Servant Leadership
Shobhit Patel
Indiana Wesleyan University
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to compare and contrast servant leadership with other styles of ethical leadership in the organization. Servant leadership is about meeting the needs of others first by serving them as a leader, "in the care taken by the servant-first[leader] to make sure that the other people's highest priority needs are being served" (Greenleaf, 2008). The four leaderships are ethical leadership, authentic leadership, spiritual leadership and servant leadership. Ethical leadership has two aspects which are moral person, and moral manager. The moral person fits in three categories which are traits, behavior and decision making. The moral manager fits into three categories, role modeling, rewards, disciplines, and communicate with followers about ethics. The study also evaluates the implementation of servant leadership in the for-profit and
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Robert K. Greenleaf defined in his book, Servant as a Leader, "in the care taken by the servant-first[leader] to make sure that the other people's highest priority needs are being served" (Greenleaf, 2008, p. 15). Comparing to the other leaders as a moral person, servant leader emphasizes on honesty (trait), they are concerned about the people (behavior), and they hold to their values when it comes to decision making. While the authentic leaders are emphasizing on their just decision making, they stick to their values and follow ethical decision rules.
The spiritual leader's traits are emphasizing on the honesty and trustworthiness, and they also concerned for people. Whereas, ethical leaders like to emphasize on their traits, behavior, and decision-making. The trait is integrity. Ethical leaders' behaviors are, they concern for people and they are more open. The ethical leaders are involved in society, and they frequently communicate ethics and values with their
A servant leader must listen to a person fully without interrupting or judging them. While doing my service at the animal shelter there were two other people doing service. They were prisoners wearing the orange jumpsuit. Although most people would assume they are bad and not to talk to them, me and my group had a conversation with them about the dogs. They showed a lot of compassion about what they were doing. Although it was work they were forced to do they gave it their all. I listened and communicated with them the entire time without judging whatever they might have done. This was showing servant leadership in one of the hardest
Simply, servant leaders hold a view as a servant first and leader second (Owens & Hekman, 2012). Moreover, servant leaders emphasize personal responsibility for the organization and all internal and external stakeholders (Peterson, Galvin, & Lange, 2012). As stated, expressing a genuine concern and care for people are a basis of servant leadership. In addition, servant leadership also focuses on the growth of
To be a successful servant leader one must have a true honest desire to want others around them to be successful. The major strength of the servant leader is their contribution of the organization they are leading. I believe this type of leadership really aligns
Many have developed elements that they believe are the foundation of servant leadership. In summary, included in the fundamentals are healing, creating value for community, empowering, empathy, listening, awareness, behaving ethically, and helping others grow and succeed. Healing refers to leaders trying to help solve problems and relationships. Creating value for community refers to leaders serving as an example and encouraging others to also serve the community. Empowering refers to leaders providing followers with autonomy. Empathy refers to leaders understanding others. Listening is a trait all leaders should possess. In order to understand, one should first listen. Awareness refers to leaders attentive to the things happening around them. Behaving ethically refers to the demonstrating of integrity to gain the trust of followers. Helping others grow and succeed refers to leaders providing support to followers to help them develop and accomplish professional and personal goals.
Leaders are expected to act consistently with their vision and the values they advocate to their team. If a leader’s words or actions are contrary to the values they expect in others, they will be faced with cynicism and contempt. Followers expect their leader to act in their best interests, putting their welfare before their own. An ethical leader is honest, open and truthful to their followers. When leaders lose this trust, their followers will quickly disregard them.
Here I will describe my ethical framework, its makeup and how I use it solve difficult and challenges problems. In our literature, there are examples of EF such as Servant Leadership where the tenets of the management system include 10 principles that shape the think of the manager. A few of these tenets are to serve those who they lead to build their capacity (Greenleaf, xxxx). Also, serve their greater community as well by doing little or no harm. This view allows a leader to base their decision on for the benefit of their followers and for their community. One of the most important traits of a servant leader is to listen. As servant leader listens to their followers needs, they listen to themselves to gain a better understand themselves to grow, so they can better assist their followers. The servant leader is not necessarily concerned with the organization?s goals; those will be met as people grow their capacity.
As an ethical theory servant leadership looks at the duties of leaders and the consequences of leadership actions. The approaches to examine the decisions and consequences of ethical leadership include ethical egoism, making decisions that act for the good of the leader; utilitarianism, making decisions that provide benefit to the greatest number; and altruism, actions are only deemed moral if they show primary concern for others. Looking at this set of approaches, it can be seen that servant leadership can be assessed in these terms. The leadership model is described as primarily focused on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong (What is servant leadership n.d.). The servant-leader believes in power sharing, putting the needs of others before himself and helping team members develop and perform as highly as possible. The servant leadership model is made up of the following key
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
(Keith 2018) Servant Leaders have traits that include stewardship, foresight, awareness, listening, empathy, persuasion, building/rebuilding community, conceptualization, healing, and building community. Leaders who develop these characteristics will involve their peers and subordinates in decision making, which can lead to improvements to morale and group
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.” - Robert K. Greenleaf. This is Robert Greenleaf’s definition of servant leadership. If members of the scholarship selection committee were to walk around my high school Delphos Jefferson and Vantage Career Center my peers, teachers, and school administrators would describe be as a servant leader for many different reasons.
At its core, servant leadership is about service to others and originates from within. Servant leaders possess individual qualities within themselves that facilitate their leading through acts of service. Ten traits characterize servant leadership: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of others, and building communities. Servant leaders, according to Parolini (2004), are characterized by their ability to “bring integrity, humility, and servant hood into caring for, empowering and developing others in carrying out tasks and processes of visioning, goal setting, leading, modeling, team building, and shared-decision making” (Parolini, 2004, p. 9). A historic
In generally, ethical leadership means that the leaders organized their company to a better performance ethically. Ethical leader need both knowledge and strong knowledge. Strong ethical leader must have the right kind of integrity and can make decision and lead ethically. Ethical leader is able to make the consideration and discussion of ethics or ethical questions and issues part of the culture of the group, organizations and initiative. Besides, ethical leader are ethical all the time, they’re ethical over time, proving again and again that ethics are an integral part of the
The way he provides an ethical framework for the organization is by accepting responsibilities if something goes wrong in the workplace. He also keeps his commitment; he focuses on long-term goals and shows an ethical practice through his work. With the interaction between leaders and followers, it can have a few similarities. Followers look for a leader that is inspirational, confident, honest, and forward looking. People follow an individual because of these main four characteristics. When a leader gives a message that he or she believes in, it allows the follower to follow that person. Leaders have to be willing to listen, be patient and have a good attitude. Followers also have to be willing to listen to his or her leader, have a positive
Ethical leaders espouse moral values, altruism, civic virtue, good citizenship behavior and conscientiousness both in their personal and professional lives. They imbibe the same core values in their followers. They demonstrate moral judgement in their decision making process, influenced by the long term interest of the stake holders. Also ethical leaders hold their followers accountable for their conduct and establish a reward and vicarious learning process for ethical conducts
Leaders who are ethical are people-oriented, and also aware of how their decisions impact others, and use their social power to serve the greater good instead of self-serving interests.