The principles of servant leadership and how they can be used to build a more just, caring and sustainable world will be the focus of a Lawrence University presentation. Kent Keith presents “The Case for Servant Leadership” Monday, April 25 at 7 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center.
Keith, an author and speaker who seeks to help people “find personal meaning in a crazy world,” is the chief executive officer of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership in Westfield, Ind. The non-profit organization promotes the awareness, understanding and practice of servant leadership by individuals and organizations.
A graduate of Harvard University and Rhodes Scholar, Keith is the former president of Chaminade University in Honolulu and the author of the Paradoxical Commandments, which was first published in a booklet for student leaders. He has since published four books related to the commandments, including “Do It Anyway: The Handbook for Finding Personal Meaning and Deep Happiness in a Crazy World.”
The term “servant leadership” was coined by Robert Greenleaf in his 1970 paperback “The Servant as Leader,” in which he argued that the most effective leaders wish to serve rather than command and control.
In 2007, Lawrence received a $1 million gift from the S & R Pieper Family Foundation in Mequon to establish the Pieper Family Servant-Leader Professorship to foster and promote the concept of altruistic leadership at the college. The chair is currently held by Associate Professor of History Monica Rico.
