The Serving Leader Summary

Prior to his appointment as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (SECVA) Robert (Bob) McDonald was already well-known for his advocacy and promotion of the concept of “Servant Leadership” a term first coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970. The author first wrote about the concept of Servant Leadership in an essay titled “The Servant as Leader.” In his essay, Greenleaf recounted his reason for writing the essay, stemmed from the belief that the country was in a leadership crisis and he had a responsibility to attempt to address the problem. When Mr. McDonald came to the VA, he like Greenleaf intuitively recognized the need for and his responsibility to institute and nurture this style of leadership within the department’s leadership ranks. The MyVA Integrated Plan (MIP) dated July 2015, illustrates McDonald’s commitment to this theory by recognizing the need to cultivate leadership excellence in the department by developing “Engaged Servant Leaders responsible for establishing an organizational culture rooted in VA core values that inspires and empowers all employees.” In order to restore the trust and confidence of the Veterans and the American Public, leadership at all levels must understand what servant leadership is, embrace the concept, and inculcates the concept throughout the leadership ranks within the department.

Contents Page Qualification structures Unit 5001 Unit 5002 Unit 5003 Unit 5004 Unit 5005 Unit 5006 Unit 5007 Unit 5008 Unit 5009 Unit 5010 Unit 5011 Unit 5012 Unit 5013 Personal development as a manager and leader Information based decision making Performance management Resource management Meeting stakeholder and quality needs Conducting a management project Financial control Marketing planning Project development and control Human resource development Managing recruitment and selection Being a leader Leadership practice 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Leaders should use their self-developed skills to serve their subordinates. As a leader, the responsibilities never seem to diminish. Yet, effective leaders are always able to care for their subordinates in all aspects of life. This is on top of their other responsibilities. Serving others above oneself improves mission readiness and fosters an atmosphere of success.

Andersen, JA & Hansson, PH 2011,"At the end of the road? On differences between women and men in leadership behaviour", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 32 no. 5 pp. 428 – 441

Leadership is the elaboration of group inspiration. One person entrusted as leader can implore the aid, and support of supporters in the accomplishment of a common mission. According to Gurdjian, Halbeisen, and Lane “Becoming a more effective leader often requires changing behavior. But although most companies recognize that this also means adjusting underlying mind-sets, too often these organizations are reluctant to address the root causes of why leaders act the way they do” (Gurdjian, Halbeisen, and Lane, 2014) However, today abundant businesses engross importance on the improvement of leaders. Some of the ultimate leaders were formerly followers, such as in instructive businesses. One aspect as leaders many have to contemplate in striving

James A. Autry is the author of the bestselling book The Servant Leader. He has put together the fundamental skills every leader should hold in order for them to successfully run their businesses. Within thirteen chapters, the book has been divided into four categories: a foundation of character and vision, servant leader as manager: the everyday nuts and bolts, the harsh realities of organizational life, and finding the balance. The importance of developing yourself into the character of ‘servant leadership’ is identified to show how to harness productivity, creativity, courage, a nurturing nature, and handle both short and long term management situations. Although a particular purpose or mission leads every organization, all organizations are in a sense the same. The dependency on people is a dominant factor (Autry 2001, xviii).

There are several different leadership styles used within the public services. Therefore there are many varied suggestions that define someone as being a strong leader. However a ‘leadership style’ is a unique style that people recognise to encourage or influence other people in a way others do not so that they admire and want to be like. A team leader’s role in the public services is to provide instruction and direction and guidance and leadership this is to help inspire and encourage the team to reach their goals and aims. They have to keep the team focused on there current task or tasks and be able to communicate within their group

Being surrounded by such a great community, I have learned the qualities of exceptional leadership and have implemented them into my own life. I am the Walden Grove Band secretary, and am a strong member of my church’s youth group. I use the trait of integrity to help guide my decisions and to ensure they are the best for everyone in the group. Not only am I a leader in clubs and organizations, I exhibit leadership qualities while in the classroom, volunteering, and during my extra curricular activities. As Tennis Manager, I take the initative to prepare the equipment for practices and matches, and do many other nessecary tasks to make sure the practices and matches runs smoothly and efficiently. I am responsible for making sure all tennis

I believe that in order to lead you must be able to learn how to follow first. Following will allow you to gain knowledge that will help you lead in the future. Serving is a big part of leadership because you must be able to help people. People put their trust into you to help them through their problems. As a leader you must be able to put other people’s problems ahead of yours.

Finally, this paper will address how the practice of servant leadership would affect everyone from the lowest enlisted men to the most senior flag officer and everyone else in-between. Leadership goes well beyond the following definition: “Leadership is the art of influencing and directing people in such a way as to obtain their willing obedience, confidence, respect and cooperation.” In fact, when it comes right down to it, “there are no quick and easy answers to becoming an effective and efficient leader.” Leadership is difficult and enduring work. It is a lifelong process of building and molding not only your skills but also the skills of your subordinates. In a society of instant gratification, we look for the quick fix. Yet the problem is the quick fix or plug and play solution, rarely serves the long-term goals of an organization.

As Vice President of the CBHS SHAPE Club, I have acquired many leadership skills through overcoming obstacles and learning to communicate with my peers. Being a leader is much more than having power or simply being in charge. The skills necessary to effectively guide a group of people towards success goes way beyond the title. Holding a position of leadership, no matter how big or small, is a huge responsibility. One must be committed, reliable and organized. Most importantly, a leader must be proactive and efficient. In other words, a leader must be willing to do whatever it takes to reach his or her group’s goal. In order to do this, one must be able to delegate tasks to ensure that they are all completed adequately while making sure that all members have an opportunity to participate. In addition, a leader must be open-minded to change and must be willing to take risks.

1. When discussing leadership and followership, there is often a split in personal opinion when it comes to which one is more important. Leadership and followership both offer unique benefits in their own right and have supporting factors, which give them the perceived appearance of being more important. The focus for this paper will be to advocate the importance of followership over that of leadership. This will be accomplished by addressing the pros of followership to include some core skills of followership and the effects followership has on the development of a leader. The expectation of an officer however, places a high amount of emphasis on leadership more so than that of followership. Given this perceived importance of leadership as an officer, an effective leadership style will be explained and how officers develop this particular leadership style. While leadership has a distinct presence within the professional work environment, followership is considered the underlying backbone in developing an effective high performing team.

The topic I chose to research and discuss is the topic of recruiting and retaining the best employees. I chose this subject because I felt it was important for an employer trying to compete in this very competitive business environment, no matter what the business is, to be able not only hire the best and most qualified employees but retain them and keep them motivated. The ability to distinguish the difference between high performing employees and lower performing employees can be detrimental to a company’s success or failure. In retrospect, this goes back to recruiting and retaining the best employees while avoiding and being able to let go of those of a weaker caliber. Before an organization can thrive in recruitment and retention,

This assignment will be investigating what constitutes “best practice” in recruitment and selection, and explain what strategies should be used to ensure the best qualified and most effective employees are selected. In particular this essay will focus on;

With the acquiring of quality employees comes the assessment and development of Human Resources. Having the right people for the job is just selecting the right people to