A Servant Manager Essay

Dr. Kent M. Keith is the Chief Executive officer for the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. Over the past thirty years, Keith has become an advocate of servant leadership. According to his website, Keith focuses on aiding to others and has a mission to help people find personal meaning in the world. In one of his most recent publications, The Case for Servant Leadership, Keith highlights the servant leadership model while explaining how and why it can be used in order to establish a better world.

Michelle’s life embodies the idea of a person who has the x-factor, she shows that leadership is something that is developed over time and learned through experiences. The x-factor is when individuals in a society spark creativity, it is a multi-discipline that borrows and synthesis existing intellectual resources to generate new ones and approach causation. (Burns, 2003). Michelle is a prime example of the ideals of the x-factor that crates a leader.

l) Describe your understanding of diakonia, the servant ministry of the church, and the servant ministry of the provisional member.

Many people want to attain and hold influential positions in society whether it would be in the field of science, politics, education, or in public service. However, many people tend to forget how servitude is one of the main life highways to travel in order to arrive at that successful destination called “Leadership.” Nevertheless, there was one man who knew how powerful the concept of servitude was in order to grasp the reigns of successful leadership. Socrates was a phenomenal philosopher, scholar, teacher, and servant. Socrates leadership style was unique in regards to letting students communicate among one another in an articulate theological reasoning process by questioning and probing at one’s belief system in order to

The foundation of my personal leadership philosophy can be found in the principles of servant leadership as spelled out by Greenleaf (1970, 1977). Leadership is granted to individuals who are by nature servants. An individual emerges as a leader by first becoming a servant. Servant leaders attend to the needs of those they serve and help them become more informed, free, self-sufficient, and like servants themselves. Leaders and those they serve improve, enhance, and develop each other through their connection. A leader must also be conscious of inequalities and social injustices in the organizations they serve and work actively to resolve those issues. Servant leaders rely less on the use of official power and control, but focus on empowering those they

Leaders believe people have an intrinsic value beyond tangible contributions as workers. As a result, genuine interest in the spiritual, professional and personal growth of all employees is demonstrated.

Over the past six years of my career as a project manager in an IT company, I have been working as a supervisor to manage a team of programmers and designers. Reflecting on this period of time which I have applied my leadership philosophy, I believe the leadership type, servant leadership, aptly describes my leadership style. I agree with what a servant leader stands for, and I aspire to become a better servant leader in the days ahead of me.

1. Do you have any visions or goals for the short, medium, or long term?

It’s safe to say nearly everyone has a different definition of servant leadership. Some focus on specific characteristics required of leaders, others are more interested in the interactions with others. Nevertheless, there is more recently a large emphasis on servant leadership in ministry. Servant leadership is an incredibly integral part of being a healthy leader in ministry. Servant leadership requires you to be attentive, be a model of specific characteristics outlined by Robert Greenleaf and Dirk van Dierendonck, and the importance of having the desire to lead by serving.

In the article “servant Leadership” Jones-Burbridge and Jo Ann; discusses about servant leadership. By defining and outlining the characterizes and qualities of servant leadership. They begins the article by quoting John Maxwell words on what makes up leader. To Maxwell” true leadership must be for the benefit of the followers not to enrich the leader” (Burbridge and Ann, 2012, p.45). Thus, Burbridge and Ann regard this concept of true leadership as what makes up servant leadership. This is to say that; like true leadership; servant leadership, is more concerned to satisfying the needs of people rather than that of the leaders.

Authors such as Dugan (2017), consider Transformational Leadership and Servant Leadership similar, as both theories denote similar behavioral traits. However, Gregory Stone, Russel, and Patterson (2004) found that there are key differences between these two types of leadership styles. The distinction lies within the leader’s focus. Transformational leaders focus on the organizational goals and the greater good of the mission. While Servant Leaders concentrate on the people or the followers and their needs. Servant Leaders want to take care of their people and they find that if they take care of their follower’s needs, the mission gets accomplished because followers want to do a good job for their leader (Gregory Stone, et al., 2004).

A South Carolina Teacher Fellows student is an education major that is set apart by CERRA for their passion for educating students and seeing children develop a love of learning. Teacher Fellows students at Anderson University embody certain requirements and standards that may not be as typical to students in other schools. A Teacher Fellows at Anderson University, and especially the leadership within the cohort, exemplifies Christ in every aspect of their life, and demonstrates the servant leadership spoken of in the book of Matthew; “On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26b-28 HCSB). As president of the 2016 Anderson University Teacher Fellows cohort, I would strive to lead by serving, work as though working for Christ, and develop the skills necessary to becoming an effective teacher in both myself and the members of the cohort.

The servant-leader is a servant first and desires to serve others. They identify and meet the needs of their followers. They focus on the growth of the group or the whole community. They help people develop their skill and perform at their best. The servant-leader shares his or her power and put the needs of his or her followers before his or her own needs. However, a traditional leader is the person at the top that exercises power over the group. The servant-leader innate action, are goal orientated, and are dreamers. They are good communicators, dependable, and are trustworthy. They listen and understand the goals of their followers and are selfless at meeting the needs of their followers. They persuade their followers and do not force them

Servant leadership approach shares a powerful sentiment within the work environment, this approach puts the needs of others first and helps staff development by performing as highly as possible. As an aspiring leader, servant leadership approach is the most effective tool used to motivate and grow subordinates to perform at their best.

Transformational and servant leadership are rooted in the study of charismatic leadership. An early conceptual model of "charismatic leadership" has been closely linked with the work of Max Weber, who described the leader as a charismatic person who exercised power through followers' identification with and belief in the leader's personality. Both transformational and servant leadership are both inspirational and moral.