Servant Leadership, Authentic Leadership, and Race-Ethnicity and Gender Social Identity
Effective leadership, commonly regarded as both a learned skill and innate ability, is an essential characteristic of successful organizations (Northouse, 2016). Great leaders are said to define purpose, create a vision for the future, set high ethical standards, and guide their organizations through many circumstances and into new directions (Morrill, 2007; Parris & Peachey, 2012). Leadership is also described as complex – it can mean different things to different people. Given there is no standard approach to leadership, scholars focus on the process of leadership as opposed to the definition (Northouse, 2016). As a process, leadership is not simply possessing
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2011). Business Ethics: Ethical decision making (8th ed.). Retrieved from Mason, OH
...at creativity and with the strong wisdom of purposes. In fact, there is not easy to become successful entrepreneurs, even though there are many entrepreneurs achieved the global success. Most of the successful entrepreneurs share the common characteristics other than creativity and a strong sense of purpose like plan of attack, a network of support, risk takers, discipline and so on. Once you wish to be the next successful entrepreneur like Coco Chanel and Anita Roddick, you should possess those characteristics. Moreover, the moral values also very important in any business. Just like what Anita Roddick said business not only for self profit but also for others, for instance, environment good, and humanity care and animals concern. Last but not least, be confidence and never give up likewise Coco Chanel and Anita Roddick, you would able to attain the successes.
The Ins and Outs of Ethics is a Business Week Online magazine article from May 13, 2001, it was written by Eric Wahlgren. In the article he interviews Michael Rion, the author of The Responsible Manager. Rion is also a leading business ethics advisor who consults many Standard and Poor’s 500 companies. In the article Wahlgren asks Rion why it is important for businesses to have a high ethical standard. In his responses, Rion explains that effective organizations utilize ethics programs to clearly define ethical expectations, resolve ethical issues quickly, and to remove moral constraints. Additionally, employees who understand how to deal with ethical dilemmas will also be more productive and have strong core values to guide them. According to scripture, Rions concepts are biblically sound, relevant, and desirable, proving that ethical organizational behavior is shaped and influenced by sound ethical principles.
Benchmark – Servant Leadership and Christianity
Servant Leadership is a leadership style that have been around since Jesus introduced it during his teaching. His style have been tried again and it has proved to work. Different organizations have gravitated to this style of leadership and they have become one of the biggest companies in the United States of America. Example of the company that practice Servant leadership is Southwest Airlines. Southwest Airlines management have practiced servant leadership style that it is now their motto.
As implied by its name, servant leadership can be defined as “providing leadership that focuses on the good of those who are being led and those whom the organization serves’’ (Hamilton & Nord, 2005, p. 875). Greenleaf (2002) suggests that as opposed to being the central focus of the group, servant leadership places the leader in alignment with the group, allowing for support and resources to be allocated to its members. Moreover, servant leaders act as organizational directors, fostering a sense of community between organizational members (Greenleaf, 1977). In contrast to the traditional top-down paradigm of leadership, the servant leader is placed at the bottom of the hierarchy (Rieke, Hammermeister, & Chase, 2008), thereby allowing for the needs of followers to be met. The major focus of this approach to leadership is to encourage the growth, autonomy, and learning of followers, which in turn will influence and enhance future organizational leadership and growth (Bass, 2000). Through behaviors such as empathizing and nurturing followers, the servant leader places the concerns of his or her followers at the forefront, allowing them to reach their own personal capabilities (Northouse, 2012). Moreover, an overarching theme of servant leadership is the ethical behavior the leaders exhibits toward followers (Walumbwa, Hartnell, & Oke, 2010). That is, the servant leader possesses a sincere concern for the well-being of followers (Caldwell et al., 2011). Thus, this brand of leadership focuses on the altruistic behaviors of the leader and the effects that these behaviors have on the followers.
When stepping into a leadership role, one must have values, morals, and standards. These characteristics are not taught but developed over time. Servant Leaders must be happy with one self in order to leader others or having the expectations of having followers to develop them in to future leaders or believe in. One must have the characteristics of courage, humility, competency, mentoring, decision making, citizenship, and reflection. Being an educator or role model requires having the skills of a servant leadership is important.
What motivates me is the ability to touch the lives of those I work with and those I meet; if I do not see my job as actually helping people, it is pointless to me. I understand that what you do may not directly impact people in some cases but in our society today we too frequently focus on the people on the front lines—we should focus on people in the back lines as well. That is particularly what motivates me; helping people who are serving behind the scenes so they can do their jobs better; that helps the people on the front lines be able to function better and makes everyone feel more appreciative.
The servant leader is deeply rooted in the study of leadership theory. The very basic premise of leadership was derived from the ideology of a servant leader. Ethical, servant, spiritual and authentic leadership can have a profound impact on the lives of subordinates and the destiny of an organization. A true servant leader can be found in any institution, from the military to the smallest industries in the private sector. The heart and spirit of a servant leader has the capacity to drive an organization to new heights with the potential to surpass the outlook of said organization’s vision. The servant leader is not as popular as it once was, yet we see how effective they can be on both large and small scales. Dating back to early, servant
A servant leadership style is a positive way to influence behavior by providing direction, motivation and guidance. It involves one taking initiative and leading or showing by example. Also, the leader needs to provide his or her subordinates a sense of purpose that their part is integral to the success of the organization. Furthermore, the importance of trust is insurmountable. If there is no trust then only a week leader exists. A leader needs to build a foundation where the employees have the opportunity to grow, learn and advance (Bell & Goldsmith, 2013). This foundation starts with a leader taking risks and implementing decisions in stressful situations. To handle the situations, the leader should posses a set of strong core values that compliment their leadership traits and attributes. Some of the main core values include loyalty, duty, respect, honor, honesty, integrity, humility, selflessness, motivation etc. The qualities that an effective leader possesses can be different, but there are learned skills and core values that must exist regardless of the leadership style used.