Servant-Leader Philosophy

Servant Leadership Servant Leadership

The phrase “Servant Leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, he said:

“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. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions” The Greenleaf Philosophy

At Broetje Orchards we seek to employ this philosophy in all that we do, seeing the whole person and not just the employee.  We recognize that each person has gifts to share and that many times they simply need an opportunity to be able to explore and share these gifts.

We are not perfect, but strive to become better, testing ourselves with Greenleaf’s best test:

  1. “Do those served grow as persons?
  2. “Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?
  3. “And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”