Leadership Styles, Theories, And Servant Leadership. Leading

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.

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.

Trait theories were based upon a person having the right traits to be selected to be a leader while behavioral theories of leadership were base upon the idea that a person could be taught to be a leader. Charismatic leaders have four key characteristics which are: having a vision, willing to

In the process of interviewing a servant leader, this paper investigates the defining behavior of servant leadership from a practical and philosophical standpoint. There are practical behavioral characteristics that can be uniformly integrated into the business infrastructure that is founded upon Biblical principles yet not used as a pool to proselytize. Through research and group discussion boards, this paper analyzes the institutional applications and the interpersonal relationships

When facing crucial conversations such as conflicts or negotiations, people tend to look to autocratic or commanding leaders; organizations seldom see servant leaders as the person for the job. Although servant leadership is finding its way into contemporary discussions of effective leadership styles, people still view it as the characterization of a “weak or meek” leader (Collins, 2001, Kindle location 531). The Gospels, however, reveal that Jesus, the epitome of servant leadership, competently addressed critical conversations throughout his ministry (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 11:15-17, John 6:25-60, Matthew 16:21-23). While some may credit Jesus’s success to his divinity, this argument does not hold for those who followed his example of servant leadership. In contrast, Wilkes suggests the effectiveness of Jesus’s ministry was because of his servant leadership, rather than despite it.

The job of a servant leader is to build and support others, so that they may become servant leaders too. They “want to serve, to serve first” and exhibit ten key characteristics: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building community” (Spears, 1995). Throughout history, there have been many examples of servant leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Theresa, and Abraham Lincoln but the greatest of them is Jesus Christ. Christ is the perfect model of a servant leader and we have many examples of servant leadership in the Bible. A biblical example of servant leadership can be found in Luke 22:25-29, “But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves,” in this we see how Christ taught a style of leadership, which is very different from the style of leadership that is commonly taught today. His leadership style was different, in that he did not tell people what to do, nor did he use power or authority over others. Instead, Christ led by serving his followers. He showed empathy, took care of his followers, ensured they were happy and had opportunities to

A leader is an individual who has the tools that would motivate and encourage others to follow them and listen. Having these tools help complete tasks that needs to be manage in a smooth operation. A leader is not strong without its supporting elements such as the workers under that individual. Being the leader means to perform not just one job but to also be able to help and manage everyone

Servant leadership has been in existence long before the concept was formalized by Robert K. Greenleaf in the 1970’s. It has been used in industries, faith-based communities, and some educational institutions as a foundation for effective leadership. The history of servant leadership is rooted in biblical times as Christ is seen by many as the first true servant leader (Blanchard & Hodges, 2003). The concept has been brought through ancient times to the modern era by noted leaders who have promoted this form of leadership.

Servant leadership is distinctive within the body of leadership theories by having evolved from a philosophical framework, which challenges generally held conceptions of power and production (Dugan, 2017). Servant leadership and transformational leadership place a similar emphasis on envisioning the future and transforming followers into leaders, however, the uniqueness of servant leadership still surfaces. For instance, servant leadership calls for more sacrifice on the part of the leader, and followers are more likely to have greater freedom under a servant leader than under a transformational leader. Furthermore, servant leadership depends on the leader’s trust in his followers rather than on the directive abilities of the leader. The principal difference between transformational and servant leadership is the leader’s focus. The servant leader’s ultimate focus is the follower, while the transformational leader’s greatest concern is to encourage followers to serve the organization diligently. The essence of transformational leadership lies on developing

A prominent religious leader in my community is quoted as saying that “life is business and business is life. If you learn one, you learn the other.” This quote implies that the day-to-day operations of any successful business are comparable to the steps required to live a complete and balanced life. Understanding the intricacies of what makes a person happy is not only advisable, but crucial, in being successful in any business endeavor. In the status quo, many corporations have dishonest or harsh practices which belittle the workers and exalt those seen in a position of power. However, this is what kills the “life” of those involved, and eventually what kills the business as well. This is why the servant-leadership mentality is so important in the emerging business

In the process of becoming a leader, I have had the opportunity to learn a variety of leadership styles. “The Servant Leadership caught my eye as it begins with “the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first”. In chapter ten, I was able to identify the characteristics of Jesus as the first servant Leader; I quickly connected the passage to a bible verse Matthew 20:26 “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. “I make a strong connection with Greenleaf’s phrase that the “servant-leader is servant first.” Jesus is the perfect role model of servant leadership. Throughout my life, I have encountered numerous leadership styles and for that, I am thankful that I had the opportunity to learn from them.

Second one is followers of servant-leadership principles take a different approach. Rather than using power to control and coerce, they use it consciously in order to serve. Specific characteristics of servant-leadership include listening, persuasion, stewardship, and community building, all of which are gaining traction in today’s business world (Spears, 1998). DeGraaf, Tilley, and Neal (2004) “Both customers and staff today want leaders who will listen and empower, rather than dominate and tell them what to do”. For instance, Colleen Barret, president of Southwest Airlines, used servant-leadership characteristics to motivate 32,000 employees and kept 96.4 million customers happy (McGee-Cooper, Looper, & Trammel, 2008).

Lori, I found your TDA posting this week to be very interesting on the servant leader theory. There are two points that you made that I found that stood out. The first point that you made was “the servant leader sets goals and keeps processes in place, but does it with the most respect for people kind of way. In turn the employee shall treat the customer the same way because after all the customer can take their business elsewhere.” (Lori TDA #10).

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

Servant trait is a form of leadership that embrace and demonstrate accurate communication to others especially junior workers. In the context of an organization, servant leadership shows the relationship of the managers to employees whereby leaders listen and respond to their juniors. Furthermore, it helps in developing good relationship in decision making and solving problems in an organization. The connection of the organization policy making and the performance are related to the relationship of the management and employees. The nature of the leadership influences the morale of the employees while performing their duties. Therefore, servant leadership express their exemplary life and hence giving the workers morale in improving