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Essay on servant leaders
Essay on servant leaders
Servant leadership compares and contrasts to other forms of leadership
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Leadership is a concept that many probably think is a clear-cut subject that is well understood and extremely recognizable. Most would likely picture an all-powerful person in a position with great authority, such as a chief executive officer (CEO) of a company or a leader of a country. These individuals, would commonly be identified as obvious examples of people who have qualities, skills, or traits that have set themselves apart from “the common man” and propelled them into the positions they now hold. It would probably surprise many, then, to find out that leadership is not as obvious a concept as commonly perceived. In fact, as these individuals begin to study the numerous theories and studies on leadership, a picture obscure and nonsensical …show more content…
His name was Robert Greenleaf (1904-1990) and he was a pioneer of what has become a commonly known and widely used strategy among some of the most influential leaders. This theory has come to be known as Servant Leadership. A broad description of servant leadership in Greenleaf’s own words is a follows: “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p. 6). Obviously, this theory places a high level of importance on leaders helping their followers achieve goals by giving them the tools and knowledge necessary to …show more content…
During an interview, Covey was asked what he believed effective leadership looked like. Covey’s response was, “My definition of leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.” (Covey, The Leader Formula: The 4 Things That Make A Good Leader, 2007). Communication, inspiring, motivating, being authentic, and honesty are all qualities of an effective leader that would help “inspire” followers to reach for the stars and achieve greatness in Covey’s
The topic of leadership has been explored and written about by thousands of authors who are considerably more qualified than I am to write about the subject. However, I’ve always maintained that developing, evolving and articulating one’s own leadership philosophy is an essential part of a professional’s growth. Through academics and experience, I’ve concluded that leadership is a “soft” skill, more art than science, and that leadership principles can be universally applied. As a topic of discussion, leadership can be ambiguous and seldom does everyone agree on a single definition. Organizations and the people they consist of crave leadership, even if not overtly. Undeniably, strong leadership is essential to achieving
The basic philosophy of servant leadership can be traced back through centuries. From Greek philosophers like Plato, to religious figures such as Jesus, all have been credited as sources that servant leadership has drawn from. Even Sir Francis Bacon was quoted “Men in great place are thrice servants, servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame and servants of business.” (valeri) While there are traces of servant leadership all over ancient coulters, Robert K Greenleaf is credited as the first modern philosopher introducing the topic we identify as servant leadership. (valeri) Through Greenleaf’s writings, we now have a clear text that lays the groundwork allowing us to understand what a servant leader is.
An effective leader is a person who is capable of making others follow him. A person who leads people becomes a leader. The quality of life of followers depends upon the quality of leader they have, so, it becomes important for a leader to be effective. Leaders possess certain traits that can be defined as relatively coherent and integrated patterns of personal characteristics, reflecting a range of individual differe...
A leader can be defined as a person who influences a group of people, organization, etc. in to achieving a set out or common goal. The aim of this paper is to identify the different approaches to leadership, but there is no single definition of leadership, as it can mean many different things to many people depending of their profession, environment and leadership style (Mielach, 2012).
Leadership has been written about millions of times in the past, and heading in the future, it will be the topic of many debates, books and newspaper articles asking, and in some cases answering the question, “What is leadership?” According to Peter Drucker: “leadership is lifting a person’s vision, raising his performance and building personality”.
“Leaders come in every size, shape, and disposition-short, tall, neat, sloppy, young, old, male, and female” (Bennis, 2009, p. 33). Unlike Johnson (2011), Bennis (2009) proposes additional components to leadership. First, there must be a vision. A leader has to have a well-defined direction and purpose. They must understand not only the direction they will take, but also the steps to achieve the stated objectives. The vision must be articulat...
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
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
From corporations to nonprofits and higher education institutions, leaders – the cornerstone and foundation of organizations – are ultimately responsible for its success. Nonetheless, leadership, often described as complex, can mean different things to different people. Given no standard approach to leadership exists, scholars focus on the process of leadership as opposed to the definition (Northouse, 2013). As a process, leadership is not simply possessing formal authority, traits, or attributes. Quite the reverse, leadership is primarily a relationship – engagement and interactive exchange – between leaders and followers (Morrill, 2007; Northouse, 2013). Effective leadership, commonly regarded as both a learned skill and innate ability, is
Leadership is a process by which an individual influences others to accomplish a mutual objective and most scholars can agree that leadership can be defined as the nature of the influencing process. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and ski...
Most cultures I find relate in many ways. They all display characteristics of servant leadership. I discovered that the Indian culture holds one to moral and ethics within the culture and religion. In a mirror image of Christians, Indians believe that your destiny is base off the seeds one sows while here on earth. The Indian culture does not recognize their beliefs and morals as servant leadership and have a different way of presenting the concept. One of the ways that one will find that servant leadership is presented different is in their religious practice of Hindu. Over all the Indian culture diverse context and religion
Perhaps the most important qualities of a leader are passion and motivation. Especially when leading a group for a particular cause, a leader must be personally attached to that cause. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, is a legendary leader because he fought for a cause that directly affected him. had he not been pushing for a personal reason, his actions would not have been as passionate. This would have caused a lack in motivation, another essential leadership quality. A leader faces many roadblocks and opposition and thus, must be motivated to continue fighting and leading. A leader’s attitude and opinions are valued by the group and therefore, if a leader is motivated, the group will be, too. The continued actions and successes, no matter how small, which move the group closer to its goal also help its motivation and drive.
Stroup, J. (2004). Managing leadership: toward a new and usable understanding of what leadership is and how to manage it. Lincoln, NE. iUniverse, Inc. Retrieved July 20, 2011 from http://managingleadership.com/blog/2008/09/04/great-man-theory/
Leadership is trait that is extremely important in any society. Leadership is known as the way people attempting to make a difference in a situation. However, I believe that it is better said to be a way of influencing others actions. Leadership is usually connected to a great leader that affected his or her followers in a dynamic way. Throughout the semester for my leadership class, I have expanded the knowledge in numerous ways. I now have fully understanding of the purpose and process of leadership to a society. Being a leader one must maintain an image of being the role model. I believe that this is leader should be who is someone who has the ability to influence, encourage, listen, and nurture. They are able to inspire, stimulate, persuade, shape, and have an effect on others.
Many people associate leadership with a specific job title or form of power within an organization. However, through personal experience, I have concluded that leadership can come in many forms and position as well as from multiple sources of roles and job titles both with and without power. Based on the definition of leadership, anyone can be considered a leader as long as they have the ability to influence people to achieve a particular result or goal which benefits the organization or group as a whole. Individuals with a secure sense of self and understanding, acceptance of diversity within an organization tend to be the strongest leaders that not only make others want to follow, but they also encourage other leaders to gravitate to their