Servant Leadership for Schools

The importance of a healthy K–12 education system cannot be overstated. In today’s world it is a prerequisite to social justice, democratic community, a thriving economy, and a flourishing society. Likewise, the importance of the school principal (Louis Smylie et al. , 2020), for it is the principal who is most responsible for establishing the vision and overall ethos of the school (Bier et al. , in press). Being the principal of a school is not only a critically important role, it is also an incredible rewarding position to hold. In a 2007 national poll by the University of Chicago, school administrators ranked in the top five of the most satisfying ways people make a living. In 2015 a survey of 25, 000 users of the CareerBliss website School Principals were in first in rating their overall job satisfaction (Costa, 2015). Unfortunately, as personally and professionally fulfilling as working in schools can be, retention of both principals and teachers is a serious and growing problem for school districts across the United States, although it is most intense for those serving the poorest and lowest performing students (Hanushek et al. , 2016; School Leaders Network, 2014). According to the Alliance for Excellent Education (2014), 23% of principals and 16% of teachers do not return to their placements from one school year to the next at a cost of nearly 3 billion per year. An often-cited Gallup poll reported that 7 out of 10 schoolteachers said they feel emotionally disconnected and/or dissatisfied with their workplace environments. In fact, of the surveyed professionals, teachers were least likely to feel their opinions counted at work, and the least likely to feel that their supervisor created an “open and trusting environment. ” These findings are consistent with more than a decade of research on teacher turnover and retention in which the most often cited reason for teacher dissatisfaction was lack of administrator support (Boyd et al. , 2011; Burkhauser, 2017; Zumwalt Johnson et al. , 2012; Kraft et al. , 2016; Rockoff, 2008). It seems that the oft-quoted business saying that “people don’t quit jobs, they quit their bosses” may hold true in education as well—teacher’s do not quit their schools they quit their administrators. There is a nationally recognized need for new approaches to school leadership to meet the current needs of our schools and students (Cherkowski Levin et al. , 2019; Murphy, 2002; Snodgrass, 2018). Many have recognized the need for new more supportive approaches to the leadership of schools if schools are to meet the many challenges of the 21st century (Hargreaves 2003; Walker Lowe Carlson Stephens et al. , cited in Yukl, 1999). In fact, a major criticism of transformational leadership theory is that it lacks a moral imperative (Huizanga, 2016; Schneider Spears, 2005). Greenleaf articulated his conception of servant-leaders and servant-institutions in a series of essays: The Servant as Leader (1970), Institution as Servant (Greenleaf, 1976) and Servant-Leadership (1977). Greenleaf conceptualized servant-leadership as a virtue-based philosophy and style of leadership in which leaders focus on relationships and persuasion rather than command and control. Greenleaf centered the moral authority, rather than the positional authority, of the individual as the only legitimate justification for leadership (Lanctot McMahone, 2012; Page Poon, 2006): Since the publication of Greenleaf’s essays servant-leadership has been practiced in innovative and successful corporate settings including Southwest Airlines, Marriott International, and Starbucks. The servant-leader seeks what will bring about the highest good for the people in the community, and pursues that good in the face of obstacles, not for personal reward, but for the growth and well-being of the members of the community: Servant-leaders take a holistic approach to work and see themselves as stewards of the people and the resources entrusted to them (Van Dierendonck, 2011). Servant-leaders concern themselves with organizational performance metrics, not just for the sake of success, but also because a failing organization cannot serve. 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