Servant Leadership is Super Leadership

Superperforming CEOs = Servant CEOs

It's a consistent, astonishing pattern.

Google’s Eric Schmidt, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, Harley Davidson's Richard Teerlink, SYSCO's John Baugh, SW Airlines' Herb Kelleher, IBM's Tom Watson, Medtronics’ Bill George, AIM's Ted Bauer, Sterling Bancshares' George Martinez and others - all of these can be described as men of uncommon humility and personal values. Most, if not all, could also be described as people of great faith. This begs a crucial question:

Is there a correlation between Servant Leadership and Superperformance?

In describing Servant Leadership, Robert Greenleaf wrote, " “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. He or she is sharply different from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. For such it will be a later choice to serve – after leadership is established. The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types.” (italics added)

“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged . . .will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived?”

Is it actually possible to possible to achieve (or sustain) Superperformance without a CEO with a fundamental love for people?