Servant Leadership

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

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,

The shared themes discussed in these articles aligned with my thesis – caring for the least able, service before leading. Liden, Wayne, Chenwei, and Meuser (2014) suggest a servant leader must guide followers to emulate the leader’s behaviors by prioritizing the needs of others above the leaders'needs. Liden et al. (2014) further attest that servant leaders cultivate servant leadership attributes among those they lead, creating a serving culture which influences performance and enhances followers’ traits and skills through mediating influence of personal identification. For leaders to operate under ethical leadership framework, the leader must possess character, competence, and commitment. The leader must also lead by example, thrive on the

Leadership is one of the most widely talked about subjects and at the same time one of the most elusive and puzzling. “One of the most universal cravings of our time” writes James MacGregor Burns,” is a hunger for compelling and creative leadership.” Many people still believe that leaders are born and not made. Or that leadership is somehow almost accidental or at least that most leaders arise from circumstances and normally do not create them. Servant leadership emerges from those whose primary motivation is a deep desire to help others. Servant leader’s care about everyone their organization touches: employees, customers, business partners, lenders, shareholders, and communities. The servant as a leader concept crosses all boundaries by embracing social responsibility, helping followers grow and succeed, putting followers first and behaving ethically.

A South Carolina Teacher Fellows student is an education major that is set apart by CERRA for their passion for educating students and seeing children develop a love of learning. Teacher Fellows students at Anderson University embody certain requirements and standards that may not be as typical to students in other schools. A Teacher Fellows at Anderson University, and especially the leadership within the cohort, exemplifies Christ in every aspect of their life, and demonstrates the servant leadership spoken of in the book of Matthew; “On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26b-28 HCSB). As president of the 2016 Anderson University Teacher Fellows cohort, I would strive to lead by serving, work as though working for Christ, and develop the skills necessary to becoming an effective teacher in both myself and the members of the cohort.

The concept of servant leadership was first defined by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970, and the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership was later established. The former CEO of that organization, Larry C. Spears, published an article outlining ten characteristics of servant leaders. These ten characteristics have been referenced countless times in recent years, and they serve as the pillar of the study of this leadership style. Using those characteristics as a reference, I will discuss my own strengths and weaknesses as a servant leader in this section.

Jesus encouraged his disciples to serve all humans no matter there ethnicity and at the same time lead his church that is supported by the same people his disciples must served. Jesus’ disciples were some of the first and finest servant leaders. From the multitude of Popes and US Presidents to our many local deacons and post masters, any one has the willingness be a servant leader as set by example by Jesus’ early disciples. I genuinely believe I have the idiosyncrasies to be a servant leader. I possess the listening skills, empathy, and virtues of a fair servant leader.

ou make your point very clear and give great information from the textbook to support it. I agree with you that it should be conceptualized as a behavior. You are right that traits are considered to be antecedent conditions, as Northouse (2016) explains "As in any leadership situation, the qualities and disposition of the leader influence the servant leadership process. Individuals bring their own traits and ideas about leading to leadership situations." (pg. 232), this means that while traits are part of a leader, the characteristics that make a servant leader come from behaviors that are learned and change throughout life. For example, servant leaders have a strong moral behavior, it is not a trait, but something that is learned and change

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.

To make the employees more productive, the workplace needs to be healthy and remain positive. Such an environment, would contribute to optimizing the potentials of the staff. They would go above and beyond the call of their duty and work for the common good. The organizational success depends on more than what is officially accepted and acknowledged (Simmons, 2010). By bringing about the talents in the maximum number of people, one can make them work for the success of the organization. As servant leaders, it is our responsibility to affirm the people whom we work with to optimize their potentials to achieve the common

Today economy is mercurially changing; some of the organizations aim at staying on the market and to grow tremendously by taking shortcuts. The organization’s leadership sometimes focuses majorly on process and profit, which needs to shift to people and long-term development goals. Some of the leaders are practicing wrong policies, poor planning and inability to work with people. Jack Welch (2001) concluded that 75% of leadership is about people and remaining 25% is about everything else. Servant Leadership is the ray of hope in the leadership crisis. Servant Leadership works on positive employee attitude which opens the doors for empathetic, helping, caring, restoring, and supportive environment in an organization. This article will focus on the significance of servant leadership, the role of the servant leader, and a quantitative case study of one of United States’ premier healthcare institution- Cleveland Clinic. Integration of Servant Leadership into Clinic’s culture showed drastic improvements in both employee engagement, as measured by the Gallup Q12 survey, and patient satisfaction, as measured by the federal “HCAHPS” survey.

Leadership is often viewed as a quality which requires the ability to lead through words, this however is not always the case. Servant leadership is a concept I have had lots of exposure to. Having grown up in the church, I was taught Jesus is a leader, which he undoubtedly is, yet Jesus rarely lead with his words but, with his actions. Servant leadership is the idea that by serving others, one makes the conscious choice to lead through their actions. For the past three summers, I have volunteered as a staff at Wilderness Trail, helping lead groups of youth on backpacking trips. Often times a group of young middle schoolers will not be paying attention to a devotion at campfire, in spite of that, the next morning when you help them take down

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

The second unit ‘Leading by Serving’ discussed the topic of servant leadership. Through examples of people from past and present we learned who servant leaders are and what their qualities and characteristics are. We also learned about the importance of servant leaders in other people’s lives and that being a servant leader is a decision and has nothing to do with our position. In my life there has always been a group of people who I admired for having something what I described to myself as an “inner light,” a special quality when it came to relationships with others. This unit showed me the secret was often the servant leadership role they play or played in their lives. I realized putting other peoples needs before mine is not only what I’ve been thought to do through my life, but what should be a priority for me both in my personal life and in my dream of becoming a successful manager/leader.

The authors of the review state that they focused on providing an informed answer to how servant leadership works and how it could be applied in organisations. A systematic literature review was conducted with a final tally of 39 studies deemed appropriate for the exercise.