Servant-Leadership Through a Native American Lens: The Seven Grandfather Teachings

[Ben Lichtenwalner]

SERVANT-Leadership Through a Native American Lens (The Seven Grandfather Teachings)​

The Seven Grandfather Teachings are a Native American guide for a good life. The examples in these teachings are timeless. While their exact origin is hard to define, we know they’ve been passed down through generations for as long as we know.


The Acronym Model of SERVANT-Leadership® connects dozens of the best leadership models. It demonstrates the reality that all great leadership is servant-leadership. After all, if you’re not serving others you are self-serving and that is not leadership. This is how The Seven Grandfather Teachings are reflected in the SERVANT-Leadership principles.

SERVANT Principle: Selflessness​

Seven Teachings: Humility (Wolf)​

The first principle of SERVANT-Leadership is Selflessness. Selflessness means recognizing your role is to raise others up. If your title makes you feel bigger than the mission or better than the people around you, you’re off course. Selfless leaders pull in blame and push out the fame. Humility makes that possible.



In the Seven Grandfather Teachings, one lesson focuses on Humility. The wolf is often tied to humility. The point isn’t self-erasure. It’s remembering you’re a sacred part of creation, not the center of it.



A servant-leader serves the pack. She doesn’t feed her ego. The wolf demonstrates this with each playing a role in the pack.



Elder Hazel Dixon describes the wolf’s humility through community roles: Some hunt, others protect the group, still others nurture.



REFLECTION: Are you giving every role real dignity, or are you quietly treating some people as more valuable because they’re closer to you or easier to praise in public?



Sources:

• American Indian Health Service of Chicago: The Seven Grandfather Teachings
• Uniting Three Fires Against Violence: The 7 Grandfathers Teachings
• International Wolf Center on wolf and humility

SERVANT Principle: Empathy​

Seven Teachings: Love (Eagle)​

Empathy means more than listening long enough to give a good response. It’s choosing to understand what people carry, what they fear, and what they need. In servant-leadership lessons, we remind leaders to not simply walk a mile in someone’s shoes, but in their muddy boots. This affirms our intent to understand the challenges others face in order to truly empathize.



The Seven Grandfather Teachings speak of the importance of love. Love is often represented by the eagle. Love carries duty. One telling says love runs through creation and that healing depends on it. For leaders, that means empathy can’t stay abstract. If you understand your people and do nothing to reduce unnecessary fear or confusion, you haven’t practiced empathy. You’ve just observed it.



The eagle raises the bar. In one source, the eagle brings the law of love and connects it to healing. In another, eagle feathers are treated with honor and used in ways tied to bravery and dignity. Empathy should leave people with more dignity than they had when the conversation started.



REFLECTION: After a hard conversation, does the other person feel more seen and more able to move forward?



Sources:

• Cultural Survival: A Story of the Seven Sacred Laws
• St. Joseph’s Indian School: Eagle Feathers in Native American Culture
• American Indian Health Service of Chicago: The Seven Grandfather Teachings

SERVANT Principle: Resolve​

Seven Teachings: Bravery (Bear)​

One of the most common misconceptions of Servant-leadership is that it is “soft management”. It is just the opposite. Servant leadership requires a strong backbone and an ability to hold yourself and others accountable – that is the principle of Resolve. In fact, every major branch of the US Military teaches servant-leadership – working the troops hard in times of peace so they are prepared in times of war.



That’s why Resolve lines up so well with Bravery (sometimes referred to as Courage). The Bear is often the guide here in native teaching. The Bear protects, endures, and faces threats directly. In a leadership role, that means doing the right thing when it costs you, holding a standard when it would be easier to let it slide, and protecting people from chaos without hiding from reality.



One version of the teaching says bravery means facing life with courage and defending what’s right for your community, family, and self. Another says courage means living your true spirit and taking the high moral road.



Resolve isn’t stubbornness. It’s moral steadiness under pressure. Leaders don’t need to be fearless. They need to be clear enough about what matters that fear doesn’t run the room. Leaders need to realize, it only seems impossible until it’s done.



REFLECTION: When was the last time you led a change that others thought could not be done?



Sources:

• Uniting Three Fires Against Violence: The 7 Grandfathers Teachings
• Cultural Survival: A Story of the Seven Sacred Laws

SERVANT Principle: Virtuousness​

Seven Teachings: Honesty (Raven)​

Honesty is often linked with the Raven in native traditions (although some tellings use the Sabe – a sasquatch like creature). The Raven understands what it is and uses its gifts to live as it was created to live. The lesson is to speak from the heart in a way that stays kind to creation and to other people. Honesty is integrity with discipline. We all have a role to play and should be honest in fulfilling that role.



That maps to the Virtuousness principle of SERVANT. Yes, ethical leadership means avoiding scandal, but it’s more than that. It’s also about refusing deception, image management, and half-truths that protect the leader while confusing everybody else. If your team questions your motives, or whether the standards apply equally, trust starts to fail. As follower of Jesus Christ myself, this where my faith shows up. The sames is true of servant-leaders of most world religions – virtuousness means living their faith. However, you can be atheist or agnostic and also virtuous – so long as you have strong moral and ethical values.



Virtuousness and Honesty speak to the heart of the leader. If you can wear your heart on your sleeve and retain the support of the people, you are likely virtuous and honest.



REFLECTION: Do you practice what you preach? When was the last time you stood up for something you believed in, even though it cost you?



Sources:

• Uniting Three Fires Against Violence: The 7 Grandfathers Teachings
• Cultural Survival: A Story of the Seven Sacred Laws

SERVANT Principle: Authenticity​

Seven Teachings: Truth (Turtle)​

Authenticity is too often used as an excuse for poor leaders to say whatever they want. No. Authentic leadership still answers to the truth. Authenticity answers this simple question: Are you the same person in private as in public? Then you’re being your authentic self. If those you serve can confidently predict where you stand on key issues, you’re demonstrating authenticity.



In most native tellings, Truth is represented by the turtle and tied to living all the other teachings together. Truth isn’t just self-expression. It’s alignment. Your values, your words, and your actions have to line up over time.



A useful example here comes from Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca Nation. In his 1879 courtroom speech, he didn’t posture. He told the truth about his people and his grief. Leaders who want to be authentic should worry less about performative art and focus instead on transparency. Tell the truth. Keep telling it.



REFLECTION: How do you address workplace gossip when you encounter it? How would each group of stakeholders respond if asked if you were the same person in private as you are in public?



Sources:

• Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi: Seven Grandfather Teachings
• U.S. Courts: Standing Bear’s Courtroom Speech
• U.S. National Library of Medicine: Chief Standing Bear

SERVANT Principle: Nonpartisanship​

Seven Teachings: Respect (Buffalo)​

Nonpartisanship extends well beyond politics. It means being willing to listen to new ideas from anyone, anywhere, almost anytime (debating the optimal ammunition in the middle of a gunfight is not the right time). So, nonpartisan leadership means you care more about the mission than about your side winning the room.



That’s why Nonpartisanship aligns so well with Respect. In native teaching, respect means honoring all of creation and is represented by the Buffalo. The buffalo gives every part of itself for the human way of life. Nonpartisanship and Respect should push leaders to treat people, roles, and relationships as worthy of care even in disagreement.



A great example is the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, which begins gatherings by giving thanks to the beings and forces that sustain life and by bringing people into what’s often called a good mind.



That’s what nonpartisan leadership should do. First steady the room. Then let people listen, work, and learn something – especially from those who are different from themselves.



If you can only respect people who already agree with you, you’re not leading, you’re just recruiting. That’s often one of the fastest and easiest ways to identify a leader vs. an autocrat.



REFLECTION: Who do you rarely consider advice from? Why not? Who have you not sought out insights from in a long time?



Sources:

• American Indian Health Service of Chicago: The Seven Grandfather Teachings
• Wabanaki REACH: Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address
• Earth to Tables: The Thanksgiving Address

SERVANT Principle: Thoroughness​

Seven Teachings: Widsom (Beaver)​

Thorough leaders don’t confuse knowledge with wisdom. They ask better questions, look farther ahead, and think about consequences before making decisions with long-term implications. Thoroughness is about prioritizing long-term results over quick wins at the cost of others.



That makes Thoroughness naturally align to Wisdom. The beaver is the native guide here. In one telling, the beaver says wisdom means knowing your gifts and using them to serve your fellow human beings.



The beaver is a fitting image because it builds carefully. It doesn’t improvise a dam in a panic and call it strategy. It uses what it has and works with its environment to build something that affects the whole system. Leaders should think like that.



Thoroughness isn’t bureaucracy. It’s the willingness to think far enough ahead that your decisions actually help the people who have to live with them – whether you are still around or have moved on.



REFLECTION: When you made a decision quickly, that deserved more time and consideration? How will you ensure your team does not steal from tomorrow to make today’s results look good?



Sources:

• American Indian Health Service of Chicago: The Seven Grandfather Teachings
• Cultural Survival: A Story of the Seven Sacred Laws

Questions to Ask​

• Which of the Seven Grandfather Teachings most resonates with you?
• Which SERVANT principle is most missing from your leadership?
• How are you pursuing continuous growth in your leadership skills?

Final Thoughts​

SERVANT-Leadership produces leaders who share credit, reduce fear, protect what’s right, tell the truth cleanly, live in alignment, respect people beyond factions, and use their gifts for the good of the whole. These values are also key to living a good life. Native Americans have known and taught this for generations. We could all benefit from the lessons of The Seven Grandfather Teachings.



The Leadership Map has been updated to reflect The Seven Grandfather Teachings as attributes of The Acronym Model of SERVANT-Leadership®.

Special Thanks​

I want to say a special thank you to my friend Dr. Jack King. He’s been an encourager of native american reflections within servant leadership for as long as I can remember. His work has contributed a great deal to leadership lessons based upon native american history, culture, and lore. Thank you, Jack, for all your wisdom, support, and encouragement through the years.



In addition, a big thank you to Joel Knight, Crystal Sheets, Bryant Phillips, and the leadership development team at FireKeepers Casino, a Native American tribal casino project of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi (NHBP). They have an incredible 5-part leadership development program which I was honored to present at. It was that talk that finally got my butt in gear to really focus on this. From my childhood volunteering with the Lenni Lenape Museum to the present, I’ve always appreciated and sought to honor Native American history and culture. I hope this tiny contribution helps.

Disclaimer​

I am an old white dude of european descent. I have an immense respect for and appreciation of native american history and culture, but I’m not an expert. My aim is not to imply perfect native american definitions. Instead, it is with humility that I seek to honor these teachings by highlighting how we reflect their guidance inside servant-leadership principles. If you found this insight helpful, I encourage you to read some of the reference links below, while supporting the organizations and tribes behind that work. Keep serving.

For Further Reading and Reference​

• Ojibwe.net: The Gifts of the Seven Grandfathers
• Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi: Seven Grandfather Teachings
• American Indian Health Service of Chicago: The Seven Grandfather Teachings
• Uniting Three Fires Against Violence: The 7 Grandfathers Teachings
• International Wolf Center: The wolf teaches us to be humble
• Cultural Survival: A Story of the Seven Sacred Laws
• St. Joseph’s Indian School: Eagle Feathers in Native American Culture
• U.S. Courts: Standing Bear’s Courtroom Speech
• U.S. National Library of Medicine: Chief Standing Bear
• Wabanaki REACH: Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address
• Earth to Tables: The Thanksgiving Address
• Mi’kmaq Grand Council / UNSM: The Seven Sacred Teachings

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