Turns out that there are secular examples of servant leadership as well, people advocating servant leadership as a revolutionary leadership style — and this among the Fortune 500. Robert K. Greenleaf espouses this style of corporate leadership, and his writings yield

a set of ten characteristics which [are ascribed] to the servant-leader. These include the following:

1. Listening receptively to what others have to say.
2. Acceptance of others and having empathy for them.
3. Foresight and intuition.
4. Awareness and perception.
5. Having highly developed powers of persuasion.
6. An ability to conceptualize and to communicate concepts.
7. An ability to exert a healing influence upon individuals and institutions.
8. Building community in the workplace.
9. Practicing the art of contemplation.
10. Recognition that servant-leadership begins with the desire
    to change oneself. Once that process has begun, it then becomes possible to practice servant-leadership at an institutional level.

Continue reading Servant Leadership: Quest for Caring Leadership at the site of the Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership. The upshot here is that the desire for a more “flat” leadership style and structure may be linked in no small way to culture (postmodernism) and is something being espoused in arenas besides some parts of the emerging church circles. Oh, and besides the way Jesus did it.