Greenleaf spent most of his professional life at AT&T.  At the time of his retirement he was director of management research. He was also a lecturer and consultant.

He was a student of organization, observing how things got done.  He captured his observations in a series of essays published in the early 1970s.  Three are particularly relevant today:  "The Servant as Leader," "The Institution as Servant," and "Trustees as Servants."  The Robert K. Greenleaf Center in Indianapolis makes these and his other writings available.

Greenleaf’s central idea is that those who would lead must first be servants.  The servant-leader is motivated by a desire to serve.  The servant-leader wants to assure that those being served "become healthier, wiser freer, more autonomous," and that the least privileged benefit, or at least are not further deprived, as a result.

Out of this commitment to service comes the desire and ability to lead.  For Greenleaf, leadership means "going out ahead to show the way," "pointing the direction" and giving "certainty and purpose to others."

Servant-leadership is a rich concept -- much richer and more inspiring than concepts of leadership based on position, power and charisma.  Servant-leaden are not seduced by the opportunity for personal aggrandizement or compelled by a desire for institutional preservation.

Greenleaf extended the notion of the servant-leader to institutions.  He saw institutions  as  both  secants  and leaders.  The institution as servant recognizes its obligation to build "a society that is more just and more loving," to serve the needs of people.  The institution as Leader goes out ahead, to show the way toward that just and loving society.

The primary responsibility of leaders -- both people and institutions -- is to dream. Dreams are what pull us into the future and draw us together.  "Nothing much happens without a dream," Greenleaf wrote "And for something great to happen,  there must be a great dream than a dreamer is required to bring it to reality; but the dream must be there first."

The ideals of servant-leadership are embodied in an institution's board of directors, its trustees.  Trustees are servants too.  They should ask themselves, "If we are the trustees, who are the trustors?  Who are the people doing the trusting?"

The trustors are those served by the institution.  For a business that means customers, shareholders and employees.  For a nonprofit it's the clients, users or audience, as well as the staff.  In every case these people have chosen to trust the institution and its board to help achieve their aspirations.

"The only sound basis for trust is for people to have the solid experience of being served by their institutions in a way that builds a society that is more just and more loving, and with greater creative opportunities for all its people,"  Greenleaf wrote.

It is the trust of those served that gives trustees and their institution legitimacy.

It is the caring of trustees that distinguishes the mediocre institution from the great one. For trustees, caring means four things:

• Creating dreams -- pointing the way toward greater service, toward doing the amazing things.
• Gathering the human, financial and moral resources to moral resources to make the dreams come true.
• Choosing and supporting a management team -- believing in and sharing the dream with its members.
• Assessing progress, with the care of someone who wants his or her caring to count: lovingly critical and unabashedly proud.

Our community's institutions are as strong as the loving and caring of each of their trustees or directors.  They have given a lot.  The future will demand much more, however, because the opportunity and need to serve are so vast.  Our community's businesses, nonprofits and governments will succeed because the trustees give and do more than they think possible, and because they get others to do the same. Together they can make dreams come true, they can do amazing things, they can make their caring count.
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Peter Hutchinson, former state finance commissioner, is a principal in the firm of Armajani Hutchinson and James Inc.  This article is adopted from a presentation to the board of the Illusion Theater.