Servant Leadership
Servant leadership consists of leaders helping their followers become leaders themselves. The use personal skills such as empathy, compassion and listening to help their followers succeed. It is not necessarily the most popular form of leadership but, it has been proven successful b those leaders who implement it in their work practices. Servant leaders typically have a strong bond with their team. They are the base and the foundation of their teams.
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.
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The interactive process between leaders and followers involves utilizing listening and communication skills (Northouse,2013). Leaders in servant leadership listen first and use empathy to better understand their followers. Empathy is the ability to better understand an individual by placing yourself in their shoes. Having this ability allows the follower to feel validated and worthy (Northouse, 2013). by finding solutions to personal problems a follower may have, is offering support. Awareness, or emotional intelligence, is another trait a servant leader possesses. Leaders must be aware of how their actions affect their followers. This can be how they dress or their correspondence in an email Northouse, 2013).
Persuasion is a servant leadership quality. Persuasion involves coaxing without forceful coercion (Northouse, 2013). Conceptualization is a visualization process that helps the leader prepare for complex organizational problems. This is a concept leader take on. Taking on responsibility as a leader is called stewardship. Servant leaders must have foresight, looking toward the future in order predict the future of their
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Sinek tells us about owner of a manufacturing company, Bob Chapman. His company was hit by the 2008 recession, losing more than 30% of their purchase orders in one night. They were ten million dollars in debt. Chapman stayed true to the model of servant leadership, he refused to lay off any of his workers. Instead, Chapman announced that he would not be cutting jobs, Bob announced that he would rather everyone suffer a little, than to have one person suffer a lot; and inducted a furlough program. All employees of the organization, CEO to floor workers were required to take a four-week unpaid vacation. Chapman trusted that the servant leadership style would work and maximized his benefits. The employees maximized their benefits and turned the organization around (PSU, 2014). They recovered more than double of their lost revenue (PSU, 2014).
Servant leadership is a perplexing theory. It takes on radical ideas like a lifetime employment policy, or employee-wide furlough, to illustrate how putting the leader at the service of their employees can result in efficient leadership. “When individuals engage in servant leadership, it is likely to improve outcomes at the individual, organizational, and societal levels (PSU, 2014)". The servant leadership actions of Charlie Kim and Bob Chapman depict how the proper use of servant leadership creates trust, and inspires productivity; benefiting their organization, their employees, and
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
There has been a bit of research done on the nature of servant leadership. The belief is that many organizations are moving from the traditional style of leadership to a more servant based style. Larry C. Spears (2010) and Kent Keith (2016) note a few characteristics of one who is a servant leader. The characteristics proposed by Spears (2010) are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to others growth, and community building. These traits will often manifest naturally becoming more enriched as time goes by through experience. Keith (2016) references only four elements of servant leadership. He begins with an element of morality, then of the servant focus, concern for others’
They acknowledge people’s perspectives, and give them the support needed to meet their goals. Servant leaders involve members when decisions are appropriate helping build a stronger commitment within the team. Strong qualities of servant leadership are trust, appreciation for others, and empowerment. Honesty and integrity form the moral foundation of effective leadership through the four values of truth telling, promise
The importance of servant leadership should not be underestimated and it can be simplified and embodied in one timeless phrase: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. When applied to leadership the result can be phenomenal. Those who wish to serve do so with their hearts, it is not forced nor is it with resentment. The servant leader serves out of acceptance and ownership of their ability and duty.
Primary service is the key. Many view this as a contradiction because the leader is leading and serving. How can a person do both? Good servant leaders are good listeners. The communication between the leader and the follower being served allows the leader to listen to the follower first, in order to understand what the other person has to say and to understand their needs. These leaders practice empathy as well. Understanding what the follower is facing or feeling is comforting to the follower because it validates their importance to another person. The ability to heal a person through care and the concern for a person’s well being is another quality of a servant leader. These are only a few of the characteristics that generate a strong servant leader. Mother Teresa said, “The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.” Her words describe exactly what servant leaders do. Servant leaders serve others willingly because they find joy and pleasure in doing so. The outcome of serving others in this manner is growth and social impacts for a greater good. When there is an improvement in self-actualization, followers improve in their goal reaching or task completion by understanding their full potential to do
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
The quality of any organization that uses servant leadership improves, because of the organization’s continuous efforts on development. These efforts help create more efficient, content, empowered and innovative teams to generate more profitability (Schmidt, 2013). Starbucks’ employee satisfaction rate has increased and they have markedly grown since 2014 with their attempt to build a community by offering the free college tuition (Business Wire,
Leading by example is the main idea. Servant leaders do not want to be in the first line and they prefer to guide their employees from a distance. They distinguish because of their personality, their behavior and their values. The only disadvantage is that in a competitive financial environment it is difficult from them to be recognized.
With will, one can align their intentions with actions in order to make intentions understood while inspiring others to do the same. By choosing to love and respect others, servant leaders are able to put the needs of others into actions and take into account how they can better serve. Finally, servant leadership would not be possible without making sacrifices in order to better compensate the needs of others. Previously, I had the notion that leaders are those in a powerful position that barked orders in order to get tasks done. However, taking a closer look I have realized that there are several other qualities that go into becoming a powerful leader. Those leaders with the will, love and sacrifice to serve others make better leaders throughout the community, inspiring others to follow and creating other servant leaders in their
Leaders instead share their power will their followers, which empowers everyone and leads to success. According to Wong and Page, there are four components of measuring servant leadership, which include; “character- orientation, people-orientation, task-orientation, and process-orientation” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 3). “Character-orientation is concerned with cultivating a servant’s attitude, focusing on the leader’s values, credibility and motive” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 3). “People-orientation is concerned with developing human resources, focusing on the leader’s relationship with people and his/her commitment to develop others” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 3). “Task-orientation is concerned with achieving productivity and success, focusing on the leader’s tasks and skills necessary for success” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 3).
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.
The idea of leadership, and particularly the idea of servant leadership is one that I’ve had vested interest in. Servant leadership is discussed frequently in Christian theology, being held in high regard. It often described in the form of certain morals while in a leadership position. A good definition could be: to take on a servant mindset while a leader. However, my main experience with leadership, and thus this idea, is not with the church but with the boy scouts.
The notion of a servant as a leader or “servant-leadership” has come to be known, and is purposefully in nature. It is a unique style of leadership ideology which flows against the grain of self-interest human behavior. The main idea of servant-leadership should be typical a hierarchy where employees serve their bosses. In contrast, leaders serve their people. This is the the foundation for leaders to lead others effectively. According to Greenleaf (1998), “the need for a better approach to leadership, one that puts serving others—including employees, customers, and community—as the number one priority. Servant-leadership emphasizes increased service to others, a holistic approach to work, promoting a sense of community, and the sharing of power in decision making.” Servant-leadership’s management philosophy help leads and inspire others to achieve superior organizational
Effects of Servant Leadership on Company Morale The health of an organization is directly linked to the well-being of the company’s employees. A motivated workforce is able to outperform disengaged or disgruntled workers, provided the same circumstances exist. Researchers have determined that authoritarian leadership styles are not well suited to today’s workforce, and can have negative impacts on productivity.
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