Servant Leadership : A Servant Leader

A servant leader is that leader who shares power, puts the interest of others first and then help them grow and perform as highly as possible. As Robert Greenfield argued when he comes up with the servant leadership philosophy back in 1970’s, he asserted that as a servant leader, one must start by becoming a servant first. That is, as a leader, one must start by focusing on the needs of others particularly the team without considering his or her personal interest first. Currently, the significance of servant leadership has been justified by the need to make any organization more relationship-oriented and the force their leaders to step aside from personal-centeredness including narcissism and thereby integrating such businesses goals with

The Servant Leader discusses the importance of leaders who adopt a service oriented attitude in which they care for the needs of others before their own. A servant leader need not be an actual servant or have ever been a servant to become a servant leader. Rather, a servant leader is born with or adopts an “others first” disposition. Climbing through the ranks may help to create a servant leader, though it is not necessary. When leaders choose to see that the needs of their followers or their organizations are the highest priority they become servants.

As other orientated as opposed to the pioneer focused leadership approach, the power of the servant leadership approach is hence esteemed by the all-encompassing development of both the pioneers and devotees. The conviction to tend to others doesn't block the commitment on the segment of the servant pioneer to exercise impact. While servant pioneers look to change others to be more servant-like, there is a higher reason that both the pioneers and servants commonly try to accomplish. Servant pioneers attempt to incite others to achieve that higher use by a method for offer assistance. The benefit, along these lines, is a way to attempt to a good example perfect practices and values that are adjusted to this higher point. To cast it in an unexpected

The “premise of servant leadership is that leaders give priority to the well-being of followers over the servant leader’s

I believe service is important because it has helped me understand who I am as a person, and has helped me impact others. Servant-leaders are successful contributors and are needed in our world. The service activity that has been most influential and important to me is playing in my church’s orchestra. I want to be a positive influence on those around me, and being a part of my church’s orchestra allows me to do this. As a member of this group, I feel my leadership skills have grown. What makes leading worship through the orchestra unique is not only am I leading people in worship, but I am also worshiping by playing my instrument. This activity has helped me become a better servant leader in my daily life and in other music related activities.

The terms servant and leader are typically thought of as being contradictory terms. However, the theory of servant leadership has started gaining more and more notoriety over the last several years. Many organizations are learning that the management and leadership styles of the past are no longer inspiring or influencing the workers of today (Hunter, 1998). Servant leadership combines being able to identify and meet the needs of employees and patients by using the characteristics one poses to positively impact and influence them. Most simply put it is the combination of utilizing ones characteristics to do the right thing (Hunter, 1998). The Servant describes many characteristics that make a leader a good leader and this paper will explore a few of those characteristics and how they influence the nursing profession. Namely, commitment to the growth of others, empathy and being an active or productive listener.

The application of the principles of servant leadership will benefit my organization quite a lot. Being a private organization, this hospital does not follow servant leadership style. Still, we apply some of the principles of Greenleaf, like empathy, healing, and awareness (Casterlow, n.d.). These principles help generate good team spirit in the employees. Once the people know that the leadership is aware of their needs and the leaders would try meeting these needs of the staff, like provision of leave when needed by the staff, arrangements in duty, and so on, the staff will remain happy and satisfied. They will commit themselves more towards the organization. When the leadership shows empathy and healing attitude to the staff, they feel as if the leaders care, this feeling motivates them and they will be willing to work hard as the way the management desires. These features are already evident in my hospital. Hence, if my hospital follows the servant leadership style, the leaders would be more supportive than they are now. They would be more persuasive, show foresight and conceptualize (Casterlow, n.d.). This could help reduce the burn-out feeling of staff when there is staff shortage. The awareness that the

While working at UCCC, I was reading the principles of becoming a servant leader which influenced my decisions in the office. According to James Hunter leadership is the skills of influencing people to enthusiastically work toward goals identified as being for the common good, with character that inspires influence. With influence we build more effective relationships than managers.

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.

Servant leadership is a controversial concept in the workplace. It is the philosophy of management that assist the leader in balancing morality and his or her mission achievements. It promotes the best interest of the key leaders within the organization. Leaders that develop Christian Servant leadership, provide to their employees a Christian faith- based perspective throughout their. Servant leaders are passionate and make decisions from biblical perspectives or biblical integrations. Servant leader motives, thoughts and behaviors are led by the Holy Spirit. Matthew 20:25-28 reads “Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their

“Servant leadership can lead to greater organizational productivity as well as increased fiscal strength as evidenced by decreased turnover, increased job satisfaction, and increased revenues. The participants also shared an almost unanimous belief that they should set the standard for excellence within their organization and to not only serve the followers at work, but to lead in service within their communities” (p. 32) .

In 1970, Robert K. Greenleaf, former AT&T executive, coined the term servant leadership. Slightly more than three decades later, the concept of servant leadership is increasingly viewed as an ideal leadership form in which organizations are aspiring to achieve. Many people think of servant and leader as being opposite roles, when in fact they can coexist, and more and more executives are looking toward this new way of leading. Following is a list of qualities that are necessary in being a servant leader.

Servant leadership may seem to be contradictory to the norms of leadership; on the contrary, this approach offers a unique perspective on leadership. Servant leadership is based on ethics or the morals and values of the leader who is concerned with placing their attentiveness towards their followers not only on achieving organizational objectives. Although the primary assumption of servant leadership is that if the leader can effectively empower followers, the organization as a whole will accomplish its objectives naturally. Northouse (2013)

A servant leader is a servant first, and then aspires to lead others (Greenleaf, 1991). By putting the needs of others first, the servant leader helps people grow (Blanchard & Hodges, 2003). Therefore an appropriate test one might to measure to determine the effectiveness of servant leadership is by asking: Do those served grow as persons? A servant leader will initiate opportunity to serve since the desire comes from within. However, leadership must also be initiated (Boone & Makhani, 2013). Leading others toward growth must be a priority if a servant leader is to lead effectively. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate an opportunity initiated by this writer to practice the principles of servant leadership.

momentum among scholars and practitioners in the past 20 years (Sendjaya & Sarros, 2002). Twenty-first century scholars presented the servant leader as one moving beyond being transformational. These servant leaders possess the intent of transforming those served to grow personally and professionally, become more autonomous, and increase the likelihood of becoming servants themselves (Spears & Lawrence, 2004). Studies have shown a relationship between implementing principles of servant leadership and positive organizational climate (Ehrhart, 2004; Hunt, 2002; McCowan, 2004).