Basic Foundations Of Servant Leadership

A servant leader must listen to a person fully without interrupting or judging them. While doing my service at the animal shelter there were two other people doing service. They were prisoners wearing the orange jumpsuit. Although most people would assume they are bad and not to talk to them, me and my group had a conversation with them about the dogs. They showed a lot of compassion about what they were doing. Although it was work they were forced to do they gave it their all. I listened and communicated with them the entire time without judging whatever they might have done. This was showing servant leadership in one of the hardest

Servant leadership is defined by a willingness of a leader to put the needs, desires, recognition and success of their employees and organization above their own interests. They often inspire followership through their example resulting in deeply loyal subordinates that are motivated to emulate the leader’s behavior not out of fear or a desire to please and impress but because of its intrinsic value. Reading through the results of my Seven Habits Profile I noticed that I was comparatively deficient on a few of the foundational and organizational habits such as putting first things first and beginning with the end in mind. Conversely, I had a much higher level of empathetic traits with synergy, seeking first to understand, and thinking win-win taking the top three spots. These traits are highly consistent with servant leadership.

Servant Leadership is “an approach to leadership with strong altruistic and ethical overtones that asks and requires leader to be attentive to the needs of their followers and empathize with them; they should take care of them by making sure they become healthier, wiser, freer and more autonomous, so that they too can become servant leaders” (Valeri, 2007). Although there is not many servant leaders in this world but the concept of servant is one of the most leadership approach leaders today struggles with. Servant leadership is mainly about the leader helping to grow their followers or members personally and professionally through empathy, listening skills and compassion. The concept of servant leadership which was proposed by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 writing indicated that servant leadership is a theoretical framework that advocated a leader’s primary motivation and role as service to others.

Burch, M. J., Swails, P., & Mills, R. (2015). PERCEPTIONS OF ADMINISTRATORS' SERVANT LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AT A CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY. Education, 135(4), 399-404. doi:10.1057/9781137492456.0005

For many generations the concept of servant leader has been used in religious arenas as a positive influence. Since the early 1970’s the actual term was coined as the concept has been applied to the general business world. The characteristic of a leader to show servant type tendencies has been universally held as positive attribute for anyone in a leadership role. But how is a servant leader measured? Are their acid or litmus type tests based on fulfillment of key characteristics that distinguish a leader as a servant leader? In this paper the concept of servant leadership, identification of servant leaders, developing servant leaders, and the impact servant leaders have in organizations will be reviewed. Perspectives will include those

The concept of servant leadership was first defined by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970, and the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership was later established. The former CEO of that organization, Larry C. Spears, published an article outlining ten characteristics of servant leaders. These ten characteristics have been referenced countless times in recent years, and they serve as the pillar of the study of this leadership style. Using those characteristics as a reference, I will discuss my own strengths and weaknesses as a servant leader in this section.

Servant leaders seek to serve first. What does this actually mean? Many have synthesized the writings of Greenleaf on the topic, and have synthesized the concept of servant leadership into ten characteristics. Call them pillars or tenants if you like, these ten qualities are seen as necessary for all servant leaders to embrace and show in the everyday work. The ten

Servant Leadership Paper: (5%) After reading the book “The Servant” complete a 2-3 page paper on how:

Serving and respecting others irrespective of their cultural diversity is only possible if the leader poses listening skills, has empathy to others, has the ability to heal self and other, self-awareness, ability to persuade others towards a common goal, the ability to conceptualize issues and articulate present and future needs of the organization, foresight , stewardship , commitments and the ability to bring all together in an organization to build a community , which are characteristics of servant leadership ( Spears , 2010)

The Servant-leadership characteristics are ‘Listening’, ‘Empathy, ‘Healing’, ‘Awareness’, ‘Persuasion’, ‘Conceptualization’, ‘Foresight’, ‘Stewardship’, ‘Commitment to the growth and development of people’, and ‘Building community’. Over the last one week, as a team leader, I started applying some of the Servant-leadership characteristics across the team. Evaluated the results against our previous accomplishments. The outcome of this approach seems promising with better results and upbringing new team players.

Servant leadership is a well-known concept that “servant-leaders is servant first” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.17-60). Spears (1998) incorporate 10 major attributes of servant leadership; listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. (1-12). However, writers on this subject have found other attributes that are reference to Greenleaf’s writing. By the accumulation of study in leadership, servant leadership attributes according to functional attributes and accompanying attributes. Functional attributes were vision, honesty, integrity, trust, service, modeling, pioneering, appreciation of others, and empowerment.

The Servant Leader discusses the importance of leaders who adopt a service oriented attitude in which they care for the needs of others before their own. A servant leader need not be an actual servant or have ever been a servant to become a servant leader. Rather, a servant leader is born with or adopts an “others first” disposition. Climbing through the ranks may help to create a servant leader, though it is not necessary. When leaders choose to see that the needs of their followers or their organizations are the highest priority they become servants.

This is an introduction to the Servant Leadership Questionnnaire or SLQ, introduced in Chapter 10 of the textbook “Leadership: Theory and Practice” by Peter Northouse (Northouse, 2016). The questionnaires were designed, to evaluate leadership styles (Northouse, 2016). The following is a brief summary of the resulting scores of the questionnaire which are tallied in categories representing emotional healing, creating value for the community, conceptual skills, empowering, helping followers succeed, putting followers first, and behaving ethically. Next, a paragraph with a short assessment of the results. Finally, a brief analysis of the impact the ten characteristics of the Servant Leadership style might have on one’s personal leadership style.

A servant leader is a servant first, and then aspires to lead others (Greenleaf, 1991). By putting the needs of others first, the servant leader helps people grow (Blanchard & Hodges, 2003). Therefore an appropriate test one might to measure to determine the effectiveness of servant leadership is by asking: Do those served grow as persons? A servant leader will initiate opportunity to serve since the desire comes from within. However, leadership must also be initiated (Boone & Makhani, 2013). Leading others toward growth must be a priority if a servant leader is to lead effectively. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate an opportunity initiated by this writer to practice the principles of servant leadership.

Here, Greenleaf describes a relationship that is centered on the selfless nature of the leader. While servant leadership prioritizes serving other’s without benefiting personally, it should be questioned if this is truly possible. This is because it is not likely to act as a servant-leader without receiving something in return. An example of this would be a person volunteering for a cause