that furthers the conceptual framework for servant-leadership. Greenleaf was captivated by the idea of a servant actually being the leader. In "Essentials" he wrote, “As it was, the idea lay dormant for 11 years during which I came to believe that we in this country were in