Famous Quotes by Robert K. Greenleaf

The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve.

Not much happens without a dream. And for something great to happen, there must be a great dream.

The best test of servant leadership is that those served grow as persons.

The only test of leadership is that somebody follows.

On an important decision one rarely has 100% of the information needed for a good decision.

Evil, stupidity, apathy, the 'system' are not the enemy... The real enemy is fuzzy thinking on the part of good, intelligent, vital people.

The work exists for the person as much as the person exists for the work.

Love without laughter can be grim and oppressive. Laughter without love can be derisive and venomous. Together they make for greatness of spirit.

Nothing much happens without a dream. For something really great to happen, it takes a really great dream.

The work exists for the person as much as the person exists for the work.

A great leader is one who serves others, not one who controls them.

People who grow others in their organizations are ultimately the leaders who will be successful.

The quality of a society will be judged by what the least privileged in it achieves.

A leader is one who ventures and takes the risks of going out ahead to show the way.

Don’t assume, because you are intelligent, able, and well-motivated, that you are open to communication, that you know how to listen.

Rabbi Heschel replied: 'I would say: Let them remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Let them be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power, and that we can – every one – do our share to redeem the world.'

In a servant-leadership organization, leaders build the environment that makes their followers better.

Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?

Purpose and laughter are the twins that must not separate. Each is empty without the other.

Even the frankest and bravest of subordinates do not talk with their boss the same way they talk with colleagues.

For the person with creative potential there is no wholeness except in using it.