Leadership Stances : Transformational And Servant Leadership

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.

K: The commitment to treat the people with compassion and kindness is the basis of servant leadership in the global perspective.

The two theories that I chose to do my self-assessment by are the authentic leadership theory and the servant leadership theory. The authentic leadership theory was chosen due to my desire to stay true to who I am and what I stand for. However, the servant leadership theory was chosen because of my desire to meet the needs of others while doing what I can to help others succeed as well as meet their set goals. Being a servant while being authentic are the traits I want in my style of leadership and are assessed throughout this paper along with my strengths and weaknesses in the area of leadership.

Servant leadership isn’t applied or adequate to only one type of culture or even one type of culture. Servant leadership can actually be applied to all walks of life and all parts of the world. For example, the culture of the Japanese and the religion of the Hindu people both embrace a sense of what we call servant leadership. All religions and cultures have their own unique way in which they apply servant leadership, either based on their beliefs, history, or lifestyles. The significance of servant leadership is demonstrated in different ways within each culture and religion even when some cultures are not aware that what they are implying is servant leadership. As religions and cultures change and expand through time the concept of servant leadership is adapted and applied in different ways.

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

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.

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).

From the group Biblical Integration Paper, it was understood that servant-leadership is not only a gift of purpose that God places in the hearts of His people, but it is also a calling in one’s life to truly touch the lives of others in need. Living a successful life, as a servant-leader is not one that focuses on self-fulfillment, rather it is in seeking a fulfillment that comes from Christ when one pours him/herself out for the sake of others. It is through servant-leadership that one is able to bring hope into hopeless situations (Group Integration Paper,

Life is a process of searching for missions and then completing those missions presented. Every person possesses a different calling within his or her life, and even some are given several missions to complete in a lifetime. I strongly believe that my mission in life is to be a doctor to help the weak get healthier, and continually learn about serving others throughout my entire life. My greatest ambition is becoming a pediatric orthopedic surgeon because I have had two knee surgeries before.

Some scholars categorize servant leadership, transformational leadership, and authentic leadership as post-industrial styles of leadership (Guthrie and Osteen, 2012). These theories have some similarities because they each contain elements of the other. For instance, Marques and Dhiman (2016) state that servant leadership and authentic leadership are primary expressions of spiritual leadership. Both servant and authentic leaders are altruistic, trustworthy, and honest. Having said that, the assigned readings show that servant leadership represents a shift from followers serving leaders to leaders serving followers. Therefore, this critical analysis focuses on the difference between servant leadership and the other two leadership styles, namely; transformational leadership and authentic leadership.

The field in which I intend to develop a career is college access programs. I believe universal access to quality higher education will help individuals build a sense of purpose in the world by contributing to the collective well-being, ultimately creating a just world. The interest began in 2014, the year I began questioning the concept of college after being encouraged to enroll, attend, and graduate from college for 12 years. The question began the instance I started noticing that the role models I grew up with lacked formal education yet they lived happy lives; I wanted to be like them.

I absolutely agree with your point that “Between the topics of servant-leadership and transformational leadership, it appears that the commonality between the two is found in leading by example.” Too often, leaders fail to actually lead and instead keep themselves elevated above and distant from their employees. By doing this, leaders create a barrier between themselves and their employees. When I first read your post, I thought it was commendable that your leadership took cuts in pay just like everyone else. However, when I read on and discovered that they were the only ones whose pay was restored, I was very disappointed to see that they showed their true colors: definitely not servant leadership!

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

Transformational leadership is defined as having four conceptually distinct elements: charismatic leadership/idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (Bass, 1996). Servant leadership has