There he discovers that Leo, whom he had known first as servant, was in fact the titular head of the Order, its guiding spirit, a great and noble leader.A conceptual framework that is helpful for understanding servant-leadership is found in the "Ten Characteristics of the Servant-Leader" described by Larry Spears (1998).
Spears distills Greenleaf's (1977/2002) instrumental means into ten characteristics: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community (pp. 3–6).
It is important to note that these characteristics are not simply traits or skills possessed by the leader; a century of research has rejected what Bass and Stogdill (1990) referred to as an "approach [that] tended to treat personality variables in an atomistic fashion, suggesting that each trait acts singly to determine the effects of leadership" (p. 87).
Rather, servant-leadership is an ethical perspective on leadership that identifies key moral behaviors that leaders must continuously demonstrate in order to make progress on Greenleaf's (1977/2002) "best test".
Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?A fresh critical look is being taken at the issues of power and authority, and people are beginning to learn, however haltingly, to relate to one another in less coercive and more creatively supporting ways.
Greenleaf's book, however, is the text for anyone interested in connecting the two often disparate terms, servant and leader.
Through the next 25 years, Greenleaf served as a consultant to such notable institutions as MIT, the American Foundation for Management Research, and Lilly Endowment, Inc.
For educators, he wrote "The Leadership Crisis: A Message for College and University Faculty" and "Teacher as Servant".
Many colleges and universities include Servant Leadership in their curricula[citation needed], and hundreds of companies embrace Greenleaf's philosophy.
[citation needed] Greenleaf is buried in Terre Haute; the epitaph on his tombstone reads, "Potentially a good plumber; ruined by a sophisticated education.