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International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Abstract

A blossoming field of interest in public life, corporate endeavor, and academic inquiry is the cultivation of leadership. Peter Northouse (2019) began his seminal review of scholarly leadership study saying, “People continue to ask themselves and others what makes good leaders” (p. 1). As I take in his work on the landscape of leadership theory a popular folk tune plays in my mind: “Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow. All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground” (Mallett, 1997). The variety of theoretical models identified by Northouse present like rakes and hoes for growing a garden of healthy leadership stock. Yet, as those with green thumbs will attest about horticulture, climate and soil composition matters as much, if not more, than tools. Similarly with leadership, more overarching factors such as the human wills to power, to love, and to meaning may prove more determinate of what grows or fails to grow than the tools used in the process. In this article I want to draw attention to the cultivation of a unique variety of leader, the volunteer leader.

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