Servant-Leadership: A Philosophical Foundation for Professionalism in Physical Therapy

Journal of Physical Therapy Education, Fall 2006 by Gersh, Meryl Roth

Other recently updated documents that historically set standards for values, behavior, and practice throughout the physical therapy profession, including the APTA Code of Ethics,4 APTA Standards of Practice5 and APTA Guide for Professional Conduct,6 echo the foundational principles of professionalism documented in more recently developed works. In an attempt to further define the set of attributes and behaviors that communicate professionalism, a consensus conference hosted by APTA in July 2002 identified the core values of the profession: accountability, altruism, compassion/caring, excellence, integrity, professional duty, and social responsibility.7 According to Bezner,8 these values will be integrated into the profession's documents that guide our education and practice.

As we examine the values that anchor professionalism in physical therapy, themes of service, patient/client-focused care, collaborative partnership, integrity, respect, empowerment, and advocacy emerge. These themes are remarkably consistent with those proposed in the philosophy of servant-leadership, initially defined by Robert Greenleaf in 1970.9 Greenleaf defined servant-leadership as the conscious choice to serve first, to select others' needs as the highest priority.9(p7) Servant-leaders envision and act from a "base of humility, empathy, compassion, and commitment to ethical values."10

The tenets of servant-leadership offer a unifying matrix for the enhancement of professionalism and the focus of professional behaviors in physical therapy. This paper will affirm that the ideals embodied in servantleadership form a philosophical foundation for professionalism in physical therapy for the 21st century.

Servant-Leadership

In 1970, Robert Greenleaf first introduced his philosophy of servant-leadership. He proposed that people bestow leadership on those people identified as servants first, those who have made a conscious choice to place others' needs as their highest priority.9(p2) Greenleaf came to this realization after reading Hesse's The Journey to the East,11 a description of a mythical journey by a group of people on a spiritual quest.12(p3) Greenleaf asserted that leadership grows out of service, that great leaders are servants first.9(p2) He proposed that effective leadership is measured by whether "those served grow as persons, when they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants."9(p7) Gardiner" extended that growth from autonomy (independence) to interdependence and ultimately to wholeness.

The raison d'être of a doctoring profession such as physical therapy is the service of our patients/clients, the focus on assistance, empowerment, autonomy, and ultimately wholeness. Greenleaf described the process of making whole as healing.9(p27) As physical therapists contribute to the healing of our patients/clients, we become whole ourselves. Greenleaf suggested that "there is something subtle communicated to one who is being served and led, if, implicit in the compact between servant-leader and led, is the understanding that the search for wholeness is something they share."9(p27) Thus the servant (leader) and served grow whole from this mutually empowering relationship.