Change Agent In today’s work force a manager must be able to foster the necessary changes impeding the future growth of the company. Having a spirit of servanthood can be beneficial for employees to witness because it can become contagious. A manager must take the lead with their vision, passion, and a positive attitude to engage employees with impeding changes. This paper will focus on how past actions developed my personal ‘Leadership Philosophy’ and how it relates to becoming a change agent.
The definition of a “Change Agent” as suggested by Dennis Stevenson is someone who aspires to alter human capability or organizational systems to achieve a higher degree of output or self actualization (Stevenson, 2008). As a professional
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Within three months, Chief Silva lifted the morale and it was evident during meetings’ when he yelled “Port Dogs” and everyone attending barked. He was full of passion about our job, and the spirit was contagious. Our workload did not decrease, we were still working long hours, however, Chief Silva worked along with us. The “Port Dog” chant is still heard today during Commanders calls to signify that the Aerial Port Squadron has arrived. The leadership theology he practiced was charismatic and transformational.
The next character trait a change agent should posses according to Stevenson (2008), is to have a strong ability to self-motivate. If people are not self-motivated, it is hard for them to lead. Maxwell (1999) states’, of all the things a leader should fear, complacency should head the list” (Maxwell, 1999). Leaders should take the initiative to self improve and lead by example. Looking for ways to improve or new opportunities takes a motivated leader. A motivated leader believes in the act of servanthood. True leaders believe in putting the needs of an organizational and their personnel first. James E. Christenson implies:
“Most of us have experienced the work of true servant-leaders at some point in our lives. But in an organization that works well together and works to meet and exceed the reasonable expectations of its customers or clients, there clearly are servants at every level’ (Christenson, 2008). The role of servanthood is necessary as well
Overall, support and conscientious behaviors associated with organizations establishing a culture of servant leadership seem to prove their strategy through the test of time of market recessions and gains. Likewise, servant leadership appears in areas that include pay administration, employee empowerment, training, and employee development in additional companies, such as Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and TDIndustries (Jones, 2012). The servant leader provides the follower with everything needed to achieve success, as well as the opportunity to flourish through their servant leader illustration. Furthermore, in Jones’ (2012) research of leadership styles he noted greater profits were not the underlying reasons for implementing and sustaining
Servant leaders puts their followers first versus the goals and objectives of the organization, which limits organizational strategy and processes and lacks continuous improvement of core competencies; therefore, there is no research to date that proves this leadership style increases organizational performance (de Waal & Sivro, 2012). In contrast, as a positive, communication strategies of servant leaders are rewarded with employee loyalty and decreased staff turnover which increase patient outcomes and satisfaction due to staff feelings of appreciation and compassion from the servant leader (Marquis & Huston,
Servant leadership is best applied in mature organizations where the needs of shareholders are valued above profit.
Servant leadership is an effectual way to motivate the employees. Its unique emphasis on concern for
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.
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).
This article examines the similarities and differences between transformational and servant leadership. The authors suggest the primary difference is the focus of the leader. The transformational leader’s focus is more on the organization and the servant leader’s focus is more on the follower. The authors state that both offer the conceptual framework for
Organizational change is a necessary outcome when considering various scenarios contributing to the resulting vision. Perplexing as it may seem, change initiatives don’t always result in positive outcomes. In fact, many never succeed. As a change agent, one should always have formulated a vision of what change will “look” like for the organization. One would be hard pressed to paint a landscape without having a vision of what the landscape should resemble. Yet, resistance to change usually becomes a significant factor contributing to an initiative’s failure. It is likely an
This paper is based on my personal philosophy the art of servant leadership within organizations, and in the community. According to the author Aubrey Malphurs, he asserts “that there are leaders who “have the ability to lead, influence others based on certain leadership characteristics, strengths and weakness.” It is within these leadership strengths and weaknesses, there are benefits and opportunities to empower others. However, there are good and great leaders, a great leader is much more desirable, in that great leaders are driven to lead and serve their followers. Great leaders have the characteristics to be effective and empower their followers, this is the art of Servant leadership, the art of knowing how to care for others in the most
The primary of this idea is to push businesses to have a positive impact on their employees and local community, rather than using profit as the main motivation. This is precisely why the name is “Servant Leadership”. Greenleaf explains it as meaning to serve first and then to lead; a groups primary focus should by all means be to support the growth and well-being of others first. An increasing amount of nonprofit businesses have gravitated to this servant-leadership philosophy as a part of their company and therefore had made it a groundwork in their mission statement.
Leadership and management for many go hand in hand, and may be perceived as one in the same. In the book titled, The Servant (1998), James C. Hunter challenged this mainstream view, and literally turned this concept, which so many are coached on, upside-down. The notions of what characterizes a virtuous leader, as well as what it means to serve others, are the primary focal points of Hunter’s book. He did an eloquent job of revealing his theory concerning effective leadership by using an allegorical approach which, made the content easier to digest and much more personable. The Servant deeply resonated with me, and I gained significant value from the attitudes Hunter presented which, I can apply to my schooling, personal life, and future career paths. I was also able to discern what I felt to be applicable elements regarding the mark of a worthy leader, and arrived at my own theories.
The authors went on to state that research has been very limited on servant leadership until recently, for it is difficult to think of a servant who leads and a leader who serves, but it’s a theory with great future promise.
By being a servant leader, I will put the needs of my employees first to ensure that my company is socially responsible through quality customer service rendered by me and employees. Since leadership is considered a critical force in producing positive outcomes in organizations through the performance of employees, it is very important to take servant leadership seriously (Grisaffe, VanMeter, Chonko 2016). My main and foremost priority as a servant leader is to serve others with real selflessness before aiming for profit. For instance, as a non-medical owner of a care
In the book The Servant, the author James C. Hunter discusses Servant Leadership, and the impact it has on every aspect of life. The book begins with a middle-aged man, John, who has it all, a supportive wife and kids and an authoritative job as a manager at a glass factory. John however, feels his life is falling apart, his employees aren’t respecting him and his relationships with his wife and kids are becoming distant and negative. In an attempt to make a change, John attended a week long religious retreat that’s main focus is Servant Leadership. The attendees at this retreat were all very different, their careers varied greatly, and their views on how to be a leader were not alike either. In the end though, they all agreed on one thing, making a change to become a Servant Leader was going to reshape their lives, through both their careers and relationships.
The Leadership Theory presented in this document is Servant Leadership. The article summarised herein is “A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts” published in the Journal of Business Ethics, pages 113(3), 377-393, written by D.L. Parris and J.W. Peachey in 2012 but published in the 2013 Journal.