Servant Leadership, a term coined and defined by Robert Greenleaf in 1970, is a philosophy and practice of leadership most closely resembling a participative leadership style. As a new graduate from college in the mid-1920's, Greenleaf went to work for AT&T as an executive and was put in charge of management development and research for the company. He felt strongly that the authoritarian leadership style so prominent in American institutions was not working and in 1964, upon early retirement, founded the Center for Applied Ethics.
It's a simple idea with many implications. Servant Leadership has been hailed by many leadership gurus including Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, Warren Bennis, Margaret Wheatley, and Ken Blanchard, to name a few. Peter
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In this philosophy, the leader is the servant and enjoys the resources of the people. In our culture that is the same as saying employees are valued, encouraged and empowered to cultivate and have a positive influence on the direction of the company.
Janice Branch, a Senior Training Consultant for InterAction Training is a passionate believer in the Servant Leadership concept. As a former trainer for a telephone company, she experienced the powerful benefits of this approach to employer/employee relations. When Servant Leadership was introduced at her company, she embraced the concept and was an integral team member in successfully integrating this new culture within that organization.
"It's about listening to the people in the ranks," she said. "The lines of hierarchy become flattened. Everyone is expected and encouraged to take on a leadership/ownership role. No one person-no matter title-is more important to the company's success than another. And that leads to better decisions; contributions-no matter how large or how minor-are valued, and it promotes harmony and camaraderie between staff and
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’
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.
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.
purpose for this book is dual. First goal is clearly defining servant leadership and second one is
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
After reading various essays and commentaries on servant leadership I thought about a criticism of the theory that wasn't addressed in the readings. Are servant leaders taken advantage of and in certain instances seen as pushovers rather than true leaders? If we review the basic concept of servant leadership, my definition would be a leader who does what’s necessary to ensure his followers are successful. Is this what you really want from a leader? In my opinion that answer is no, you want a leader to exhibit these “I will help you by all means” characteristics in certain situations, but not all of the time. If this is done all of the time I see this “leader” as a targeted pushover. The lesson commentary referenced the role of parenthood as an example of servant leadership. “Parents serve their children’s needs so that the children can develop into healthy adults…so that they can help their own children develop” (Lesson 11 Commentary, p. 2 Houston). For us parents out there, we know that this can be a slippery slope. If you always come to the rescue of the child, they will not learn ...
The modern use of the term servant leader derives from the act of servant leadership which has been around for many ages, but was made a final common phrase when Robert K. Greenleaf wrote his essay called "The Servant as Leader". Robert used this term to represent someone who has a natural feeling to serve others as well as someone who aspires to lead. People can now use the philosophy of leadership to try and pinpoint characteristics and behaviors that can further determine if someone should be named a servant leader. Individuals who are called to represent themselves as servant leaders better the world by setting a positive impression on young children who are growing up in a society where they are only expected to take care of themselves.
Servant leaders are servants first, have a genuine want to serve others, and ultimately make a conscious decision to lead others (Greenleaf, Senge, Covey, & Spears, 2002)Click and drag to move. Servant leadership is based upon twelve unique principles that ultimately improve the wellbeing of the followers and the community (Greenleaf et al., 2002)Click and drag to move. Many great leaders utilize a multitude of these principles to help motivate, influence, and lead others. Individuals that exhibit servant leadership qualities, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., possess skills and qualities that help motivate others and driven by a sense of a higher calling (Northouse, 2016)Click and drag to move.
According to Northouse (2013), “Servant leadership is an approach focusing on leadership from the point of view of the leader and his or her behaviors” (p. 219). The servant leadership approach was designed to put subordinates first and to build and develop them to the personal capacities. There are ten characteristics of s Servant leader: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of the people and building community. The model consists of three components: antecedent conditions, servant leader behaviors and outcomes. An effective leader puts their subordinates first; they are honest, trustworthy and supportive in order to get the staff to work to their full potential.
Over this past semester, VUSM 101 Leading by Serving has taught me about many values. These values include Franciscan Values, Viterbo Values, Servant Leadership, and my own Personal Values. This class also taught me that each person has their own values and those values are what make you unique. These values also influence what gifts a person has. I have discovered that by evaluating my core values, I am able to interpret the gifts that I have received from God and how I will be able to use those gifts throughout my life.
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 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.
Servant leadership is having a heart for others, to want to help in any way they can. To put other people’s needs above yours to help them develop and perform to the best of their ability. Jesus is an example of a servant leader. It states in Matthew 20:28, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. He put our needs above his own!
Many people want to attain and hold influential positions in society whether it would be in the field of science, politics, education, or in public service. However, many people tend to forget how servitude is one of the main life highways to travel in order to arrive at that successful destination called “Leadership.” Nevertheless, there was one man who knew how powerful the concept of servitude was in order to grasp the reigns of successful leadership. Socrates was a phenomenal philosopher, scholar, teacher, and servant. Socrates leadership style was unique in regards to letting students communicate among one another in an articulate theological reasoning process by questioning and probing at one’s belief system in order to seek self-purification.
Servant Leadership means to serve others and to lead. It puts everyone else first teaching to put others before yourself, with this leading qualities emerge. Just being or having leadership qualities doesn’t always work. Most leadership models show possessive towards the better for themselves, some work out while others don’t, mostly I think because the unwillingness to see others before yourself is a hard concept for some to understand and use. You can be a great leader but if you don’t understand servant qualities or serve for the benefit of others your probley not much liked. Most I don’t think know what Servant Leadership is or means, I didn’t until this course opened it up to me.