#📓 #📄 #🟡 # The Natural Feeling to Serve: An Interview with Larry Spears ![[calendar-plus.svg]] <small>May 27, 2022</small> | ![[calendar-clock.svg]] <small>Jun 21, 2023</small> 🏷️ [[Leadership MOC]] **Authors:** [[ James K. Dittmar]] **Citation:** James K. Dittmar. (2007). The Natural Feeling to Serve: An Interview with Larry Spears. _The International Journal of Servant-Leadership_, _3_(1), 51–72. --- # Abstract ~ 3 Sentence Summary An interview with Larry C. Spears, Greenleaf Center's Senior Fellow & President Emeritus, is presented. Among other things, Spears explains the meaning of natural feeling used by Robert Greenleaf to describe the starting point for someone to want to become a servant-leader. # Notes & Important Ideas ### Greenleaf believed some were more disposed toward being servant-leaders than others, but that everyone could learn to be a servant-leader. ([note on p.52](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/FXW3NSIM?page=2)) - Most people have an innate desire to serve others, ([James K. Dittmar 2007:51](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/FXW3NSIM?page=1)) - ["] if natural servants began to get more involved in leadership, then organizations and society would benefit tremendously ([James K. Dittmar 2007:52](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/FXW3NSIM?page=2)) ### Servant-leadership more of a philosophy than a style of leadership - ["] I don't see servant-leadership as a style of leadership; for me it's a philosophy and a way of being; it's who you're trying to become ([James K. Dittmar 2007:58](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/FXW3NSIM?page=8)) - ["] Servant-leadership provides a stronger foundation for any kind of leadership "house," because it is so clearly about values and ethics and wanting to serve others. ([James K. Dittmar 2007:58](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/FXW3NSIM?page=8)) - ["] Robert Greenleaf felt that servant-leadership can begin anywhere within an organization, and with anyone. ([James K. Dittmar 2007:63](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/FXW3NSIM?page=13)) ### Greenleaf credited [[Hermann Hesse]]'s book [[Journey to the East]] as the source of inspiration for coining the term [[servant-leader]]. ([note on p.65](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/FXW3NSIM?page=15)) ### [[foresight|Foresight]] is an important quality for individuals and organizations and is grounded in [[intuition]]. ([note on p.66](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/FXW3NSIM?page=16)) ### Servant-leadership doesn't require a particular religious belief - ["] Most people recognize the breadth of the understanding and practice of servant-leadership and easily accept it as being congruent with whatever faith or philosophies they may personally embrace. ([James K. Dittmar 2007:70](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/FXW3NSIM?page=20)) # Personal Reflection --- # Other References TBR:: 🔖 The Servant as Leader by Robert Greenleaf ([note on p.52](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/FXW3NSIM?page=2)) (GR)