•  
  •  
 

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Abstract

1. Greenleaf refers to love as essential to both the servant and the leader in generating legitimate power in the self, the organization, the community, and the world. Emerson furthers this point when he proposed the following: mediocre people want to be loved; true people are lovely. How does love influence your own leadership and your way offollowing others? I think I'm probably influenced by some kind of twisted, quid pro quo love, but I don't find the agape version showing up too often. When my oldest daughter was a senior in high school, she hung out with a friend named Libby. Certainly I liked Libby, but for whatever reasons I wasn't turning out to be the cool dad that I thought I would be, the kind who laughingly engages all of his kids' friends, the kind who is so amazing that his kid isn't even embarrassed by him. So Libby just came and went and I was quite nice. But one day when Libby showed up I noticed I felt an authentic care and love for her. It was the day after she had just decided to attend the college I served as president. I remember being surprised and a little ashamed by the contrast. So, I wish I had a kind of generalized love for all people, even those who are as messed up as I am. I wish that especially because I'm a Christian, and if Christians are good at anything it ought to be that.

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.