Elusive Insights 
                                              of 
                                   3 
                                                  More Effective 
                   Servant Leadership 
                                 Learned from 
                                                      Robert K. Greenleaf 
                              Keynote for 2010 Greenleaf Conference given by Ann McGee-Cooper, Ed.D 
                                                             Atlanta, June 2010 
                  
                  
                 History of Connection with Greenleaf                      would have interest in reading it and then 
                 Robert K. Greenleaf transformed my life                   meeting again.  
                 through his writings, his mentoring and role              In the second meeting, 
                 model and I’m please to have this opportunity to          after learning that I 
                 share the profound impact of this amazing                 found Greenleaf’s 
                 thought-leader.                                           work of great interest 
                 My story begins in                                        and very aligned with 
                 Dallas in 1976.  I was a                                  the educational 
                 keynote speaker at a                                      theories I had found 
                 national conference for                                   so successful with 
                 lay religious educators,                                  students of every background, he invited me to 
                 teaching ways to                                          come help design a new way to teach servant 
                 communicate learning                                      leadership to every Employee at TDIndustries.  
                 through all the senses                                    The challenge was that servant leadership is a 
                 and primarily by                                                                          philosophy rich 
                 making learning fun                                                                       with abstract, 
                 and relevant to what                                                                      intangible 
                                                                                                           concepts, yet 
                                   kids cared about.  Jack Lowe                                            Employees 
                                   Sr. heard that presentation and                                         ranged from craft 
                                   invited me to come meet with                                            workers, 
                                   him.  In that meeting he gave                                           plumbers, 
                                   me a copy of Robert                                                     electricians, 
                                   Greenleaf’s essay, The Servant          accountants, engineers, project managers…very 
                                   as Leader , and asked if I              practical construction workers, who respond best 
                                                Copyright © 2011, Ann McGee-Cooper & Associates, Inc. 
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                        Three Elusive Insights of More Effective Servant Leadership Learned from Robert Greenleaf 
                  to tangible, concrete learning styles.  This began         Personal Greenleaf Story—Genius 
                  a 34 year partnership with TDIndustries and a              My first opportunity to meet with Bob was over 
                  wonderful opportunity to be mentored by both               breakfast.  Bob brought his wife, Esther, to the 
                  Jack Lowe, Sr. and Robert K. Greenleaf. Jack               table in a wheelchair.  They were both mentally 
                  Lowe Sr. was a natural servant leader who                  very sharp 
                  practiced the gift of deep listening and being             and the 
                  fully present.  He earned a high level of trust            conversation 
                  with all those who knew him.  Jack Lowe, Jr,               included 
                  who became CEO in 1980 at the death of his                 much of what 
                  father, was also deeply committed to servant               each had read 
                  leadership and became a close friend and mentor            the right 
                  as did so many of the Partners who are                     before.  Both 
                  TDIndustries.                                              were avid 
                                                                             readers, fascinated by world events, history, 
                                                                             biographies, novels, politics, philosophy, poetry 
                                                                             and so much more.  Esther was a very gifted 
                                                                             visual artist and had a showing of some of her 
                                                                             most recent work in the exhibit hall.  I was 
                                                                             stunned to discover the depth of her talent.  
                                                                             What also struck me was the intensity of their 
                                                                             love and connection.  Even though I was there 
                                                                                                           with Diane Cory 
                                                                                                           and Fred Myers 
                  Not long after beginning this collaborative                                              (known inside 
                  teaching design project, AT&T contacted our                                              AT&T as the monk 
                  consulting team, Ann McGee-Cooper &                                                      and the mystic), 
                  Associates, and invited us to design a leadership                                        and we w ere 
                  development process for one of their business                                            graciously 
                  units.  As part of this work I was invited to                                            welcomed to the 
                  interview Bob Greenleaf to get some of his                                               conversation, there 
                  leading ideas on tape and in video.  Thus began                                          was clearly an 
                  several trips with Diane Cory and Fred Myers,                                            exciting flow of 
                  (both with AT&T at the time) to Crosslands, a                                            dialogue as they 
                  Quaker retirement village where Greenleaf was              shared from their reading the evening before.  
                  living, to learn as much as possible from this             These were not elderly people living in the past.  
                  visionary thinker. In addition to broad                    Both of them were fascinated by what was 
                  philosophical conversations, I was specifically            evolving globally and nationally, how our 
                  seeking his help designing and improving both              leaders were responding and other creative 
                  the leadership development at TDIndustries and             perspectives perhaps not being considered. 
                  at AT&T.  Without question Bob inspired,                   Looking back, I now realize that Bob planted 
                  challenged and transformed our ways of seeing              many fertile seeds in the foundation of my 
                  and being.  Just being in his presence brought a           thinking.  The word, “EXTRAordinary” has 
                  very different sense of self and the endless               flooded my consciousness for many years and  
                  possibilities of what could be.  
                                                  Copyright © 2011, Ann McGee-Cooper & Associates, Inc. 
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                        Three Elusive Insights of More Effective Servant Leadership Learned from Robert Greenleaf 
                 only in doing this research did I recognize the             need those most unlike us to compliment and 
                 origin.                                                     balance our perspective and bias. 
                 “It is important that the quality of your                   Over the next 30 years, I considered the many 
                 life be extraordinary and that you carry                    gems of wisdom that Bob taught me and 
                 this quality into the work of the world.“                   incorporated them into three areas of our 
                                                 —RKG                        own research in servant leadership: 
                 Bob gave me the gift of learning to discover                    1.  Knowing who you are and owning your 
                 many paradoxes and expanded my way of seeing                        gifts as a responsibility to serve others—
                 and being into a deeper way of understanding                        Awakening Genius within Self and 
                 myself and life.  He helped me discover the                         Others. 
                 creative                                                        2.  Time – Greenleaf taught me about the 
                 tension of                                                          other dimension of time - polychronic, 
                 “both/and”                                                          and how learning to enrich monochronic 
                 rather than 
                 the tyranny                                                   “The Work exists for the person 
                 of                                                            as much as the person exists for 
                 “either/or”.                                                  the work.” 
                 And he 
                 planted a                                                                                     —RKG 
                 seed about thinking of my life work as the                          time with the relativity that Einstein 
                 opportunity to make meaningful contributions                        defined, opens a spirit of FLOW and 
                 and to leave a legacy rather than a necessary but                   extraordinary creativity. 
                 regrettable drudgery.  He viewed one’s work as 
                 an opportunity to invest ones unique gifts in the               3.  Energy – taking ownership for 
                 service of a cause that mattered.  He didn’t see                    maintaining a contagious, encouraging 
                 work as purely a means to an end, a way to earn                     energy for life and work.  You can’t and 
                 a livelihood.  He talked about how we define                        won’t be a servant leader when in 
                 ourselves by what we choose to do and how we                        burnout.  Instead, in spite of all good 
                 do our work.  He saw service and making a                           intentions you will be a poor listener, 
                 meaningful contribution as an important                             judgmental, impatient and controlling, 
                 dimension of what makes life purposeful and                         all the antithesis of what it means to 
                 joyful.  He did not divide life into segments,                      grow those around you through 
                 such as work and play, good and bad, practical                      authentic generative listening and 
                 and sacred.  Rather, he saw the                                     inspirational modeling of self 
                 interconnectedness of all things and ways of                        actualization. 
                 being.  He helped me discover the connection 
                 between my own genius and my shadow self.                   We have found these to be three profound 
                 Too much of one elicits the other.  Perhaps this            paradigm shifts that expand the depth of our 
                 is why we need the richness, strength and                   own servant leadership. 
                 possibility of belonging to a diverse community, 
                 one that can fill in one’s personal gaps and hold           Before each of these visits I remember preparing 
                 up a mirror which both affirms one’s gifts and              pages of questions to make sure I used this 
                 also helps identify gaps and blind spots.  We               precious learning opportunity fruitfully.  Fred 
                                                 Copyright © 2011, Ann McGee-Cooper & Associates, Inc. 
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                        Three Elusive Insights of More Effective Servant Leadership Learned from Robert Greenleaf 
                  was taping our interviews.  On one visit, after            influence on Bob’s thinking. Don learned that 
                  peppering Bob with questions and making                    Esther read extensively and served as a key 
                  hurried notes, Bob shifted gears, stood up, took           learning partner with Bob.  We can’t know just 
                  my hand and walked me out to a garden                      how much of his work was due to her influence 
                  adjoining his apartment area. There was a                  but we can know, from his attribution that Esther 
                                                wooden bench                 was a brilliant and primary source of insight and 
                                                where he motioned            a safe yet provocative sounding board for Bob. 
                                                me to join him.  We          Bob invested in meaningful correspondence with 
                                                sat there in silence,        U.S. presidents, world political leaders and 
                                                soaking in the               thought leaders in many fields including politics,  
                                                warmth of the sun 
                                                for what seemed 
                                                like a very long 
                                                time.  I was antsy 
                                                to learn as much as 
                  I could yet I sensed that he had had enough of 
                  my intense questioning.  In a very peaceful 
                  cadence Bob begin.  “Ann, I am a Quaker and 
                  have learned a good deal that I value from this 
                  journey of faith.  Quakers value silence and use 
                  it fruitfully to deepen reflection and discovery.  
                  May I share two wisdoms I have learned from 
                  Quaker meetings.  The first is,  
                  Don’t speak unless you can improve 
                  upon the silence.   
                  (This stunned me.  I had never thought of silence 
                  as anything except a time to jump in and talk.)            theology, research, philosophy, philanthropy, 
                  The second, he noted was something like this.              governance, literature and others.  Cleo Craig, 
                  “When Spirit moves within you, you                         when president of AT&T, once introduced Bob 
                  have a responsibility to give it voice.”                   as AT&T’s “kept revolutionary”.  Indeed Bob 
                                                                             preferred to work behind the scenes to influence 
                  These were not his exact words but this was the            and grow the thinking of those in top leadership 
                  meaning I took from that dialogue with Bob.  I             positions.  He did indeed lead through 
                  think of them as “bookends” to deepen dialogue.            persuasion, deep listening and active dialogue. 
                  By practicing this shift in conversation, the              I remember him as asking fascinating, open-
                  dialogue can move from safe, inconsequential               ended questions.  I wanted answers yet he was a 
                  topics to the heart of the matter and then bear            master at challenging me to focus back within 
                  fruit in amazing ways.                                     my own experience and insights.  I wanted him 
                  Don Frick, who spent a decade researching his              to tell me how to design a curriculum to bring 
                  brilliantly written biography, Robert K.                   the essence of servant leadership to every 
                  Greenleaf:  A Life of Servant Leadership, told             Employee I touched, whether they were a C-
                  me he felt certain that Esther had a huge                  level executive or an apprentice plumber.  He 
                                                  Copyright © 2011, Ann McGee-Cooper & Associates, Inc. 
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