“As a Servant Leader, You Can Change the World”

Commencement Address
Published on May 7, 2013
President Pribbenow, members of Augsburg College Board of Regents, and most importantly, 2013 graduates of this great
institution, it is indeed a great honor and privilege for me to receive this treasured honorary degree and to have the
opportunity to share with you my thoughts on your lives as servant leaders.

Augsburg is a unique place that unites and inspires all of us with its sense of learning, stewardship, and servant leadership
in a diverse student body in this urban setting, underpinned by the beliefs and values of Martin Luther. This morning I
would like to speak with the graduating seniors as servant leaders who can change the world.

The world you’re entering is not the more predictable one of my growing up years. Rather, it is a volatile and unpredictable
place, as we learned in Boston two weeks ago during the marathon and the events that followed. It is often chaotic and
ambiguous, filled with conflicting forces pulling you in multiple directions. It is an easy world in which to criticize others
and bemoan all that is wrong with it, as our media does so well. But taking that path will ultimately lead you into a cul-de-
sac of despair and disappointment.

How can you navigate this world to find the joy, fulfillment, and significance that we aspire to? My only truth is that each of
us must seek and find our True North – our beliefs, our values, and the principles by which we lead our lives – and then
strive to stay true to who we are at our core in spite of all the pressures and seductions attempting to pull us off course.
This is not an easy task as the external forces in our lives attempt to influence us As Apple founder Steve Jobs once said,
“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

Each of us has a unique place in this world of seven billion people – and a calling to make a difference. How will you find
your calling? What truly inspires you? I believe we are all called to lead, but how? It starts with your desire to serve others
through your leadership. Would-be leaders who feel people are there to serve them are not leaders at all. This means
knowing yourself and engaging deeply in the world to seek and find the purpose of your leadership. It means following
your heart, not just your head, with a deep sense of passion, compassion, and courage – which are all matters of the
heart.

My journey to leadership was not an easy path. As the only child of older parents, I heard from my father from a young
age that he wanted me to make up for his failures to lead by heading a major company. He even named the companies:
Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, IBM. At age eight, this was a pretty heavy trip to lay on a little kid. In junior high and high
school I joined many organizations but was never asked to lead. Finally, my senior year I ran for senior class president
only to lose by a margin of 2-1. It seemed clear my classmates didn’t appreciate what a great leader I was! To get a fresh
start – or perhaps try to escape myself – I went 800 miles from home to Georgia Tech and repeated my mistakes all over
again – six times I ran for office and lost all six! My scorecard: 0 for 7! It was pretty clear I was more of a loser than a
leader. Then some seniors took me aside and gave me some blunt feedback: “Bill, no one is ever going to want to work
with you, much less be led by you, because you’re moving so fast and so focused on yourself that you don’t have time for
anyone else. It’s all about you.” That was like a blow to the solar plexus. . . I realized they were right. After that, I worked
hard to change and was successful in leading many organizations in college and grad school. But in the back of my mind
was this calling to values-centered leader of a major company that served others. In my forties I was en route to the top
of Honeywell when one day I looked in the mirror and saw a miserable person – me. I was in the midst of a crucible, but
didn’t even realize it. Once again, I was striving so hard to get ahead that I was losing sight of my True North, focused
more on becoming CEO that on serving others. That led me to make the most important career change of my life when I
joined Medtronic and found a mission-driven, values-centered group of people dedicated to restoring people to full life and
health. My thirteen years there were the fulfillment of my professional career, as we grew from restoring 300,000 people
per year to 10 million new patients every year.

What is your calling? How will you use your unique gifts to serve others? I hope you won’t take twenty years to find it, but
you might as you rub up against the real world and find your unique place. To find your calling, I encourage you to dive
into the world and have as many experiences as you can in a short period of time. Don’t do what others say you “should”
do, but rather what your heart calls you to do. Travel or live in countries that are completely foreign to your experience.
Find a service opportunity that makes you uncomfortable because you’re learning from people whose lives are so different
from you. Take risks, learn to fail and pick yourself up after failing to come back and do it better the next time. Keep a
journal of your experiences and your feelings and return to it often to learn from your inner wisdom as well as the wisdom
of others. Take a job doing what you love, not one that earns the most money or that your family wants you to take. Most
important of all, follow your heart, not just your head.

By honoring your roots and diving into life’s experiences, you will gain a deeper awareness of who you are, your passions,
your motivations, your unique strengths. When you come to a vocation or avocation that highly motivates you and you are
really good at, you have found your “sweet spot” – that place where you can find joy, fulfillment, and success through
serving others. And you will have found the purpose of your leadership, as I did at Medtronic, by striving to be a servant
leader.

As a servant leader, you can change the world. Not the whole world of course, but the world in which you live, work, and
interact with others. You can make this world a better place through your character and your leadership. As anthropologist
Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt the power of a small group of people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only
thing that ever has.” You, your classmates and your generation are the servant leaders who will make this world a better
place for everyone.

When you are on your deathbed and your favorite granddaughter asks you what you did to make a difference in the world,
you’ll have a clear answer for her that becomes her inspiration to go forth into this world that is filled with so much chaos,
volatility, uncertainty and ambiguity – yet has so much joy, awe, and beauty all around us and the opportunity to help
others find it by serving them.

Let me close with a favorite quote from Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, who said: “I don’t know what your
destiny will be, but one thing I do know. The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought
and found how to serve.”

As you journey through life, may you find that true happiness and deep sense of fulfillment by serving others through your
leadership. As a servant leader, you can indeed change the world in which you live.

THE SERVANT AS LEADER

While servant leadership is a timeless concept, 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, Greenleaf 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 leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between
them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human
nature.
“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 in society? Will
they benefit or at least not be further deprived?“
A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the
communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves
the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant
leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others
first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.