Servant Leadership Outperforms Other Models

Several studies point to the superiority of trustworthy servant leadership as contrasted with other business leadership models often celebrated in our culture.  For example:

• Good to Great (Jim Collins, HarperBusiness, 2001): extensive study of thousands of public companies over more than three decades uncovered that the common thread among “great” breakout performance companies (with 6.9X the long-term returns of their markets) was a long-term, humble but firm, servant leader CEO with unwavering values and team-first clarity, termed “Level 5 Leaders.”
   
• Return on Character (Fred Kiel, Harvard Business Review Press, 2015): study of 121 publicly-held company CEOs, supported by a representative survey of 8000 employees, showed that “high character” servant leaders fostered more innovation and generated 5X greater return on assets than their “low character” counterparts.
   
• The C12 Group: America’s leading Christian CEO roundtable provider, with 4000 members served from 1992 to 2016, reports that its members broadly outperform their market peers in both strong and weak economic conditions.  Four of five members outperformed their markets, growing their top lines and profits significantly faster (i.e., 3-4X) than their peers, while being much more resilient.
   
• Baylor University: a 2013 study of 1700 U.S. adults revealed relatively more entrepreneurial commitment, resilient stewardship, and selflessness among devoted Christians.  This was underscored by a 2011 Barna Group study of 1000 U.S. adults that indicated consumers are 10X more likely to be drawn to a “Christian brand” supplier than to be repulsed (even in New England and the Pacific Northwest!).