---
title: "Servant Leader Principle #6 – Conceptualization"
type: "post"
post_id: "102"
slug: "servant-leader-principle-6-conceptualization"
canonical: "https://leader-as-servant.com/2020/02/20/servant-leader-principle-6-conceptualization/"
markdown_url: "https://leader-as-servant.com/2020/02/20/servant-leader-principle-6-conceptualization.md"
json_url: "https://leader-as-servant.com/2020/02/20/servant-leader-principle-6-conceptualization.json"
txt_url: "https://leader-as-servant.com/2020/02/20/servant-leader-principle-6-conceptualization.txt"
published: "2020-02-21T02:24:07+00:00"
modified: "2025-12-10T20:08:01+00:00"
author: "Dave Shoff"
categories:
  - "Principles"
  - "Servant-Leader"
tags:
site_name: "Leader As Servant"
publisher: ""
language: "en-US"
generator: "easyPress Markdown"
generator_version: "1.0.6"
---
> Servant leaders dream great dreams. They must think beyond day-to-day realities
> 
>  [BSA NYLT](https://www.scouting.org/programs/scouts-bsa/resources/nylt/) Syllabus, module Servant Leadership

![Looking out in the distance, dreaming big dreams](https://leader-as-servant.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/pexels-photo-2446683-1024x683.jpeg)Most people get caught up into the present, the urgent, the fire waiting as you engage the group. Yet, the value of many leaders is to build on a larger base, to bring the best to reality.

> Servant leaders seek to nurture their abilities to dream great dreams. The ability to look at a problem or an organization from a conceptualizing perspective means that one must think beyond day-to-day realities. For many leaders, this is a characteristic that requires discipline and practice. The traditional leader is consumed by the need to achieve short-term operational goals. The leader who wishes to also be a servant leader must stretch his or her thinking to encompass broader-based conceptual thinking. Servant leaders are called to seek a delicate balance between conceptual thinking and a day-to-day operational approach.
> 
>  Larry Spears *[Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders](https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/jvl/vol1_iss1/Spears_Final.pdf)*

Conceptualization takes the external [awareness](https://leader-as-servant.com/2020/02/17/servant-leader-principle-4-awareness/) principle and the [listening](https://leader-as-servant.com/2020/02/14/servant-leadership-principle-1-listening/) principle, synthesizes the best from each, and places this vision in front of the group using [persuasion](https://leader-as-servant.com/2020/02/19/servant-leader-principle-5-persuasion/).

I have found it best to take the time to reflect, to pause, or as Larry states, to engage *discipline and practice* to see past the immediate problems toward a good future solution. However, I have also presented a concept far beyond what the group is ready to engage, and found that patience is necessary to realize the goal – it becomes an indicator to me to step more into the operational aspects so I don’t get too “pie in the sky”. Balancing this tension is an important discipline of the servant leader.