Emerging as a Servant Leader

867 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Authentic leadership strength and weakness

Traditional theories of leadership include the great man, power bases, skills approach, style approach, contingency, and path-goal theories. Those are all very objectively based, not looking at the individual’s experiences, wants, needs, and idiosyncrasies. Then the emerging leadership theories came along, viewing leaders as unique individuals, instead of positions within an organization. These theories are relationship-heavy, focusing on the interactions between the leaders and the followers as something fragile, instead of surface-level. There has been a movement within management and leadership theories over the past century that focuses on the intangibles – trust, loyalty, respect, etc. of leadership. One that is gaining popularity is servant leadership.

The trait approach looks at who the leader is, the skill approach is what the leader can do, and the style approach is why the leader does what he/she does. Servant leadership looks at the leader’s motives. This paper will discuss servant leadership and how it is applicable in today’s society.

Religion and Servant Leadership

According to the emerging theories, leaders are those who work with and for others instead of barterers looking to gain something out of an efficient transaction. Individuals who work unaccompanied are not servant leaders because they do not put others first; they could be power leaders who are focused on gaining power or material possessions, according to servant leadership founder Robert Greenleaf (What is servant leadership?, 2008).

Servant leadership is based on empowerment, service, and synergy. Greenleaf traces servant leadership’s roots to Christianity (Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power & greatness, ...

... middle of paper ...

...asier said than done, anyone can be a servant leader, religious or not, as long as service truly comes before oneself.

Works Cited

Nihilism. (2010). Retrieved October 18, 2010, from Allaboutphilosophy.org: http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/nihilism.htm

Nihilism. (n.d.). In Encyclopedia. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from Issues & Controversies database

Greenleaf, R. K. (2008). What is servant leadership? Retrieved October 19, 2010, from The robert greenleaf center, inc.: http://www.greenleaf.org/whatissl/

Greenleaf, R. K. (2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power & greatness. New Jersey: Paulist Press.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2007). The leadership challenge. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Wallace, J. R. (2007). Servant leadership: A worldview perspective. International journal of leadership studies, 114-132.

Show More
Related

  • Southwest Airlines: Servant Leadership

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    Servant leadership, as defined by Kretiner and Kinkicki (2015, p.486), is putting the needs of others, including employees, customers, and community ahead of one’s own needs. This management style requires selflessness and humility from management so the organization can focus on serving key stakeholders. There are ten characteristics of a servant-leader as identified in the text

    Read More

  • The Human Resources Framework By Bolman And Deal

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that augments the lives of individuals, builds better organizations, and creates a more just and caring world, they put the team first, and themselves second (MindTools, 2015). Servant leaders are able to demonstrate their traits through interaction with followers and other leaders within the organization. The characteristics of servant leaders include their commitment to the growth of people, stewardship, and building community, and provide leaders with the opportunity to experience change and to invite followers to change (Savage-Austin & Honeycutt 2011). Servant leadership encourages leaders and followers to ‘raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality’, and set their leadership focus: follower’s first, organizations second, their own needs last (Sendjaya, Sarros, & Santora, 2008). The servant leader focuses on the needs of others to include team members.

    Read More

  • Greenleaf’s The Servant Leader

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Servant Leader discusses the importance of leaders who adopt a service oriented attitude in which they care for the needs of others before their own. A servant leader need not be an actual servant or have ever been a servant to become a servant leader. Rather, a servant leader is born with or adopts an “others first” disposition. Climbing through the ranks may help to create a servant leader, though it is not necessary. When leaders choose to see that the needs of their followers or their organizations are the highest priority they become servants.

    Read More

  • Authentic Leadership Style Vs Servant Leadership

    71 Words  | 1 Pages

    Servant leadership is defined as a philosophy that one carry outs to supplement the lives of others and shape organizations to become better. In order to become a servant leader, you have to first become a servant. One must be want to serve first. There’s a difference between servant leadership and an authentic leadership style. The impression of servant leadership can be traced back to have started two thousand years

    Read More

  • The Servant As Leader, The Servant, And Lead Like Jesus

    1454 Words  | 3 Pages

    Servant leadership is becoming a more “sought-after” concept in today’s society, but what exactly is servant leadership? Does it mean different things to different people? Although the three books, The Servant as Leader, The Servant, and Lead Like Jesus, all center around servant leadership, each author takes a different perspective on the meaning of being a servant leader. Robert Greenleaf addresses leadership from a straight-forward stance; saying that a good leader must be a servant-first by finding the will within themselves to put the needs of their group before their own. James Hunter discusses servant leadership through a story involving everyday people that the reader can relate to. He uses Jesus as a guide to explain how to initiate character development that will, in turn, fashion servant leadership. Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges offer a new perspective on servant leadership by bringing Jesus into the picture on an even deeper level than Hunter. They explain that by knowing Jesus Christ and developing an intimate personal

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Leadership

    1549 Words  | 4 Pages

    Servant leadership is an approach that goes against most leadership styles because it has the lead being the servant to their followers. This style of leadership wants the leader to be focused on the needs of their followers, empower their followers, and help realize their full capabilities.

    Read More

  • Servant Leaderships: Transformational Leadership And Contrivant Leadership

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    The two most intriguing leadership styles presented in the readings were transformational leadership and servant leadership. Both leadership styles are relationship-oriented, that is, in order for these leadership styles to be effective, positive relationships must exist between leaders and followers. Also, both leadership styles reject the role of leader as being reserved for those individuals in designated positions of power, but rather a quality that may be exhibited by any individual (Kelly, 2012, pp. 10-11). However, the differing goals of each leadership style is the seemingly critical factor that separates transformational leadership from servant leadership.

    Read More

  • Critique on the Book The Leadership Challenge

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kouzes, J., & Posner, B., (2007). The leadership challenge, (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-

    Read More

  • Leadership In Servant Leadership

    938 Words  | 2 Pages

    Servant leadership can be thought of as an inverted triangle where the leader is supporting the organization at the point. As a result of this leadership style, leaders are more in tune with their teams. They have more insight on their team and the inner workings of their organizations.

    Read More

  • A Personal Model of Leadership

    1292 Words  | 3 Pages

    Servant leadership was a term that was first used by Keifner Greenleaf(1970) in his first essay, The Servant as Leader (as cited by Crippen, C., 2005). Greenleaf based his essay on his belief that a servant leader is a servant first, and explained that it would begin with the natural urge to serve and then the leader would make a conscious choice to become a leader, in doing so he makes the choice to ensure that others needs are met first (2005 ). As a servant leader develops he should always keep aware of those who he serves and strive to ensure that they are becoming healthier, wiser, freer, have an increase in autonomous, and are become more like servants themselves (2005). Leaders and organizations can use the principles of servant leadership to frame decisions, and service that include focus on the community, care of others and quality services (Waterman, R., 2011). Watermen states that working to higher purpose increases standards, integrity and should lead the followers through supports, shared visions and bring followers together in toward a common purpose to provide service to others.

    Read More

  • Servant Leadership From a Christian Perspective

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wilkes, C. G. Jesus on Leadership: Timeless Wisdom on Servant Leadership. Carol Stream, Illnois: Tyndale House, 1998.

    Read More

  • Inspiring a Shared Vision

    1728 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The Leadership Challenge (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA 94103-1741: Jossey-Bass.

    Read More

  • The Leadership Challenge

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary

    Read More

  • The 3 Levels of Discipleship Taught by Jesus Christ

    1546 Words  | 4 Pages

    Chung, Y. (2011). Why servant leadership? Its uniqueness and principles in the life of Jesus. Journal Of Asia Adventist Seminary, 14(2), 159-170.

    Read More

  • Importance of Leadership in an Organization

    1833 Words  | 4 Pages

    Melchar, David and Susan Bosco. “Achieving High Organization Performance through Servant Leadership.” The Journal of Business Inquiry 9.1 (2010):74-88. http://www.uvu.edu/woodbury/jbi/volume9/journals/achieving_high_organization_performance_through_servant_leadership.pdf

    Read More

More about Emerging as a Servant Leader

Open Document