Van Dierendonck's Servant Leadership Characteristics

Wendy, Thank you for an insightful initial thread on successful leadership. Comparing your reference of Van Dierendonck’s servant-leader characteristics with Greenleaf’s servant-leader characteristics lends credence to both authors’ perspective of what a servant-leader should be. The important aspect that seems to be absent from Van Dierendonck’s and Greenleaf’s assessment of a servant-leader is the fact that the service is grounded in man’s principles and not God’s principles. Instead of just serving others in a leadership capacity, the model that Christ gave is to equip those that a leader leads so that they can be impactful in a leadership role in a later capacity. According to an article by Kevin J. Donaldson, Jesus equipped the disciples by giving them enduring leadership

Even though Robert K. Greenleaf was not a Christian, he still recognized that a servant-leader “gives” his power away when he was quoted as saying, “the servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible” (Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, n.d.). While Greenleaf recognizes this, he, along with Van Dierendonck, forget to serve Christ first in all that the servant-leader is to do (2 Corinthians 9:8, NIV). Authors Blanchard and Hodges, who have written extensively on servant leadership, offer a different insight on the mindset of the servant-leader apart from Van Dierendonck and Greenleaf’s perspectives using the acronym E.G.O; it can mean either Edge God Out or it can mean Exalt God Only (Blanchard & Hodges, 2008). Servant leadership theorists such as Van Dierendonck and Greenleaf come down on the side of “Edging God Out” of any servant leadership principles that they may have developed. While their attributes and characteristics are commendable in the overall pattern of a servant-leader, leaving God out as the ultimate service practice voids their offerings in the most effective form of