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Servant leadership"? How does it differ from other models of leadership
Introduction of servant leadership
Introduction of servant leadership
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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 …show more content…
Toward the end of his book, Hunter shares a phrase with a similar intent of the four domains of Blanchard and Hodges. He writes: “Thoughts become actions, actions become habits, habits become our character, and our character becomes our destiny.” (Hunter, 1998, p. 167). With this quote in mind, Hunter affirms Blanchard and Hodges’s perspective of servant leadership. Both authors concur that by centering one’s life on the love of Jesus Christ, servant leadership will come naturally. When a leader puts their own selfish needs aside and places their trust in God, they will be empowered to spread Christ’s light to all those they meet. Leading in this way mirrors the way Jesus led because it calls for service as a way of
purpose for this book is dual. First goal is clearly defining servant leadership and second one is
Servant leadership is defined as a philosophy that one carry outs to supplement the lives of others and shape organizations to become better. In order to become a servant leader, you have to first become a servant. One must be want to serve first. There’s a difference between servant leadership and an authentic leadership style. The impression of servant leadership can be traced back to have started two thousand years
Servant leadership is an approach that goes against most leadership styles because it has the lead being the servant to their followers. This style of leadership wants the leader to be focused on the needs of their followers, empower their followers, and help realize their full capabilities.
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
To compare Servant leadership with other types of leaderships, Dierendonck discussed in ( Dierendonck, 2011) many other leaderships types. None of them had the character that servant leadership had, the one that stood out was true-self. Servant leaders will show humility by acknowledging that they do not have all the answers, and by that they create a working environment where followers feel trusted. It is the relationships with the followers that build the leader. Servant leadership has a unique position as none of any other type of leadership puts all six characters
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.
Introduction Through identification and ongoing assessment of her leadership style and ability, this leader is able to develop and understand her own strengths and limitations in order to grow and develop into a more effective leader. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of servant leadership, contingency, and path-goal styles of leadership to gain an understanding of current leadership models, identify this author’s style of leadership, and explore why leadership is important to organizations, society, and this author. A Personal Model of Leadership 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 autonomy, and become more like servants themselves (2005).
The author called out for servant leadership for long-term success for all stakeholders. Similar to other professions leader needs to hone their abilities to be effective in their leadership role. To find a purpose in what you achieve besides money, power, and fame resonates with the True North. A leader should act in the best interests of the organization that would lead to a greater good. To have a balance between IQ and EQ will lead to leadership with the True North. Passion, compassion, empathy, and courage matters the heart decisions are important components of the True North. To develop as a worthy human being, a leader must become self aware, integrated human being, and comfortable being his/herself. In addition a leader with the True North moves from I to we, is humble, serve customers, empower people, and align personal values with organization’s mission. A leader with True North demonstrates a high degree of integrity and walks his/her talk. A leader with a True North is an integrated leader with fine balance between personal, family, work, and community life. On a similar note, a leader with True North aligns and nourishes their mind, body, and soul.
Many leadership styles exist. The determining factor if a leadership style is effective or not is often how it is carried out and if it is appeasing to those, the leader is attempting to lead. One of the leadership styles that has become popular is Servant leadership. Although Greenleaf developed servant leadership more than thirty-five years ago and he identified ten characteristics that pertain to servant leadership. (book p. 56) Servant leadership has been successful in various industries and its popularity continues to increase.
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
Greenleaf used a series of essays to coin the term in the 1970s (Mittal & Dorfman; 2012, Northouse, 2016). Greenleaf regarded servant leadership as a way of life rather than a management technique, describing it as an inward lifelong journey guided by the natural feeling one has to serve others first (Parris & Peachey, 2012). Centered in altruism, servant leadership is the only leadership approach grounded in the principle of caring for others (Northouse, 2016). Today, scholars widely believe the conceptualization of servant leadership as a human calling delayed empirical research (Northouse, 2016; Parris & Peachey, 2012). According to Parris and Peachey (2012), even Greenleaf admitted servant leadership is unorthodox and therefore difficult to operationalize. Those in academia struggled with how to appropriately test servant leadership given its presentation as a philosophy; however, the erosion of confidence in contemporary business leadership, couched in numerous recent business scandals, led to a renewed and increased interest in the theory (Mittal & Dorfman, 2012; Parris & Peachey,
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
The foundational concepts of Servant Leadership therefore combine many of the tenets that characterize the other types of leaders. Among the many traits and practices that are indicative of Servant Leadership, the ones that govern my behavior in my current sphere are practicality, ethics, self-awareness, community building, skilled communication, collaboration, and foresight. In the academic environment leading up to and including my college career, these characteristics have served me well, even as I develop an amalgam of other competencies that will shape my ultimate
Chung, Y. (2011). Why servant leadership? Its uniqueness and principles in the life of Jesus. Journal Of Asia Adventist Seminary, 14(2), 159-170.
I’ve always known to be the best follower but not necessarily a leader. Prior taking this course, my philosophy of leadership was anyone who is in charge of a group in order to give out instructions or order. This type of leadership has been adopted by various cultures around the world for centuries. Thank to new emerging leadership styles such as contemporary, followers actually have the opportunity to voice their opinion. I’m hoping to learn new skills that will eventually help me in the professional realm and as well as my community. I found servant leadership to be the most important type of leadership. Komives, Lucas, and McMahon (1998) mentioned that people who dedicate themselves to building communities so they become better places for others (p.170). This is the type of leader I’m striving to