In his book, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness, Robert Greenleaf defines the servant leadership that is the final, critical trait we have found among effective teacher leaders, underlying the first three attributes of the leadership disposition:
Servant leadership 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. (Greenleaf, 1977)
Choosing to lead out of a servant-oriented mind frame has proven powerful as teachers come together. The teaching profession is as much a service industry as a knowledge industry. It seems, sometimes, that the service portion of the day is focused on students and families, and we forget that we are also here to serve our professional community. Being a teacher leader, in the end, is so much more than simply developing a PD calendar or sharing lesson plans. It is a support network of adaptive problem solvers, each looking to improve the school environment for students and staff. A true benefit of being a teacher leader is the development of such a community.
A cost we have encountered in cultivating this mindset concerns the process of developing this sense of community. While within buildings this develops fairly naturally, between buildings or across grade levels, this can be tough. It is hard to serve others when we do not have the time or space to learn their needs. Supporting one another through leadership work is also different from paradigms that have existed in the past; whereas some work that may have been done as a paid position is now a part of a teacher workload. Inside, it feels different to create from a need to serve others, than it does to work for an external motivation; this mindset takes time to change. Teacher leaders are asked to be a part of several communities, to transition from their classroom to their grade level or department, to their building, and finally to the district. In developing this broader sense of community, a teacher may feel a loss in the comfort they once held in being a part of a small, more intimate community. This is to be honored and acknowledged, while servant leadership is the disposition we have seen that makes the reach possible for teacher leaders.
Greenleaf, R. (1977). Servant Leadership: A Journey to the Center of Legitimate Power & Greatness. New Jersey: Paulist Press.