Servant Leadership Certificate

Please note that this class will meet in a highly interactive, live online classroom. There will be reading assignments, videos and offline reflective work in between sessions to enhance your learning and application of new skills and ideas.

This newly re-designed certificate examines the concepts, history and real-world practice of servant leadership. A Servant Leadership approach emphasizes meeting the needs of the organization's employees, customers, other stakeholders and the broader community. This series will also emphasize participant clarification of personal values and the development of goals for how they will embody and apply this form of leadership. Instruction will include an overview of the principles of the founder of Servant Leadership, Robert Greenleaf and then focus on more modern applications of Servant Leadership with specific examples from both profit and nonprofit organizations. The challenges and opportunities of this leadership style will also be explored as preparation for participants navigating their own leadership journey as they create shared purpose within their teams and organizations.

All readings for the class will be provided in view-only digital PDF format. If participants would like a personal copy of the book from which the majority of readings are taken, we recommend purchasing a copy of Practicing Servant Leadership: Developments in Implementation by Dierendonck and Patterson (2018).

See what participants are saying about this course.

Watch this short video describing servant leadership and how it can help your organization.

The best leaders are clear. They continually light the way, and in the process, let each person know that what they do makes a difference. The best test as a leader is: Do those served grow as persons; do they become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become leaders?
Robert K. Greenleaf

Examine the core aspects of servant leadership and incorporate those learnings into your professional life. Designed for formal or informal leaders at any level in the organization and open to leaders in private business, health care, human services, nonprofit, or public sector. We cover servant leadership foundations, leadership through self-awareness, connecting servant leadership to your world and bringing servant leadership to life.

Program objectives

Participants will:

• Gain a fundamental understanding of the unique approach of Servant Leadership as a leadership style.
• Explore the advantages, challenges and paradoxes inherent in adopting a Servant Leadership approach.
• Examine and refine personal leadership values using self-reflection through focused dialogue, journal writing and other methods in order to develop their personal leadership values and articulate them to others.
• Analyze Servant Leadership principles, determine how those principles can be applied, and identify areas for further personal development.
• Review specific examples of organizations that have operationalized servant leader principles to gain application insights and inspiration.
• Explore how servant-let organizations can impact community society and systems historically and in a contemporary context.

Continuing Studies is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®.

Program sessions

All five sessions are required to receive the certificate. These sessions will be interactive and there will also be some reflective work and reading for participants to complete outside of class. As part of the in-class portion of the five sessions, you will experience guest speakers who are actively practicing servant leadership in their organizations who will share personal insights.

Session 1: Servant Leadership Foundations

Session 2: Personal and Organizational Challenges of Servant Leadership

Session 3: Connecting Servant Leadership to Community and the World

Session 4: Serving Customers/Clients/Citizens

Session 5: Servant Leadership at the Team and Organizational Level

By participating in this class you will earn:

Explanation of Continuing Education Hours