Servant-Leadership: A Remedy for Racism in America

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Dr. Robert J. Cruz is the founder of BEC Global Consulting Group, a division of BEC Global Enterprises, LLC, a strategic and servant-leadership consulting firm based in Central Florida. He completed his Doctor of Strategic Leadership Degree, with a servant-leadership concentration at Regent University. Dr. Cruz is a three-time award-winning author; winning two awards with the International Impact Awards, one award with the Kingdom Book Awards, and was a Finalist in Publishers' Weekly Best Life Nonfiction Book Award. Dr. Cruz has co-authored and authored book chapters. He is an adjunct professor at Regent University teaching three doctoral-level courses. Robert is a retired United States Air Force senior noncommissioned officer. He served in the United States, Europe, and the Pacific theaters. Dr. Cruz, and his wife, Eleanor, currently reside in Deland, Florida.

Servant-leadership is the foremost leadership tool that can be applied in personal and professional relationships. It will provide a remedy for what ails America today, the deep-seated root of racism. Today, servant-leadership and racism permeate through our systems, ideologies, and movements. Servant-leadership is the healing method we need for the soul of America. My heart is for this book to be a lightning rod to spark a fire in the hearts of people to use in their circles of influence and help close the racial gap that exists between servant-leadership and racism. My hope is for people to acknowledge their racism, become free of it, and decide to contribute positively to building people and improving the communities where they serve, both contributions are servant-leadership characteristics. 

Yes, I agree, this is a substantial goal. However, servant-leadership and racism reside at opposite ends of the spectrum of humanity. To close the gap it will take trust, courage, transparency, patience, love, perseverance, joy, and kindness. It will require that we not keep an account of wrongdoing, and to forgive our brother or sister as many times as necessary for peace and love to prevail, rule, and reign in our hearts and lives. We can, and we must work together to make this a reality. Help us, God! We cannot be quiet anymore!

“…a  groundbreaking book by Dr. Robert Cruz. Within this work, Cruz provides welcome guidance on overcoming racism through the understanding and application of  servant-leadership.”

 

Larry C. Spears, author-editor and Servant-Leadership Scholar, Gonzaga

University; senior advisory editor, The International Journal of 

Servant-Leadership

This is a co-authored book chapter published in Palgrave Macmillan's, The Nature of Biblical Followership, Volume 1.

 Followership and leadership are a symbiotic relationship—one cannot exist without the other. This presentation looks at servant-leadership and its companion servant followership under the lens of Robert K. Greenleaf’s work which was ripe with followership content; in fact, he provided the test for servant-leaders which is all about followership—do followers grow, develop, and become servants. To note Greenleaf’s test is follower-focused and does not ask if followers become leaders but rather asks if followers become servants. As with any theoretical or model development, this chapter will unpack servant-leadership and the logical extension servant followership, showing how followership is a key component in understanding the nuance of how leaders serve, followers serve, and how we inevitably seek a better world in the making, together. 

This is a co-authored book chapter published in Palgrave Macmillan's, Servant Leadership: Developments in Theory and Research

As leadership and followership are a synchronous relationship one cannot understand the leadership side without also understanding the followership side. This chapter takes a deep dive into how the role of servant unfolds as the baseline whether one is leader or follower. Servant followership is discussed from the perspective of Robert K. Greenleaf’s adage of the conscious choice to serve and then unpacks how this can be displayed in leadership and/or followership, with servant being the commonality. The motive to serve, the seeking of better times in the making, and the insistence of being led by a servant are all discussed along with understanding the ultimate test, exploring the matter of the heart. Finally, a servant followership definition is provided. The chapter ends with a discussion of the challenges of servant followership. 

This is author book chapter is published in The Palgrave Enclyclopedia of Leadership and Organizational Change.

The healing properties of servant-leadership are presented as a recovery tool to address the changing face of racism. Healing in this instance results from traumatic, persistent, and racist behavior imposed on people in personal and professional situations. This chapter offers an engaging definition for healing, one that aligns with the severe and unrelenting environment where healing applications are meant to reside. Greenleaf’s servant-leadership philosophy offers healing as one of its ten characteristics to assist racism perpetrators and recipients of racist behaviors to recover from the behavioral effects presented by this traumatic environment. The chapter discusses the acts of healing that rise to counteract racist behavior; courage, forgiveness, and love help to achieve healing. In addition, global instances and examples of the length and breadth of healing prevail on the surface. Since racism proliferates generationally, these healing properties proliferate in kind because they originate in one’s heart and soul.