What´s Servant Leadership?

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Servant leadership paper
Although servant leadership is often associated with the Bible and Jesus Christ, it is totally compatible with most religions and theories of philosophy. This statement is very apt to the point under discussion. Using Greenleaf characteristics of servant leadership against the religious philosophy of Buddhism and transformational leadership style, an attempt is made to prove the point.
James McGregor Burns, well known leadership thinker first introduced the concept of transformational leadership in his famous work, "Leadership." As per definition transformational leadership is a process where leaders and their team support each other to higher levels of morality and motivation." The following features of the leadership style make it synonymous with the ideals of a servant leader who with his emotional intelligence and empathy encourages his team members to achieve their goals
• The style boasts of integrity and fairness with to the point and concise goals.
• Even though the transformational leader has high expectations, he encourages others and provides his team with support by motivating them positively
• He makes his team a social interest thinker and inspires people to reach for the impossible. Thus he serves them in a way by making them win as well, both personally and professionally
No wonder transformational leadership is today the most important business leadership trait due to the following reasons (again synonymous with servant leader)
• The leader motivates his team members to believe and deliver an inspired vision.
• The leader not only ensures delivery of the vision but builds trust based relationships
Transformational leadership; accessed 4 Apr 2014
Buddhism is more of a philosophy of lif...

... middle of paper ...

...ure ready acceptance by followers
Empathy and acceptance are very important emotional intelligence skills required by a servant leader. The leader empathizes as in, projecting his own consciousness into the other being and tries to accept his subordinate as a person first. There might be serious flaws in the other person’s effort or performance, but the leader still accepts the person. This requires a tolerance of imperfection which is not easy. But the existence of this feature is crucial to the development of trust. Trust is at the heart of this relationship. Thus he recognizes the fact that the subordinate is human as well. The Servant leaders hear, see and know things with their intuitive insight. This makes them dependable and trusted. It is this trait which makes the servant leader sought after
David Mc Cuistion; 7.8.13; accessed 4 Apr 2014; servant leader

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