Servant Leadership As A Servant Leader

The idea of injecting a servant leadership approach within a society riddled with thoughts and desires to be #1 is counterintuitive to not only the culture, but the very nature of man. We would all agree that modeling the behavior that Jesus exhibited in the upper room isn’t what we all aspire to do—at least on a very basic, natural level. However, this is the very idea and hallmark that author James Hunter is trying to instill in others in his book The Servant. That is, that we should lead people the way that we would want be lead ourselves—that the essence of ultimate leadership can only be expressed through love. Points such as others’ centered leadership, values for individual development as a leader and how these expressed

While listening appears at first glance to be simplistic in nature, the application of listening in practice can often times be difficult and time consuming. In James C. Hunter’s novel The Servant, he delves into the term ‘active listening’ and its importance to servant leadership. Hunter examines the concept of active listening not merely as non-verbal cues, but instead

Selfless Service. Dees (2013) stated, “resilient leadership is selfless service over time from a platform of character and competence.” Selfless service (servant leadership) is an important concept to Organization Management and Leadership. Selfless service is the foundation of servant leadership. Selfless service is one of the most important traits of a good leader. For an organization to thrive, it is important for a leader to serve their followers and place their needs before his needs. Servant leadership has a profound impact on employee empowerment by fostering an environment of empathy, awareness, healing, listening, stewardship and community awareness (Murari & Gupta, 2012). A selfless service leader can have mediating effects on both public service motivation and corporate social responsibility that assist the organization from both a community and goal attainment perspective (Tuan, 2016).

Parris and Peachey (2012) in a study of the characteristics of servant leadership state that “servant leaders are distinguished by both their primary motivation to serve…” (p. 379). The goal of service to others is not to fulfill others wants but to fulfill their needs (Hunter, 2014). Greanleaf (1970) stated that the outcome of service should be that followers will become wiser, freer, more autonomous, and desire to serve others as well (as cited in Parris and Peachey, 2012).

Throughout this past week I have had several misconceptions resolve regarding servant leadership that have resolved. The main misconception or preconception that I had was that servant leaders were pushovers and that they would have difficulty in leading others to reach a common goal. Through the readings that were assigned, specificially in chapter 6, I now understand that a servant leader values relationships with their follwers and by doing so that they can use the gained trust to influence them to reach a common goal (DelHousaye & Brewer, 2004). I had never really thought about how much influence played a part in the success of a leader until this class and yet I completely agree. I think back to the mangers that I have had

According to Greenleaf (1970), servant leaders “want to serve, to serve first” and there are ten key characteristics of servant leadership, which are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building community. The bottom line within an organization looks to measure the success of the business by looking at more than its financial success. It also looks at factors such as how well the organization treats its employees and even the environment. According the video, statistics showed that in the survey of the 100 Best Places to Work, about one-third of these companies claimed to be servant lead companies. Additionally, public held companies, who also claimed to be servant lead, showed significantly better financial success than those companies who were not servant lead. Servant leadership allows for team members to feel more empowered and involved and therefore in control of their work. Servant leadership can be a company’s competitive advantage. In the video we learn that many of the top companies which are considered as being the best companies to work for are servant lead companies. These companies are able to realize the growth and development of employees and in the process, the company benefits as well. Servant lead companies have shown to be able to survive difficult times and are able to continue to thrive when other companies are struggling.

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.

Servant leaders seek to serve first. What does this actually mean? Many have synthesized the writings of Greenleaf on the topic, and have synthesized the concept of servant leadership into ten characteristics. Call them pillars or tenants if you like, these ten qualities are seen as necessary for all servant leaders to embrace and show in the everyday work. The ten

I believe that one of the most necessary qualities a servant leader must possess to achieve the above definition is love. Unfortunately, the English language uses the word ‘love’ as a blanket term to describe a wide range of emotions, and as a result the word ‘love’ has lost the true weight that it can carry. The type of love that servant leaders should possess should be a platonic love based on no personal conditions. There are many types of love that are based solely on what the lover can gain from the relationship, such as saying, “I love Jim for his bus pass,” but a servant leader should love someone without those conditions. In this way, the leader’s love causes them to want their followers to always succeed, and not for any gain of their own.

Servant leadership is a fundamental skill that is of great importance in today’s health care system. Servant leadership allows healthcare workers to effectively conquer challenges and promote teamwork during stressful situations. Servant leadership requires an individual to have authority with the people they are leading. It is a complex task to gain authority among people; I believe that an effective and important way to obtain authority is to show love to others. The book, The Servant by James C. Hunter describes love not as a feeling, but rather as a behavior or action towards people. As a leader, one might have good intentions, but without following up with the intended action, the leader loses authority. The act of love requires having

Servant leadership theory is defined as “A leader who leads by serving others, and place their employees’ interests and needs ahead of their own self-interests and needs, because they value building their communities, the development of their employees, acting authentically, and sharing power” (Grimsley, n.d., para. 1).

As we develop into leaders, one of the things we need to know is what it means to be a servant leader. Today such examples are greatly lacking. Servant leadership is a choice by a leader to follow the example of The Jesus Christ and The Mother Teresa and lead by serving, becoming a bondservant and giving his life for others. Servant leadership is an inner attitude of the heart by which a person chooses to place himself or herself under the leadership of Jesus Christ and Mother Teresa. Christ often invited people to follow him. Some followed and many did not. One of the things to understand is the difference between obedience and submission. A person in authority or general leader in our present society can command for obedience.

The three characteristics that will be discussed below are commitment to the growth of others, empathy and being an active/receptive listener. All of these characteristics of servant leadership are important. They have an impact on how an individual can become and be viewed as a valuable leader both professionally and in their personal life.

In the traditional view of leadership, service is the job of the follower. However, servant leadership puts the leader at service. In servant leadership, the leader focuses on servicing their followers; they empathize, nurture, and provide attention so that the followers can develop their full personal capacities (Northouse, 2013). Spears (2002) identified 10 servant leader characteristics: Listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, and commitment to the growth of people.

. Servant Leadership (SL) is not new, it was practiced and taught by great leaders more than 2000 years ago. It is oriented around emotional healing and helping others to grow. It focuses on factors like internal structure, work environment, people, and their performance in an organization which automatically leads to increase the productivity and profitability. The most important aspect of SL is that it can be integrated into any leadership model. This can be seen by Cleveland Clinic’s case study. Cleveland Clinic was facing challenges related to employees’ engagement and patient satisfaction in 2008. Then Clinic integrated servant leadership principles in its hierarchical leadership model majorly focusing to increase employees’ engagement.