China Servant Leadership Quotes

Journal: Response to Quotes “To lead people, walk beside them… As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate… when the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!” said Lao-tsu. This is my most favorite quote from the ones we got and one of new mottos for both my personal and professional life. I like this quote, because it perfectly describes the idea of servant leadership that so far became my most favorite topic from our class. The Lao-tsu’s quote reflects how servant leadership was presented in our class. Robert K. Greenleaf describes a great leader as a person “seen as servant first”; he adds, “that simple fact is the key to his greatness” (Greenleaf 75). His idea is same as Lao-tsu’s, that leader shouldn’t be seen as a leader. Lao-tsu moves it to a next level implying a leader shouldn’t be noticed at all. These ideas relate to our reading “Journey to the East” in which Hermann Hesse presents the character of Leo (Hesse 65). Leo is a servant, basically leading the whole expedition; …show more content…
There were many servant leaders I met in my life, for example my dad, preacher in my family’s church or my parent’s friend, a missionary worker in Bangladesh – people who I admired and sometimes I didn’t know why. When I looked back, they all were leaders, who never cared about themselves more than about other people. They all helped others on their ways to success and life improvements and often weren’t seen behind their work. Lao-tsu says: “the people do not notice [best leaders] existence… the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!” This is something that amazes me. I am a person who likes to get credit for the work done and I know I have to work a lot on being more