“1) The essence of moral authority or conscience is sacrifice – the subordinating of one’s selfe or one’s ego to a higher purpose, cause or principle.” (Covey in Greenleaf, 1977, p.6). “In this sense, both leaders and followers are followers. Why? They follow truth. They follow natural law. They follow principles.” (Covey in Greenleaf, 1977, p.6).
“The deepest part of human nature is that which urges people – each one of us – to rise above our present circumstances and to transcend our common nature.” (Covey in Greenleaf, 1977, p.1).
The servant as leader.
“they will freely respond only to individuals who are chosen as leaders because they are proven and trusted as servants.” (Covey in Greenleaf, 1977, p.11 ). “Why would anybody accept the leadership of another except that the other sees more clearly where it is best to go?” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.29).
“I am reminded of Greenleaf’s acid test of servant leadership. How do you tell a servant-leader is at work? – “Do the people around the person grow?”” (Senge in Greenleaf, 1977, p.357). “Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely to themselves become servants?” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.27).
Institutions as servants
“This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.62).
“The first order of business is to build a group of people who, under the influence of the institution, grow taller and become healthier, stronger, more autonomous.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.53). “Some institutions achieve distinction for a short time by the intelligent use of people. (…) But these are not the means whereby an institution moves from people-using to people-building.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.55).
“What we have learned about caring for individual persons we must now learn to give to institutions. Have you ever noted how much less qualm of conscience some people have about cheating an institution than they have for cheating an individual person? We must change that.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.255).
Business as a serving institution
“The work exists for the person as much as the person exist for the work.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.155). “The business then becomes a serving institution – serving those who produce and those who use.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.155). “”What are you in business for?” the answer may be: “I am in business for growing people – people who are stronger, healthier, more autonomous, more self-reliant , more competent. Incidentally, we also make and sell at a profit things that people want to buy, so we can pay for all of this.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.159).
Leading
“Leadership – going out ahead to show the way – is available to everyone in the institution who has the competence, values, and temperament for it, from the chair to the least skilled individual.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.109). “Prexy, as I saw him, was a problem-centered man. Either problems came to him in the normal course of events or he created them by setting goals and making commitments.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.297).
Loss as the basis for growth
“to acknowledge that we do not want for pain to keep us awake, but to make a virtue of it – learn from it – and to see the darkest of it still ahead (as it is for most of us) and cut away the gloom.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.316). “Loss, every loss one’s mind can conceive of, creates a vacuum into which will come (if allowed) something new and fresh and beautiful, something unforeseen – and the greatest of these is love. The source of this attitude toward loss and being lost is faith.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.340). “each loss grants them the opportunity to be greater than before. Loss, by itself, is not tragic. What is tragic is the failure to grasp the opportunity which loss presents.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.340).
“”In Here, Not Out There.” The real territory of change is always “in here.” Now, the consequences must be “out there” if we’re really interested in institutional change. But we can’t get there from just focusing “out there.” That is the paradox. That’s what it means to take a capacity-building approach.” (Senge in Greenleaf, 1977, p.348). “Every process of transformation begins with yourself. It has to start with personal change. The abstraction of corporate transformation – that’s a result, that’s not a metod.” (Senge in Greenleaf, 1977, p.356).
Growth through aspiration.
“There’s an old saw, that there are only two fundamental sources of change in human affairs: aspiration and desperation. (…) As far as I can see, the number one leadership strategy is quite simple to describe: Create a crisis. Or, if you’re really clever, create the fear that a crisis is abut to hit. That shows the extent to which we have allowed the diminishment of our capacity for aspiration.” (Senge in Greenleaf, 1977, p.348).
“Aspiration drives virtually all fundamental learning. (…) Or did we learn to walk because we wanted to? That’s aspiraton. Just imagine: What if nine out of ten change initiatives, in our organizations or in our societies were driven by excitement, by the idea that this would serve somebody in a different way, that this would give us a better way of living?” (Senge in Greenleaf, 1977, p.348).
No comments:
Post a Comment