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Maintaining Your Stance: History Reveals the Cost to Servant-Leaders

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Abstract

What can we learn from an analysis of the life journey of historical servant-leaders? Those who aspire to this leadership philosophy embrace the belief that their goal is to build a caring, collaborative, and just society (Greenleaf, The servant as leader. The Robert K. Greenleaf Center 1991/1970) that provides the opportunity for all to develop to the best of their potential. Simply, the nature of such positive and powerful aspirations will be challenged by a variety of obstacles during a lifetime. The chapter will present readers with stories of five recognized servant-leaders from the past. Today’s aspiring servant-leaders can appreciate the triumphs and costs and courage exemplified by these earlier men and women, and hopefully, are encouraged to maintain their own stance now and in the future.

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Crippen, C. (2018). Maintaining Your Stance: History Reveals the Cost to Servant-Leaders. In: van Dierendonck, D., Patterson, K. (eds) Practicing Servant Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75644-8_4

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