There are ten characteristics of a servant leader: listening (communication between leaders and followers as an interactive process that includes sending and receiving messages), empathy (“standing in the shoes” of another person and seeing the world from their point of view), healing (to make whole by caring about the well-being of their followers), awareness (being acutely attuned and receptive to physical, social and political environments), persuasion (clear and persistent communication that convinces someone to change), conceptualization (ability to be a visionary for an organization and providing a clear sense of its goals and direction), foresight (ability to know the future and predict what is coming based on what is happening now and what has occurred in the past), stewardship (taking responsibility for the leadership role and accepting responsibility to carefully mange the people and organization), commitment to the growth of people (helping each person grow personally and professionally), and building community (fostering the development of the community), (Spears, 2002 as cited in Northouse 2013).
I think that most people are probably capable to be servant leaders; however, I do not agree that everyone can learn to be a servant leader or even desire to be a servant leader. A servant leader as stated above has to have certain characteristics. Not everyone has all of these characteristics nor do I think these characteristics can be learned. It seems to me, either you have them or you don’t. If you don’t have all these characteristics, it would seem to me that servant leadership wouldn’t be as effective and therefore, would have greater chance of failure on both the leader and the follower. For example, some people sim...
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...ply don’t want to put forth such a tremendous amount of behavior that is required to be a servant leader.
I think that if the right type of individual is selected, servant leadership can produce very good results not only for the leader, but also the follower and ultimately the organization. As Norhouse (2013), explains, servant leadership has been used in a variety of organizations including Starbucks, AT&T, Southwest and more. It has also been taught at many colleges and universities as well. I think that with the right individual and the right training, it is a very successful type of leadership; however, I still don’t agree that everyone can learn to be a servant leader.
References:
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Servant Leadership. In L.C. Shaw & P. Quinlin (Eds.), Leadership theory and practice (6th ed.) (pp.219-252). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Servant leadership, as defined by Kretiner and Kinkicki (2015, p.486), is putting the needs of others, including employees, customers, and community ahead of one’s own needs. This management style requires selflessness and humility from management so the organization can focus on serving key stakeholders. There are ten characteristics of a servant-leader as identified in the text
There has been a bit of research done on the nature of servant leadership. The belief is that many organizations are moving from the traditional style of leadership to a more servant based style. Larry C. Spears (2010) and Kent Keith (2016) note a few characteristics of one who is a servant leader. The characteristics proposed by Spears (2010) are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to others growth, and community building. These traits will often manifest naturally becoming more enriched as time goes by through experience. Keith (2016) references only four elements of servant leadership. He begins with an element of morality, then of the servant focus, concern for others’
They acknowledge people’s perspectives, and give them the support needed to meet their goals. Servant leaders involve members when decisions are appropriate helping build a stronger commitment within the team. Strong qualities of servant leadership are trust, appreciation for others, and empowerment. Honesty and integrity form the moral foundation of effective leadership through the four values of truth telling, promise
Several traits and abilities contribute to the making of the servant leader and are discussed with equal importance in the essay. However there are some that seem to stand out more than others, not only as advice to leaders but also as advice in living a high quality life.
Primary service is the key. Many view this as a contradiction because the leader is leading and serving. How can a person do both? Good servant leaders are good listeners. The communication between the leader and the follower being served allows the leader to listen to the follower first, in order to understand what the other person has to say and to understand their needs. These leaders practice empathy as well. Understanding what the follower is facing or feeling is comforting to the follower because it validates their importance to another person. The ability to heal a person through care and the concern for a person’s well being is another quality of a servant leader. These are only a few of the characteristics that generate a strong servant leader. Mother Teresa said, “The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.” Her words describe exactly what servant leaders do. Servant leaders serve others willingly because they find joy and pleasure in doing so. The outcome of serving others in this manner is growth and social impacts for a greater good. When there is an improvement in self-actualization, followers improve in their goal reaching or task completion by understanding their full potential to do
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
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
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.
The interactive process between leaders and followers involves utilizing listening and communication skills (Northouse,2013). Leaders in servant leadership listen first and use empathy to better understand their followers. Empathy is the ability to better understand an individual by placing yourself in their shoes. Having this ability allows the follower to feel validated and worthy (Northouse, 2013). by finding solutions to personal problems a follower may have, is offering support. Awareness, or emotional intelligence, is another trait a servant leader possesses. Leaders must be aware of how their actions affect their followers. This can be how they dress or their correspondence in an email Northouse, 2013).
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, path-goal styles 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.
To be a servant leader you have to have certain qualities. Not only have the qualities but
Two years ago, I worked at this very school as an employee of the Healthy Out-of-School Time (HOST) program. This was an out-of-school time program that empowered students to develop in a safe, caring, and educationally rich environment. Seeing the students I taught my first semester of college, who essentially helped me want to serve my community two years later; made me realize the true definition of a servant leader. I was honored to come back to the place that served me when I was in need. From here, I was able to sow a new seed into those very students. Anyone can do community service, write down the hours and get a signature but a servant leader is a person who makes serving a priority in their
Melchar, David and Susan Bosco. “Achieving High Organization Performance through Servant Leadership.” The Journal of Business Inquiry 9.1 (2010):74-88. http://www.uvu.edu/woodbury/jbi/volume9/journals/achieving_high_organization_performance_through_servant_leadership.pdf
Servant Leadership means to serve others and to lead. It puts everyone else first teaching to put others before yourself, with this leading qualities emerge. Just being or having leadership qualities doesn’t always work. Most leadership models show possessive towards the better for themselves, some work out while others don’t, mostly I think because the unwillingness to see others before yourself is a hard concept for some to understand and use. You can be a great leader but if you don’t understand servant qualities or serve for the benefit of others your probley not much liked. Most I don’t think know what Servant Leadership is or means, I didn’t until this course opened it up to me.