Servant Leadership Being a leader is treating people the way you want to be treated. Leadership is being the individual you are while working on influencing others. Being a good leader consists of several characteristics. (Hunter, 1998, p. XVII). Some characteristics include empathy, committing to the growth of others, and most of all, being a good listener. Leadership roles aren’t always consisting of individuals at the top of organizations, people aren’t always good leaders, and it’s an influence process. . Hunter (1998) goes into great detail throughout his writing, that the foundation of servant leadership style is not directly based upon power, however more relates to authority. This paper explores the various characteristics of servant …show more content…
(Hunter, 1998, p.112). When practicing the servant leadership style, empathizing or understanding of individuals is very important. By doing such leaders can continue to build person growth and help contribute to an environment that individuals can reach their goals effectively. Helping and committing to the growth of others allows them to fill complete and fulfilled. (Hunter, 1998, p.110). Servant Leadership In Nursing Empathy, Commitment to personal growth, and listening are all characteristics of servant leadership that can be used and applied in the professional field of nursing. Nurses in the field provide leadership roles daily, whether in the position or not, many roles nurses play provide these characteristics for both themselves and patients. Nurses as Servant Leaders to Other Nurses and Patients Nurse-Patient Nurses play a critical role on patient’s health; the relationship that a nurse and patient develop can in some cases be life altering. Applying these characteristics and being a servant leader to patients establishes life long impressions and makes critical difference in treatment allowing for optimal care to be received. Always listen to patients concerns, be empathetic in their concerns, and help while committing to their personal growth, one never knows whom they are actually a leader for. Some individuals look up to nurses and count …show more content…
I believe that the importance of being a servant leader is huge, and very respectable. After reading I realize that what I used to think of as a “leader” or “manager” wasn’t necessarily what it actually is. The roles of being a leader are important even if your not at the top of an organization, implementation of this leadership style can be done even as a new graduate. When I become a nurse I believe I will use what I have learned form this book in my practice. I really enjoyed reading the servant and I think it was important to learn how being a leader impacts lives. I no longer believe that leaders should just sit in an office and tell people what to do, like many think they do. The servant leadership style has shown me that a leader should always try to help do everything they can so that their team members can be successful and working at their highest potential. Although I never though I would want the responsibility of being a leader this has taught me that its important to always be a good leader, even if your not in a “position” that requires you to be. People look up to your leading example even when you don’t think they do, its important to implement and learn new skills
Hunter shed light on the topic of servant leadership, which is one I was unfamiliar with until reading this book. This book opened my eyes to the importance of servant leadership and demonstrated ways it will serve me in my career as a nurse. Although servant leadership embodies many characteristics, I believe that the qualities of greatest importance are discussed within this paper. One point the book touched on that resonated with me was the meaning of love as a verb. I had never thought of love in that way, but I think it is an important concept that should be applied to leadership. My goal for my future is to learn to love others through my actions. I hope to accomplish this by establishing trust and demonstrating commitment, and remaining respectful and appreciative of each member of my team by maintaining a sense of humility. I expect that doing this will aid me in forming meaningful relationships throughout my life and help me become an effective servant
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
3). Through the service of others, servants as leaders create positive changes in the lives of others that lead those served to act more autonomously (Block, Blanchard, Wheatley & Autry, 2006). The goal of a service leader is to help others achieve their highest level of functioning. Those served are then motivated to become service leaders as well (Block, Blanchard, Wheatley & Autry, 2006). Thus, servant leadership focuses on commitment to helping the individual served grow in their abilities. In turn this gives the served individual confidence in their work and personal abilities which then transforms into a desire to help others do the
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.
They are influenced by their family of origin, their education, their work experience, and the people they interact with. For Ms. Eckert this has all brought her to her current career position and approach to leadership. She holds leadership not only as the challenge and difficult task that many people today see it as. She also views it as an amazing opportunity to influence others. Ms. Eckert also noted the importance of coaching others, both in their nursing development, and in their leadership potential. This is particularly important as we are facing rapid change within the nursing field. There should be a certain amount of mentorship to learn from those who have experience and to develop one’s own skill. For Ms. Eckert some of the main elements she discussed as contributing to a strong leader are the willingness to coach others, emotional intelligence, a sense of spirituality, valuing diversity, and openness to change and innovation. It should then be the hope of future nurses to emulate this idea of leadership and personal growth as members of the healthcare
Whether it is in healthcare or in a corporate office, leadership is about having a vision and making it into a reality (Parker & Hyrask, 2011). In healthcare with all the changes that are constantly happening it is imperative that our leaders in nursing continue to evolve and continue to prioritize in their nursing units. To continue to embrace your career as a nurse leader it is essential to always make sure they have professional development and continue to provide great care for all their patients (Parker & Hyrask, 2011). This all needs to be done while they lead their staff and continue to have fiscal responsibility. To be a leader in the nursing field one must possess certain characteristics such as assertiveness
Servant Leadership, found in Chapter Ten of the text Leadership: Theory and Practice, is a paradoxical approach to leadership. It begins with the innate desire to serve first, and then lead through servant hood. Servant Leadership, originating in the early 1970s, is similar to the skills and styles approach, focusing on leadership from the leader’s viewpoint and his behavior under the leadership. Under this style of leadership, the leaders are considerate of the followers needs, empathizing with and having compassion for the followers. A servant leader feels a social responsibility to the less privileged and is concerned with inequality among the followers. Through servant leadership, a servant leader will attempt to correct these social injustices and by enabling and empowering the followers while helping the followers in developing valuable personal skills. Servant leaders are ethical, projecting strong moral behavior towards the followers, taking leadership paths that serve the greater good of an organization, the community and even society as a whole.
Leadership is a human engagement activity. It connotes the idea of someone being superior to the other. Leadership can be seen as the practice of small actions that can engage or alienate, nourish or deplete those around us. Others often mistake a leader to have the same title as a “manager.” The difference between the two terms is evident in the popular statement. A leader deals with people while a manager deals with paper. Leadership is considered a unique function also. It can be especially delegated or it can simply arise in a certain group. In the nursing context, the leader is a visionary with a concentration of time and effort who looks outward to how the unit, organization, or profession can go forward (Daly, et. al., 2004). Leadership is also considered a natural element in nursing practice because majority of nurses work in group or units. When an individual receives the license of an ...
There are many different styles of leadership, which include authoritarian, benevolent dictatorship, and participatory to name a few (Page and Wong, 2000). The model everyone is trying to emulate and make a framework for is servant leadership. Servant leadership is being incorporated into organizations because it has the ability to combine personality characteristics and human performance together to function over time (Page and Wong, 2000). This leadership involves a change in thinking from previous styles.
Before reading about characteristics of servant leadership, I tried thinking about what I already knew about this type of leadership. Some of the thoughts I had were: leaders put others before themselves and leaders go beyond their responsibilities to help others. When I read Chapter 7 from The Special Education Teacher as a Servant Leader, I found that I was correct but did not have the full answer.
Greenleaf “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.” Servant leaders put the needs of the employee first, they do not focus on themselves. A priority is put on meeting the needs of employees rather than one’s self. An example of such leadership in a hypothetical environment would be if a leader helped all team members first instead of himself. A servant leader would be a good listener, must be able to set a vison for employees and trust them. Although servant leadership is unorthodox as it’s difficult to use in an operation and apply in everyday situations. As Greenleaf (1977) stated “it is meant to be neither a scholarly treatise nor a how-to-do-it manual” (p.49). Servant leadership is very different from current views in organizations where often times they put the organizations profits before the individual. One can only hope this theory and model becomes more widely
Effective leadership relies on the ability to influence other and is important to the success and longevity of an organization. I believe that a servant style of leadership is most closely aligned with my beliefs. Servant leaders believe that “people can accomplish much when inspired by a purpose beyond themselves” (Economy, 2015). As an educational leader I will remind teachers that our purpose is prepare student’s for their future whether they are headed for college or a career. To play a role in the growth and development of another person is an honorable task.
A good nurse leader needs to be dedicated to the task assigned to her. She needs to work with all devotion together with her followers to ensure that the task are well completed and are carried out appropriately.
However, there is a competing goal to lower cost but increase the value of the care provided (Trastek, Hamilton & Niles, 2014). In order to achieve these goals it is important that health care providers be trained in leadership so that they can provide the most effective care possible for their patients (Trastek, Hamilton & Niles, 2014). Of the many leadership styles available, the one most suited to fit health care from a nursing perspective is servant leadership because of the ingrained idea of serving people as a nurse (van Dierendonck & Patterson, 2015). It is often times considered to be one of the driving factors for people entering the nursing field to serve patients to enable them the best opportunities to regain or maintain wellness (Trastek, Hamiliton & Niles,
Servant leaders often emulate other leaders that they admire and look to for guidance. Being a good role model also teaches students. Being a leader will require a lot of listening. My followers will look for answers to the questions that they have. Listening and problem solving will be require a large amount of