Suggested Styles
Servant Leadership
The style suggested as offering a greater opportunity for success in achieving organizational goals is Servant Leadership Style. Servant leadership focuses on the leaders’ behavior, sees the leader as sensitive to the needs of the members of the organization and involves empowering the members to achieve success in personal and organizational objectives (Northouse, 2016). This style offers not only a greater percentage of success, but also creates buy-in and trust from the members, develops opportunities for members to grow and possibly becomes leaders also. Servant leadership is just one of the many developing styles being identified as possible catalysts utilized by leaders for organizational success and development. One thing becomes clear; many different styles and the use of their elements interchanged as needed speaks to the diversity leaders, leadership and organizations (Bolman, Lee G & Deal, Terrence E, 2013).
Achieving longevity and meeting desirable objectives involve employing an introspective look at past elements of development, success and failures. When this element is accomplished, the foundation is laid to gain a clear assessment of the organization and its previous leadership styles with the purpose of finding more inclusive and effective styles to utilize. Without deep and thorough investigation and research, even when vison and mission are clear, they will fail to provide consistent success and effective
I have recently completed a service project at the animal shelter in Bulloch County, Georgia. For four days I rode with my group to the animal shelter to play with the animals. Playing with the animals shows them compassion. We played with many dogs over the course of four days. Doing this service have made myself and my group servant leaders. What is a servant leader you ask, well a servant leader wants to help others better themselves. They want to help even if they do not look like, think like, or talk like us.
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.
“Servant leadership refers to a leadership approach by which leaders set aside their self-interest and altruistically work for the benefit of their followers, and the communities in which they operate” (Newman, 2017, p.49). To accomplish this, a leader must be thoroughly engaged in their environment and an active listener. My third strength is active listening. Active listening relates to the servant leadership theory because active listening “enables a servant leader to build trustful relationships with others and to understand the needs of followers to create an effective working climate and culture and to grow and release individual talent” (Coetzer, 2017, p. 13). Active listening requires one to listen respectfully, to engage in questions, provide time for reflection, and to be consciously seek out and interpret subtext. Open and honest communication between a leader and employee are integral to the proper function of a work environment. Employees who feel unheard may disengage and become less productive. A decline in employee morale, productivity, and engagement are failures of a leader and are generally the result of poor communication and listening skills.
In the approach on general leadership characteristics, the fundamental difference is authentic leaderships strive to be “real”, whereas servant leaders strive to be “right.” Servant leadership is a style that lays down a set of characteristics that all leaders are supposed to emulate to attain success, and tries to shape the character and personality of the leader. On the other hand, authentic leaders tend to rely on their own unique set of experiences and style that has been learned and developed throughout their career. The main difference between servant and authentic styles, when applying into practice, is the serving of others. One of the primary applications is to give priority to the interest of others. Servant leaders exercise their duty
Since the beginning of recorded history, leadership has been one of, if not the most important elements in the success or failure of an endeavor. This is whether it involved a prehistoric hunting party or ruling the Roman Empire. Today, leadership is recognized as a vital factor in an organization’s quest to be productive and profitable. For an organization to be competitive and achieve optimum success in the 21st century, it is vital that they employ effective leaders that will be able to communicate their vision and goals, motivate their employees and develop trusting and loyal relationships with its stakeholders. There is no one or best way to accomplish this mission. There have been numerous leadership theories and styles which have been developed over time which can enable leaders to choose which method would be most effective for them in establishing collaborative working relationships and a respectful team environment in a group setting (Landis, Eric A; Hill, Deborah; Harvey, Maurice R, 2014).
1. What is servant leadership, and how does it differ from other leadership models? (Use specific examples. You may have to do some additional research. Please cite any resources you use.)
What do you think the goals are for the program as a whole? How do you see yourself fitting with these goals? As the Lone Star Band continues to grow in size, I visualize the number of servant leaders growing as well. I believe that it is the duty of current student leaders to build up the future leaders of the band, and I would like to take part in this responsibility. I think that the goals for the band as a whole are to continue seeking excellence in all that we do. We are not trophy-chasers, but I believe it is the band’s goal to be the best version ourselves in and out of the field. I will always remember Mr. Golden telling us that his goal for us was to experience greatness, and I see myself fitting with this goal through motivating my peers by modeling persistence and hard
Throughout this past week I have had several misconceptions resolve regarding servant leadership that have resolved. The main misconception or preconception that I had was that servant leaders were pushovers and that they would have difficulty in leading others to reach a common goal. Through the readings that were assigned, specificially in chapter 6, I now understand that a servant leader values relationships with their follwers and by doing so that they can use the gained trust to influence them to reach a common goal (DelHousaye & Brewer, 2004). I had never really thought about how much influence played a part in the success of a leader until this class and yet I completely agree. I think back to the mangers that I have had
Liden (2014) explained that servant leaders serve as a role model to their team on what needs to be done to reach the team goals. This supports that engagement is a positive strength to have as a servant leader. When leading a team, I delegate work but make sure that I spend time working on the project and go beyond just checking in with the group. It is important to take part of the process as well as leading the work that is being done on behalf of the organization. Focht (2015) did a study to define the most important elements of servant leaders and one of the ones identified by the study was empowerment. “Empowerment for the servant leader involves effective listening, making people feel significant, putting an emphasis on teamwork, entrusting
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
Three attributes a servant leader must have are the abilities to be selfless, respectful, and hard working. Finding ways to help your community through volunteering could be considered selfless. Listening to and valuing others opinions could be considered respectful. Fighting hard to reach a common goal with a sports team could be considered hardworking. Having completed these actions, I would consider myself a servant leader.
Servant leadership offers a distinct viewpoint on leadership that differs from any other type of leadership. “Servant leadership goes beyond the focus of the organization and instead focuses on the needs of followers” (Carroll & Patterson, 2014, p. 15). The priority is placed on serving others and making others needs the most significant factor. “A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid” (Carroll & Patterson, 2014, p. 16).
Servant leadership is a type of leadership whereby the leader serves the needs of the people, empathizes with them, and involves them in solving their needs. Servant leadership is all about involving the people you are leading in your decision making, being ethical and caring for the people to enhance their personal growth at the same time improve their life. A servant leader does not simply delegate roles; he starts the work and energizes the others to join him and get the work done. According to Spears (2004), the servant leader as defined by Greenleaf is one who gets the natural feeling of wanting to serve first and then a conscious choice brings him/her to lead. This leader makes sure that other people’s highest-priority needs are take
As written in the lines above, employee engagement has a significant impact on an employee and their engagement. Although there has been many articles and research written about leadership and servant leadership, in this study, it will provide and overview, key traits and influences that servant leaders use in collaboration to address significant problems with strategy and other individuals. Therefore, how do managers and leaders facilitate the engagement of their employees? Leaders do this through their leadership style. In 1970, Robert K. Greenleaf identified servant-leadership, which was different from the traditional views of leadership. According to Greenleaf, “The servant-leader is a servant first. Servant
This review acknowledges that additional empirical research is needed on servant leadership especially its current and potential future role in organisations. The authors state that Greenleaf warned that servant leadership would be extremely difficult to apply in an operational setting such as a company.