I’m happy to announce, after a long time and a great deal of thought, the Modern Servant Leader logo is finally here. This logo is based on the premise that a servant leader is to serve all stakeholders and not just those considered beneath them in traditional hierarchies. My research supporting this perspective can be found throughout this site and is based upon the work of Greenleaf, Spears, Hunter, Autry, Blanchard, Frick, Sipe, among other authors and many modern practitioners like DePree, Kelleher, Melrose, Hyatt and more. I hope you like it.
Overall Structure
The logo is comprised of multiple components, each representing a conceptual stakeholder group or the servant leader. Together, these components merge to form the servant leader and the organization practicing servant leadership principles. Below is each component of the logo and it’s meaning.
Subsequent Stakeholders
The logo begins with the bottom-left triangle, representing those stakeholders for whom the servant leader is directly accountable. These individuals are those that follow or are “downstream” in the traditional hierarchies or organizational systems. However, the individuals represented here are generally the members of the same team and may include:
Direct Reports: At the office, employees reporting into the servant leader.
Family: At home, this represents the children and other dependents.
Congregation: In the church it may be your congregation.
Constituents: For politicians, this would be your constituents.
Customers: In a sales model, the customers would be your subsequent stake holders.
Peer Stakeholders
In line with the Subsequent Stakeholders component is the Peer Stakeholders triangle, located in the bottom-right corner. The individuals represented here include anyone considered in parallel or aligned with the servant leader in traditional hierarchies. Therefore, peer stakeholders could include:
Partners: In legal agreements and joint ventures.
Spouse: Your husband or wife are generally considered peers.
Pastors: In churches, this could be your associate pastors or other, often ordained ministers.
Colleagues: At the office, those generally considered of a similar level, tier or band.
Community: In most organizations, there is a surrounding community to consider that may be your peers.
Preceding Stakeholders
Topping off the overarching triangle is the Preceding Stakeholders identifier. This triangle encompasses individuals typically considered above, upstream or otherwise prior to the servant leader in traditional hierarchies. As a result, Preceding stakeholders may be:
Employer: Your boss, supervisor or employer of another form.
Suppliers: In a traditional build or sales model, the supplier could be considered a preceding stakeholder.
Clergy: More senior clergy or certainly God would be preceding stakeholders.
Officials: In politics or government systems, the elected superiors, up to the president, prime minister, etc are preceding.
Global Stakeholders
Together, the subsequent, peer and preceding stakeholder groups comprise the Global Stakeholders and therefore, the surrounding triangle. Among the three composition groups, the Global Stakeholders triangle is intended to encompass all individuals to whom the modern servant leader is ultimately accountable. You can consider this a sort of “catch all” identifier. For, if a stakeholder does not fit neatly into one of the preceding groups, they are still considered within the domain of the global stakeholder component.
The Servant Leader
The servant leader is represented by the traditional, inverted pyramid at the center of the triangle. An inverted pyramid is often used to describe servant leadership and to reflect the serving nature of these individuals. Where traditional hierarchies place leaders at the top of the organization’s pyramid, the servant leader flips that around, suggesting the leader should be placed beneath their stakeholders on such charts. In the Modern Servant Leader logo, we see the same reflection. Surrounded by traditional hierarchies and even within an organization practicing the traditional model, the servant leader practices an inversion of such cultures. Therefore, within our model, the inverted pyramid in the middle represents the servant leader of an organization.
Modern Servant Leader
There you have it: The Modern Servant Leader Logo. I hope you feel it effectively captures the key attributes of servant leadership today. Please feel free to use the logo to visually reflect servant leadership in your own communications. I only ask that you include a reference back to this website as the origin of the logo and site identified by the graphic.
Directions: To download a version of the graphic
1. Click on the version below to open the full-scale version in a new tab/window.
2. Right click on the opened graphic and select “Save-As” or “Save Image As”
3. Include a credit (and link, where possible) to ModernServantLeader.com
Servant Leadership Logo – Without Labels
Servant Leadership Logo – With Labels
Questions: What do you think of the new logo? Is it a good logo for servant leadership in general? What would you add or change?
Credit: I’d like to thank Matt, of Matt-Works.com for his design consulting and tweaking of the final versions. Also, thanks go out to the Biz-Logo.com team for the initial creation of the graphic.
Nice work, Ben.
Thanks Al! I always value your feedback.
Ben, I deeply resonate with the idea that the leader is in service to everyone in his ecosystem, and I particularly like how you have included all dimensions of life – home, spirit, society, etc. into the framework and logo.
I also commend your efforts to communicate through the model, that servant leadership is about having an attitude of service, and not sub-servience.
Often our organization has to provide an organizational chart, and of course, we use MS PowerPoint to design it for ease, but it follows the traditional, hierarchy with the executive leadership on top being supported by everyone else. Is there anything out there that can help us show this the way we want?
[email protected]